Well Ron, unfortunately I did not see your post before disconnecting and taking apart the cylinder, I managed to squirt oil all over myself and my garage when I pushed on the rod! Hindsight, of course it would have done that, oops!
So I did manage to get everything disconnected and the taken apart, I have a couple questions that hopefully having some pictures will help.
First, when I was taking the cylinder off the tractor, is there a way to do it
without completely destroying the rubber cover? I got fed up holding it back and decided to just cut it off, of course that was before I realized a new one was $20! Either way I don't know if I could have gotten it off without cutting it.
Second, on the right hand side (if you're sitting on the tractor) should you be able to disconnect the section highlighted in red? No matter what I tried I could NOT get it off so I ended up taking the entire plate that it is connected to off. Even after it was disconnected and put in a vice I could not remove it, even hitting it with a hammer (using a board to protect the threads) it would not budge.
Next, in this piece it looks like there is a slot for an O-ring and there definitely was not one when I took it apart, I assume there is supposed to be one here?
Also, the rest of the seals seem like they may have been replaced at some point, they are blue gaskets that look relatively new, all the replacement kits I am seeing are blue were the original ones blue as well? I don't see any obvious signs of damage on any of the other seals, they actually all look quite good. Should I still go ahead and replace all the seals or just the one that I assume is missing?
Thanks again for all the help! I would never have attempted this without this message board!