leaking piston seal

[mtnwings]

while my MF 60 H is sitting waiting for me to figure out why it will not move I thought I would change the badly leaking backhoe boom seal. I have discovered that this big seal is no longer available or made but I figured I would try to deal with it and maybe match some other seal up to it in hopes of it working and saving the environment from all the leaking hydraulic fluid and save me some money. Well, the big 5 inch notched steel ring that holds the seal in place will not come loose. I do not have the proper tool so I borrowed a four foot pipe wrench thinking this would work, NOT! I added a five foot pipe to the end of the pipe wrench and nothing, I added another pipe to that so now I have a 12 foot leveraged pipe wrench and all my weight and it still will not come loose. I raised the six foot finish mower up and slowly lowered onto the 12 foot lever and still nothing so with the 12 foot pipe flexing from the load I added heat from my cutting torch to the nut and it still will not come loose. I know what you are thinking, " he has the pipe wrench touching the cylinder and not just the nut" well, I am a little smarter than that so no, the pipe wrench is only touching the big nut and YES, I am trying to turn it counter clockwise as this is the universal unscrew things direction, "righty tighty and lefty loosy" so my dear friends, what am I doing wrong? It is still mounted to the backhoe so I have lots of leverage holding the piston, a 12 foot leveraged pipe wrench, I sprayed it with the proper rust breaker stuff, two different kinds actually even though friends told me it would not be necessary due to the fluids already there from the hydraulic fluid nature of the beast I did it anyway. What do I try next? OH, I did try using the big steel drift and big hammer method first but nothing. I guess I could try to make a notched ring remover tool out of a slab of steel and test my lazer cutter skills but who has time for that? all that templet making stuff and then to find a thick enough slab of steel. Gee, it does sound like fun. Any suggestions?

 

[bigdeano]

I don't know exactly what you're dealing with (no picture) but keep in mind that a pipe wrench clamps down and tries to smash what it's turning. If it's a thin ring you may be clamping it tighter on the threads. You may have to make a proper tool.

 

[mtnwings]

Good suggestion, The ring is very thick, almost 1/2 an inch and I guess that is because the notches are deep. The pipe wrench did dig into this ring and this was good as it did not slip. The excavating business where I borrowed the big pipe wrench showed me adapters they had made for them to remove stubborn seal rings on some of their equipment. They told me they just make a template and bring it to "their guy" to have made. I might just do that as it will be forever for me to get around to making one since I am in the middle of a Ford 1910 rebuild now and there is just so much room in my shop. Thanks
BTW, you have noted (no picture) , is there a way to post photos on this site? I can't seem to find that.

 

[bigdeano]

One of the icons at the top of the Quick Reply box is Insert Image. Just have the cursor where you want the top left corner of the image and click the Insert Image icon. It then lets you select your image on your computer. I don't post pictures very often so I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject.