Oh man, I've got a tough one, piston bolt.

[JL Sargent]

Had an interesting conversation with the hydraulic shop foreman today at the ductile iron pipe foundry I do contract work for. I've seen him around for 20yrs or so there. They appear to do alot of cylinder work. Told him about this cylinder and the trouble I had. He gave these pointers:
"always heat the piston/bolt up until you burn the locktite out. Either the locktite will flame up or just stink real bad.

Once the locktite is cooked, air cool the piston/bolt for a couple of minutes and then emerse in water. The water will get pulled into the threads making removal even easier. Reassemble with new locktite."

I asked about using the same bolt "using same bolt is OK just make sure you use NEW loctite."

Im not saying this guys way is right or wrong, just that theres lots of different ways to skin a cat. Apparently these guys do not even attempt to take the piston bolt out without the heat. Now I will say that some of the cylinders I saw there were biguns.

 

[JL Sargent]

They say we live our lives in circles. Here it is two years later and yesterday I lost another cylinder on this same backhoe. This time it was on the boom.
The cylinder setup was identical and it was so nice to have this thread to refer back to. Looking at the pictures and comments really helped refresh my memory about what to do on this job. I followed my own advice as well as the thoughts of others written above and the job went so much smoother and quicker than the first time.