Pop in FEL Curl Cylinder in my BX25D - Bucket uncurls on own weight

[Spanner]

I took the cylinder off on Sunday. Called this morning and the hydraulic shop wants $50 just to open it up and diagnose it. They say if it's just the seals they will charge me $250-300, which kind of blew me away considering others have said that job might take 20 minutes, and a new kubota seal kit is around a hundred. They said they can order seals for it for less than kubota would charge, so their labor rates are just through the roof. I already ordered the gland nut wrench so I'm going to try to open it myself and see if I can figure out what's wrong. A whole new cylinder will cost me $430+shipping. I feel like I have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Here's what was inside. Parts on order!

Good on you for having a 'go' and getting to where you are. I just wonder about ordering parts and would reference the earlier post you made about costs.

A seal kit is around $100 and you need a new piston ($???) plus I would install a new lock-nut. ($??)

How close to the $430 are you going to be and there may be a scratch in the cylinder itself still?

It's a new tractor (and I hope no swarf/debris went back up the hose into the 'system') so I might lean towards a complete new ram if it was mine. :2cents:

Good luck anyway and we trust two lessons have been learnt - Be nice to your tractor and - Your mechanical skills have been improved. :smile:

 

[analog]

As far as I can tell there is no scoring, it looks clean. I wouldn't have ordered the parts otherwise. After it happened, I really didn't use the FEL more than just a few times back and forth, which I'm glad I didn't try to keep using it. I also ordered a new filter and I'll the strainer.

 

[analog]

Good on you for having a 'go' and getting to where you are. I just wonder about ordering parts and would reference the earlier post you made about costs.

A seal kit is around $100 and you need a new piston ($???) plus I would install a new lock-nut. ($??)

How close to the $430 are you going to be and there may be a scratch in the cylinder itself still?

It's a new tractor (and I hope no swarf/debris went back up the hose into the 'system') so I might lean towards a complete new ram if it was mine. :2cents:

Good luck anyway and we trust two lessons have been learnt - Be nice to your tractor and - Your mechanical skills have been improved. :smile:

I did order a new lock nut, $8. The piston is $56, which is the cheapest part aside from the nut, putting the repair in at $160 + new fluids and filter which would have needed anyway with a whole new cylinder. I almost wonder if they designed the piston to fail first, I would have expected it to cost more. I am worried about bits in the system, I didn't consider larger chunks getting stuck in the hose though. I should probably flush it out. Anyone have any suggestions on doing that?

 

[Leejohn]

I was all most sure the nut came loose, but I didn't think it would of broke the piston. You might want to run a fine hone down the cyl.

 

[analog]

The cylinder walls are well machined and look fine. There is a bit of scarring at the back of the tube, but it's just where the nut and piston might hit. I am not concerned about it. I cleaned everything out well. Now it's just worrying about the rest of the hydraulic system and getting it back together.

 

[Spanner]

$160 is good. I imagined the piston to be more like twice that alone, so rebuilding makes economic sense, yes.

As for debris - the ram fluid moves back and forward in operation. It doesn't go around the circuit often and depending on the size (volume of oil) in the ram not much of the oil will pass through the valve. So for your purpose I would disconnect the hose at the ram (which you already have done) and follow it back down the loader pipework and disconnect it at the valve. Flush this pipe through with solvent and low-pressure air until it blows clean.

You may have to dismantle the coupler connection. Worthwhile work I assure you.

Reconnect at the valve and purge the air before eventual re-connection at the 'new' ram.

Inspection of the strainer will be illuminating as to how much debris, if any, made it into the trans.

You had a 'Pop' indicating a single catastrophic failure rather than a gradual piston failure over time. So you haven't been working debris into the system for a period of hours.
Should be ok.

 

[Egon]

Might want to check relief valve for proper operation???

 

[analog]

Might want to check relief valve for proper operation???

I'm not sure I know what the relief valve is. Actually I don't. But I can look it up. I called they hydraulic shop and they told me to run the hydraulics for the bucket without the cylinder on to flush the lines. That makes sense. Also, when I pulled the cylinder, the fluid that dripped out everywhere looked new, so I'm not sure there is really a problem anyway.