Question on JCB swing cylinders

[Richard]

Well....don't you know....

Part III of the story.....

Jumped on the machine today to empty out the rocks we put in the front bucket. Had it beside the house, next to a pair of tree stumps the wife wanted removed.

Been a while since I've yanked a stump out so let's knock these out while the machine is next to them.

Got one out, other is half dug....and what to I notice?

Hydraulic fluid cascading down the inside of the boom.

The JCB has a square boom and the cylinder is inside the boom. The dipperstick resides on top of the dipperstick as does the bucket cylider.

So, the boom cylinder is going to be tough.

I've never done this but, the boom cylinder (and the steering cylinder) are the last two cylinders that have NOT been rebuilt since I've owned this machine so in fairness..... it/they are due.

Is the best way to remove the cylinder to dig a hole so the hoe can be extended downward or, will the cylinder come out with the backhoe laying stretched flat on the ground?

I'm guessing I need to angle the boom downward so I'm racking my brain to think of a location on the farm where there is a strong tree next to it that I can use to hoist it up. If the boom cylinder is the largest (as I'd guess it to be?) then I won't be able to handle it alone. I wrestled the dipperstick cylinder alone and it was just about all I could handle. I think if a butterfly had landed on it, that might have been just enough to wipe me out. (I had to raise the **** thing about five feet in the air to put it back in place)

Just thought of something.... the hole I dug to pull the stump out is probably 5' deep. I wonder if that would be deep enough to give me the angle?

 

[BukitCase]

Man, and I thought Cases were a PITA -

From the look of your pic, I would think you could stretch the boom/dipper/bucket out all the way, shut it off, wiggle all the levers, then pull the OUTBOARD pin (I can't see it in the pic), then start it up and RETRACT the boom cylinder til the rod end comes out of the cavity, then shut it off, drain the hoses/cylinder into a bucket and go from there.

Maybe a closer shot showing where the cylinder pins are?

Here's my case during re-hose 4-5 years ago -

This is kinda like me telling you how to peel an orange when you have an apple - "So tell me again, how do I get my thumbnail under the skin (and why can't I get big pieces of skin to come off like you do??!?)" - But hopefully more helpful ...Steve

 

[BukitCase]

OK, just blew up your pic and found the upper boom cyl. pin - -

So, is your boom completely boxed in up to where the dipper cylinder attaches? If so, I think you're right about finding a big hole.

What (if anything) does your new manual have to say about this? I've seen a lot of wierd designs in over 50 years in several different occupations, but at this point I'm REALLY glad none of them involved JCB stuff

 

[skyhook]

It doesn't look that difficult to me. Your hoses are exposed, so that makes it a little easier,
I would just lay out your boom and dipper flat, disconnect your boom cylinder pin and retract your cylinder closed, disconnect your hoses and pull it out.

 

[Richard]

OK, just blew up your pic and found the upper boom cyl. pin - -

So, is your boom completely boxed in up to where the dipper cylinder attaches? If so, I think you're right about finding a big hole.

What (if anything) does your new manual have to say about this? I've seen a lot of wierd designs in over 50 years in several different occupations, but at this point I'm REALLY glad none of them involved JCB stuff

Yes, it's boxed in but for the visible portion near the Kingpin.

We do have a (dry) 'pond' in the field. I think I'm going to see if that will allow me to get the height I need to point the boom downward. The pond is three sided (hence being dry) but, has an approximate 5' lip around one side.

Oh, and the 1 1/2 stumps I pulled out yesterday.....wife is beside herself. "didn't you know we were having company in 2 weeks and you go & make this mess?!?!?!"

Sometimes you can't win.

 

[Billrog]

It's good to pull the pin and retract the ram before removing the hoses and the cylinder.

 

[Billrog]

This was my last experience with a boom cylinder.

And be very careful when not having a guard on a angle grinder.

 

[Richard]

Just went out and tossed some of the dirt back into the hole where the stump was (still another one there)

I guess I'll dig it out after company leaves. Wife likes things picture perfect for company and a hole in the yard isn't picture perfect!

Took machine over to the pond and laid the hoe down the slope.

Yeah....definitely looks like this will work without digging a hole.

Since it is sitting about chest high it might still be a bugger. I've got a couple extra hoses laying around 'just in case' but, I don't have any extra fingers laying around. Looks like that hurt and hurt for a while.

 

[BukitCase]

Looked a bit closer at your pic, and Skyhook may be right - I would lay the bucket/boom/dipper out flat and see where that puts the outer end of the cylinder body - if it's only up inside the boom by maybe a foot at that angle, you might have enough clearance to pull the rod pin, retract fully, remove hoses, remove cylinder body pin and pull the cylinder up and toward the cab with a comealong -

I'm having a hard time believing JCB would still be in business if their machines were THAT hard to work on... Steve

 

[BukitCase]

Billrog, I know what you mean about unguarded grinders - guy I used to work with was using one of the HF ones with the slide switch - had a thin cutoff disk on it and it got away from him, cut his left arm halfway thru the bone

If his daughter hadn't seen it happen and ran out with a towel while calling 911, he would have bled to death. (No exaggeration, this was the comment from EMT's)

I have a few of that type myself and have always tried to be careful, but when that happened I bought one of those dead man foot switches and I keep all non-paddle switched grinders plugged into the foot switch.

Of course it's safer to keep guards in place, but sometimes the only way to get at something isn't the safest way. I hope your "ow-ey" was a while back and is all better now :thumbsup:

These days I tend to wear heavy welding gloves when grinding, but those thin cutoff disks will go thru heavy leather in a fraction of a second, so hyper-vigilance is still necessary...Steve