Repacking/rebuilding a cylinder

[chanceu]

The operation was a complete success. The cylinders did need a little work which surprised me given how long I've had it and that I keep it inside. I used a fine brake cylinder honer to clean the inside of the cylinders and a scuff pad to clean the pistons.

I put the cylinders back on the loader this evening and ran it for a while to get all the air out. When I parked it, I raised the bucket off the ground about an inch and left it. The last time I checked, about an hour after I turned it off, everything was still where I left it.

All in all it wasn't too bad. I have $25 in tools, $27 in seal kits, and several hours of work invested. It's a little more money (assuming the warranty covered it), but a lot less time than it would've taken me to load the tractor, haul it to the dealer, wait two weeks, then pick it up and haul it back. The good news is, I believe now that I've done it once, the next time it happens, I can probably handle the whole operation in less than a couple hours.

BTW john_bud...the rings you said were supposed to be split, the new ones were split too. I didn't notice when I first looked in the package. The only difference was the new rings were split straight across and not at a 45 like the old ones.

 

[john_bud]

Glad you got it done and that it's holding.

$52 to rebuild 2 cylinders isn't bad. Had one done and it was $350+... (ouch).

The real good thing is that you now know it was done right and the detail work with the hone done to clean it up. That may not have happened at the dealership.

On the rings - the 45 degree ones are thought to be higher quality. They can't wear a slot in the cylinder like straight split rings can. In 25-30 years you may have a problem (lol!)

jb

 

[KJM]

Congratulations chanceu, you must be chuffed. Not a lot of $$'s to fix the job properly.

And as John_Bud said, you now have the tools and the expertise. I agree about the 45 degree cut packers too. Mine are all that way too.

Assuming you need to do the job over again sometime in the future, how many hours do you reckon it'd take to repack 2 cylinders? Just out of curiousity!

/Kevin

 

[chanceu]

On the rings - the 45 degree ones are thought to be higher quality. They can't wear a slot in the cylinder like straight split rings can.

I really didn't think about the difference in wear between a straight slot versus a diagonal slot. I wondered about the difference, but they came from New Holland so I figured they knew best. BTW, I was wrong about the price, the seal kits were $16.91 each so my total was just under $60. For that amount and considering this is the second time I've damaged the bucket cylinder seals, I'm going to go ahead and get two more kits so I have them in stock.

Assuming you need to do the job over again sometime in the future, how many hours do you reckon it'd take to repack 2 cylinders? Just out of curiousity!

This time it took 4-6 hours over a week and a half. Some of that time was figuring out how to take off/put on the loader for the first time. The bucket wouldn't stay up at all and I needed to mow. If it happens again, I figure I can do it in two hours or less now that I have the tools and probably wouldn't remove the loader.

Passing on something I learned between removing the first cylinder and the second cylinder is a way to do it mostly mess free. I know some can't do this because of the size of the cylinders, but my cylinders are small enough to easily handle. I removed both hoses and let them drain while I removed the top pin from the cylinder. I attached one end of a small piece of hydraulic hose I had (luckily it had the right fitting) to the bottom cylinder port and put the other end in the drain pan. I then extended the cylinder all the way which pushed all the oil in to the drain pan. After that, I pushed the cylinder back down and replaced the top pin so I could loosen the cap. When I removed the cylinder and the cap, there was only a tablespoon full of oil left in the cylinder.