Steering cylinder repair on my BX

   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX #1  

dodge man

Super Star Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
12,433
Location
West central Illinois
Tractor
JD 2025R
I've bought the kit to repair the steering cylinder on my BX. I've got to do something, the steering goes dead at times unless I really spin the steering wheel hard.

I've seen the the tip on drilling a hole to remove the retaining ring. Any other tips?
 
   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX
  • Thread Starter
#2  
I was able to fix the steering cylinder today. A couple of things I learned. I think you pretty much have to get the kit from Kubota. The problem is an o-ring and a seal. The rod has a piston built into it in the middle of it. This has an o-ring mounted in a groove on the edge of the piston to act as a seal. The problem is there is an orange seal that mounts on top of this o-ring. The orange seal kind of looks like an o-ring but is shaped a little different, a little more flat. This seal just stacks on top of the o-ring and I suspect this orange seal is the only thing that goes bad.

The reason I say you probably have to get the kit is I doubt that orange seal is an off the shelf item. I replaced all the o-rings while I had it apart, which would be three of them. I didn't replace any of the other seals since they were OK.

Removing the ball joints is the hard part. I only took one off. I clamped on end in a vice and used a wrench, which is a 32mm wrench on the other end. You have to have a very narrow wrench if you want to take off both ball joints.

Also the tip listed in other threads to drill a hole to pop out the retaining clip helps. It would be almost impossible without it. A good set of snap ring pliers is also needed.

Its not a hard repair, its pretty obvious once you tear into it how it all fits together. It did take me 4 to 5 hours though, but I could do it again in less than half the time.
 
   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX #3  
I repaired mine the first time (about 300 hrs) and the second time (about 600 hrs) I just paid 150 bucks for a new cylinder and saved the time rebuilding. It's hard to believe it's just that little o ring that makes the whole thing work.
 
   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Most of my time was taking the cylinder off and on and removing one of the ball joints. I'm not sure replacing the cylinder would really save that much time, but the rebuild kit cost me something like $40 so there isn't a huge difference in cost. I'm not sure the o-ring is the problem but the seal that mounts over it.
 
   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX #5  
I did mine 5 years and about 500 hours ago. Always leaked externally some after I rebuilt it - used all new Kubota orings and seals. Now is getting worse and starting to get a little slip in the steering again.

How much was the complete cylinder?

Also it seems the axle seal is leaking again at the pivot - not the best design.
 
   / Steering cylinder repair on my BX
  • Thread Starter
#6  
A little update. Like the above post, mine also leaked some after I replaced the central O ring and seal. I didn't replace the end seals because I read several threads that said don't bother. Mine was actually leaking pretty badly from the ends. Gradually over time they have stopped leaking. Seems pretty rare that happens but so far so good.
 

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