Hi Everyone- I'm in the process of removing one of my stabilizer rams to install a seal kit. I was able to crack the seal head/gland nut loose with some lube and the peening/tapping method. But I can't for the life of me get the lower pin that goes thru the cylinder eye removed. The cylinder eye is free on the pin but the pin is stuck in the pin bores on either side of the cylinder eye. I'm thinking the pin bores are no longer in perfect alignment do to many years of rough use and maybe the pin has a slight bow and now it is forever bound. Heat did nothing to cure my dilemma. If I slide the cylinder eye up against the shoulder of one of the pin bores I have enough room to get a sawzall or portable hacksaw in there to cut the pin on each side. Then I can remove the ram and then beat out each section of cut pin. Any ideas? Has anyone else had this problem on JCB's? Thanks in advance for all your help! RRRAVEN
If you have the rod end pin out, can you just leave the cylinder in place? Otherwise some pressing with a porta power or hydraulic jack rigged up to pull against the other ear while pushing the pin, or drill a hole through the pin and blow the center of the pin with a cutting torch, or oxygen lance if you want to get really nasty. Your bandsaw is probably the easiest if you have to get it out.
I had the same issue. Pin was seized onto to backhoe frame at the cylinder end and seized onto the rod eye at the pad end so nothing was coming apart. I was able to cut the rod end pin by using a 14" abrasive chop saw between the stabilizer pad and the rod eye. I then was able to remove the ends of the pin from the pads with a cutting torch. I replaced the seals with the cylinder still attached to the backhoe frame. I had to keep a water flow on the chop saw blade to keep the heat down so the saw would not glaze over. I can't imagine any teeth type blade cutting those hard pins.
Deon- You have a point there as far as pin hardness and any type of toothed blade!? I'll let you know when I try it. I haven't had time this week to get back to my "friend the pin" so I have no updates as of yet. May be able to get back to it today after work. I plan on keeping my cylinder still attached to the frame also. I don't feel like having to deal with another "friendly pin"! I'll keep you cats posted. RRRAVEN
Well I got the best of the pin before it got me but not without a bit of sweat and time! I used an angle ginder with a 7" diameter, 1/16" thin cut off wheel to cut the pin out. With the shaft eye moved to the side of each pin boss there was enough room to get the cutoff wheel in there without cutting into the eye sides or the pin boss sides. The 7" diameter wheel gave me just enough clearance to cut through the pin before bottoming the grinder head on the pin plates. A 9" diameter wheel would have been ideal, I'll use one of those on the other side. I then pulled the piston/rod assy out of the still attached cylinder and got it out of my way. I was able to then hand drill and tap each stuck pin segment to accept 5/8 -11 rod and I assembled a sleeve to pull the pin thru while heating the boss with a rosebud. I use a 1/2" drive air impact gun on my puller and had it loaded up to start before heating. As I heated the boss I was brapping the impact gun until I had enough heat and could see the pin moving. I then kept the throttle on full wack on the impact gun and the pin segment finally pulled out. I repeated the process on the other pin segment and got it out just as I ran out of acetylene! This took some time and patience but I felt it was better than beating the crap out of my stabilizer leg and maybe bending the pin plates and wrecking the pin bore alignment. My goal is to fix the backhoe and not fix one thing but destroy other components in the process. I hope this info. helps other with similar situations. I am almost ready to reassemble everything and was wondering what the standard clearance should be between the new stabilizer pin and the bushing that is in the rod eye? Minimum acceptable? Maximum acceptable? Is there an industry standard or acceptable clearance number......say .005" to .010" or more? The pin is 1 3/4" in diameter. Over and Out- RRRAVEN
RRRAVEN, good job. It's a job for one with patience and the right tools. Seems you have both.
The pin clearance question makes me wonder if you are going to make your own pin? * Regardless of my question to you, from my limited investigation into pin clearances, it seems it can be from around .010 to .015 which is right around 1/64th. When we first heard this we were appalled but were quickly informed: make it too tight and it will jam/wedge/gall. All I can figure is if the contact patch is too close to the same between the pin and the bushing, dirt (from soil/rocks, wear products, and loading will facilitate the microscopic welding being the lube is boundary layer at best) makes it stick then seize. If the two diameters are varied then the contact area is less.... OR it could be this number is a good number for a repair situation where installed bushing concentric-ity and oval-ity are not corrected via a line bore. There is no doubt the part where the bushing is installed changes shape over the time the old bushings and pin hammer on each other.
Oceanobob- I'm not making my own pin but am trying to determine how worn the rod eye bushing is. I have replaced "worn" bushings before only to have the same fit with the new oem bushing installed. Just curious as to clearance specs. Thank you for your input, it all makes sense.