I have a T300 and the top seal on my hydraulic ram is spraying fluid everytime I move the arms up and down... can someone tell me where to start and how to remove the ram and rebuild it? Thanks in advance...
Welcome to the forum bush_hog. :usa It sounds like you are describing one of the loader arm cylinders leaking, and that you have limited experience doing a repair such as this. If so, it's not a terribly difficult repair, but one to be very cautious of as those loader arms can kill a person in a hurry. If you choose to proceed with repair, first you would raise the loader arms and install the safety prop on the cylinder that is not leaking. Lower the arms until the weight of the arms is resting on the safety prop and the leaking cylinder has no weight on it. Still be cautions though. Even though you have the arms resting on the safety prop, be wary of the machine and don't get under the arms, work at an arms length from components as possible. Remove the pin that attaches the leaking cylinder rod to the arms, that pin typically isn't hard to remove. Once you have the pin removed, get inside cab, start machine, and retract the rod by operating the pedal to lower loader arms. Stop retracting the rod just before it hits bottom. Shut down machine. Now is when you disconnect the hyd hose connections to the bum cylinder. If it's the one on the right side of machine, tricky to get to but do-able. If it's the left side, you'll have to remove the battery from machine. It helps if you have proper size JIC plugs and caps to plug of disconnected hoses and cylinder connections. Lastly, remove the lower cylinder pin. This is the one that can give you a problem. These machines are bad about having that lower pin stuck because the way Bobcat put that tiny grease access hole on the outside of machine it's not unusual that the pin has not seen much grease service. Additionally, that area, around the bottom of the cylinder, tends to collect dirt, sticks, leaves, debris, all of which retain moisture. If the pin has not been greased properly, next thing you know, that pin is rusted solid in the pin boss and cylinder. If you manage to get that pin out, you're now ready to simply lift the cylinder our of loader frame and have it repaired. Bobcat cylinders are not difficult to rebuild, but if you have no experience rebuilding cylinders, might be best to let a cylinder shop take care of that. If you choose to rebuild yourself, by all means post any questions you have.
Thanks for the heads up Willie... I did secure the safety prop onto the left arm cylinder... it's my right that is leaking. I am planning to repair the right one and then to go ahead and remove the left one and have it rebuilt so I can know they're both in best possible shape before doing some serious work. As far as the pin removal goes, do you push them inward or bang them outward? It didn't look like too intense of a repair, but I like to gather as much info before I head out for a first time repair.
Top pin is typically no problem, I think you have to push it out, seems I recall cab in the way going inward, could be wrong though. Bottom pin, I think it goes inward, no room inside there to whack it outward.