My old man's PC30 Komatsu sprung a leak on the stick cylinder the other day so we picked up a seal kit and now we can't get the damn gland loose. I've done this before, never had that much of an issue getting the gland loose(nut on the back of the rod is different story . So far we tore up a chain wrench, and we put a 8' pipe with two healthy adults and a pipe wrench and the thing just laughed at us, any help would be very much appreciated!!
I am not near the pro as a lot of these guys, but I had an issue similar a while back. I am not sure on that machine, but the one I had to get of had roughly 4,000 ft lb. I wound up cutting out a wrench from half inch steel and used a press. do not know if you have that option, but was the only way I found to do it on mine.
I would just take to a shop that has the correct set up . I have used the press trick if you have the time to make tools.
Yair . . . YellowIron . If it is a standard type set up with the nut threaded into a relatively thin walled cylinder try rounding off the edge of a decent cold chisel to about a 3/8" diameter semi-circular section and give it a smooth polish. Then, with a four pound hammer work a pattern of good whacks around the cylinder in the area of the thread . . . that is to say with the wide axis of the chisel in line with the cylinder. The object of the exercise is to slightly expand the threads gripping the nut. It may take a while, go over it a couple of times and give it another try with the best pipe wrench/chain tongs you have. I have spent several hours on some but mostly they will come. Cheers.
You don't have the barell clamped in a vise right on the head do you? Have u tried giving it a few hits with an hammer while the pressure is on it? Lastly u could try a small bit of heat around the barell slowly and gently...
The other way to go about Scrub's method is to use the hammer directly on the cylinder barrel. Make a line of hits parallel to the rod, then go around the cylinder a ways and make another line of hits, keep going around the cylinder until she lets go. This moves the wall of the cylinder enough to help it let go, along with expanding the cylinder and loosening the threads.
Your the winner! I had my dad hang of the end of the pipe while I beat around the gland some with a hammer, he was about out of strength to hang on when it come loose and he went flying. We did it right on the machine, don't have a vise that big got the seals in and it's good to go, no leaks so far. I did the pistons on my tilt bucket at my old job before, probably could have used pump pliers so we were a bit shocked when we started busting tools, thank you everyone for the help, it was an hour plus ride to the closest pro's, even further to the local Komatsu shop
Chears to you, your a long way from Northern New Hampshire! Thanks for the help, I read your reply and that was plan B if more directed brute force as DJK said didn't work, I've done a few my self and helped/watched the road mechanic do a few and really didn't think this would be as big of a deal. I read yours and thought that was a solid idea as before I asked this i was going to weld a piece of flat stock on the face of the nut and cut a notch to hook a chain it & use the tractor, dump truck or a tree to ally force but alas, reason one out over extreme brute force . I figured it worked to take the massive bolts off/on the cone crusher I worked on in high school. It was hard because the nut was only about a half inch wide, flush with the barrel with 3 notches for some type of spanner wrench but we couldn't because the notches had 45* angles on the bottom and we didn't have the tech to make it work, nor did Dad have one single, solitary drill bit that was sharp enough to drill through anything harder then perhaps a slightly cooled stick of butter so I could use the pin type spanner wrench we had