What have I done? Don't know what I was thinking except 'that seems like a good deal'! I am about to pull the dipper cylinder for a reseal/repack should I take it in and have it done or is it a pretty straight forward task? I have never done one this large, but I have done some smaller ones. Any tips or tricks I should know about? If you've done it would you do it again? Thanks!
It's really not too bad of a job to do. I don't pull the whole cylinder, just the ram. If you lower the boom and stretch it out almost all the way leaving enough rod on dipper cyl. so when you pull the pin on rod end then suck it back in to clear the lower arm. Lift cyl. up and block it between boom and cyl. extend rood all the way out until it stops then draw back in just a little to take pressure off of gland. Unscrew gland and then pull rod out of tube, you can use machine hyd. to push rod out but be careful not to shoot it out across the shop. Loosen the hyd. line at the base of cyl. so rod will be easier to remove.
Those I've taken to hydraulic shops I have no complaint about cost. Waiting forever to get a simple repack seemed a lot of time. We do them here occasionally, usually a matter of having tooling to loosen the gland, and piston nut. Once, we had one, (a 580K) boom cylinder we couldn't get the piston bolt loose. After struggling hours on it, we took it to a hydraulic shop I had used several times 2 hours from home. I was unaware the place had been sold. The former owner took most of the tooling with him. Desperate, I called the Case dealer three hours from there driving past home to get there. All told, I was on my way home with repacked cylinder by 6:30 PM same day.
Coy, Thank you so much! You have verified my thoughts from the last hour of walking around the Backhoe and planning my attack! After removing the screw in the side of the gland do I just use a punch to unscrew the gland or am I missing something? Rick
You will need an adjustable gland tool to loosen the gland. They don't always come apart easy. - it looks like someone has already had a go at it. Also - unless you can get access to a good quality 1" drive socket set (2 1/4" socket) + have something strong enough to retain the rod while attempting the process - you wont get the piston retaining bolt undone. 3/4" dr tooling just will not do this particular job.
Mine had a dose of red locktite on both the gland & piston bolt. Careful use of a propane torch helped.
Of course you need to take the lock screw out and pick up on the boom about six to eight inches more to clear dipper. The wrench that Alrman shows is a must ebay has them fairly cheap. Be sure and hit the tube on the side where the gland screws into it.
I believe there is a spanner available with one pin. Some of the cylinders on my 580K use a single pin with a half say around spanner.