Good day all, I am in the process of rebuiling the bucket lift cylinders on my 555A TLB. I just finished the stabilizer cylinders and, other than being fairly heavy to work with, they were pretty straight forward. The problem is on the lift cylinders the gland nuts are not screwed into the cylinder but are apparently held to the cylinder with 'retaining wires'? My 555 manual does not reference these wires so I am unsure on how it goes back together or how to attach these wires. Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Carl
Hi Snuffy, I think I know what your talking about, but it's rather difficult to describe. You have to be able to turn your gland in the cylinder. You may have two small holes in the gland to accept a tool to turn the gland with, sort of a spanner tool. You also probably have a small slot or window in the side of the cylinder can at area of gland. The retainer could be a wire, or a piece of 1/8" keystock, I've seen both. Once you get a tool to turn the gland, gently turn it clockwise, and clean the gunk out of the window so you can see the wire, it should move along with the turning gland. At some point of turning, you should reach the end of the wire. Your rotating the gland could be CCW, depending how the last builder assembled the cylinder. Once you find the end of the wire, you should see one of two things; the end of the wire, or, opposite end of wire that is bent downward like a hook into a hole in the gland. You want to find the end of the wire, not the hook. Once found, take a small screwdriver, and gently bend the end of the wire up through the window in barrel. Rotate gland opposite direction while prying wire out of window and removing the wire. Once you've rotated the gland and wire far enough to find hook end of wire, the wire will lift free. Now you have removed the gland retainer and can procede with removing gland. If the wire doesn't turn when you turn the gland, your life just got interesting. :Banghead
If it has been awhile since the unit was apart, do yourself a favor and spray some PB Blaster into the lockring hole. It only takes a few minutes to start working and makes things alot easier, especially if the fluid has ever been contaminated with moisture.
ATCOEQUIP & wildhorse_trnr Thanks very much to both of you. I now have a slightly better understanding of how it works. ATCOEQUIP, it is exactly as you describe. The gland nut has notches for the spanner wrench and the little window on the can with the hook of the wire sticking out. I have already removed one cylinder and I assumed (yes, I know about asssume!) that the gland screwed in so I just got on the gland nut with the pipe wrench and started screwing. After realizing it wasn't unscrewing, I tapped the back of the gland nut with hammer and punch and the gland came right on out. It was then that my worst fears were realized....something sprang out and flew a few feet away. It was the wire with hooks on both ends. I have replaced the seals, etc and am now ready to put back together but am unsure how it goes back. Any further explanation is much appreciated. -Carl
Well, if we're on the same page as to the type of cylinder, reassembly is quite simple. First, clean all components well, especially the inside of the cylinder, they are bad about getting a slight burr where the locking wire groove is. Use a fine grit flap wheel in a die grinder to buff the inside of the cylinder to remove any burrs that would cut new seals. You should notice a groove in the gland for the retainer wire. Somewhere along that groove their should be a hold drilled in the gland to accept a hook bend in the end of the wire. Insert piston and rod into cylinder. Tap gland into cylinder. Turn the gland until you see the hole in gland align with window. Insert hook on end of wire into hole. While holding wire hook in hole, turn the gland. This will pull the wire into the retaining grooves. Continue turning gland until wire is pulled fully into window, your done.
Once again, exactly as you described. Looking at the still assembled side and the disassembled cylinder as a guide, it should be fairly straight forward. I'll know tomorrow. Many, many thanks for the advice. I couldn't have gotten it back together without it. Great forum!!! -Carl
I hope everything goes flawless for ya. Be sure and use some good assembly grease, which I'd bet you are anyway. One thing to keep in mind when working on these types of glands is how to pull the gland out since it's not threaded. It's simple, first of all, with cylinder secured in heafty vice, and oil ports pointing down, stroke cylinder in and out a few times to get the oil out of the cylinder. Remove the retainer wire. Then, simply push the cylinder rod in, and give it a quick pull out until the piston bangs into the gland. This will usually pop the gland out of the cylinder. I have had the gland get hung on burrs inside the barrel, and have had to place cylinder on the ground, and blow the piston out with compressed air and bang the gland out.