Hi all, I have an old piece of equipment (industrial mower) that’s been sitting for several years that I am working on getting going again. I got the engine running thanks to the fine folks on this sight and am now working on the hydraulics. Unfortunately, after having sat so long the hydraulic filter is fused to the filter head. I’ve tried almost every trick in the book to get this off with no luck. You can see what’s left of the filter below. Sooo, now I just want to disconnect the hydraulic fittings from the filter head so I can put this on a bench and maybe get what’s left of filter off or just replace the head completely and be done with it. I’m new to hydraulics so not quite sure how the fittings work yet. There’s a hose connection with two nuts on the left side of the head and a hard elbow connection with two nuts on the right. Which nuts do I want to turn to get this filter head free of the fittings? The ones closest to the head or the ones on the outside closest to the hose/fitting? Are the fitting parts typically reusable when I want to reconnect the filter head to the system or might I need new seals, etc.? I’m know this is a noob question so thanks for educating me!
The filter housing more than likely has o-ring fittings directly into it which probably convert to JIC or something similar, the JIC's will swivel so start with a wrench there (furthest away from filter)and one on the adapter to keep it from turning... can't see the far right of the picture but assume this is the 90 fitting? is there more flat faces or is the pic showing all of it minus the actual 90 turn?
Thanks for your help. Yep. 90 degree on the right and that's all the flats. They're both 1 1/4" nuts from what I can tell. I only have one 1 1/4 wrench at the moment so will need to get another one. I'm not sure how much hydraulic fittings are typically torqued to so not sure how much of a PITA I should expect it to be to take them off. Also, is there a rule of thumb to use as far as how tight to torque these things when I put them back on? Any other considerations when reconnecting fittings like this? I'm assuming I should probably lube with hydraulic fluid any O rings, etc.
Once you get it in a vice, try the wax trick, heat the central pipe fitting to 500ºF, and as it cools, take a bees wax candle, and melt against the threads. It will wick into the threads, as the assembly cools. I'd take a punch, and hammer, and use the holes in the filter as the target, tap on, a little first, then tap off, get it moving, just a little, before breaking out the BFH, to spin it off...
Put some Kroil, PB or other penetrating oil on the fitting threads. Give them some vibrations to help. You need another wrench ? Get a flare nut wrench. It works without distorting the fitting, which works against you.
If the fittings connect to hoses I would expect them to be JIC fittings which should come loose pretty easy. It looks like the one on the left might be a tube fitting which would likely be a 45 degree flare which might be a little tougher but still not all that tough. The fittings in the filter head I would expect as stated above to be "O" ring bulkhead fittings. Since the head appears to be made of aluminum I would expect to have some problem taking those out. Generally I would expect that the head is bolted to something so would take the hose and tube loose first and then pull the fittings in the head leaving the head in place. Sometimes there isn't enough room and you have to take the head out and put it in a vice to get the fittings out.