I have a 1979 580C that has set for several years. I am slowly bring the old girl back to working order and one of my boom cylinder went to leaking heavily. Removed cylinder from boom, remove gland and piston rod from cylinder. Upon removal, I found the piston is slotted and the seal is toast. I got the old piston rmoved with a little effort. After about 20min of working the gland I have only got it to move about 8 inches. I am tempted to hit it with a hammer but I am worried about damaging the gland. Do any of y'all have a trick for removal or just more elbow grease?
Gland Problem Hello: If I understand correctly, you are having problems removing the gland off the rod. If this is correct, here are a couple of suggestions. The rod has warped or is worn in the sense the gland is having difficulty getting past the thicker area of the rod. Some shops can polish the rod to uniform size and then ou should be able to remove the gland. Second, get a set of hooked picks and try removing the gland seals while still on the rod. I have experienced where a seal flips and binds. My glands are soft iron, so I do not recommend hitting the. Just some thoughts.
I have found the problem to usually be rust behind the bearing / glide ring. jw - with the length of the rod using a press is probably out of the question - so hitting the gland off the rod is pretty much the way I have done this in the past - some glands can be quite difficult. I have a 10lb hammer with a short handle for this type of heavy hitting & use a good piece of timber as a drift.
If nothing else yields satisfactory results, you could always re-assemble the cylinder and connect the lines, then extend the cylinder, and take it back apart with rod extended. Only have to move the gland a few inches then.
Is there a downside to taking it apart with the rod extended? In general, is this a good habit to be in?
No detrimental down side, it's just you have to deal with a rush of oil when you pop the piston out of the barrel. I prefer having the cylinder retracted because it's easier to control the oil coming out of cylinder when gently removing the gland.
If I understand correctly you are saying the piston has a worn spot on it and the packing is shot. Check the interior of the barrel to see if there is a dinged spot in there. It was common for people to leave the boom cylinder down on a stabilizer pad that was up and ruin the barrel when the boom was swung to the extreme. I have replaced many a barrel because of this. Most times a barrel and piston are required to do a proper repair. The other posters are right about rust under the wear strip in the gland, about all you can do is follow advise already given. If you don't have to far to go, sliding a heavy block of wood along the rod will probably bring it, I have carefully used a sledge but slide it along the rod to keep from dimpling the rod. Mel
Airman it appears you were correct. Sometimes one just needs a bigger hammer, and several 2x4 blocks. Thanks for yall's advice.
Got the cylinder installed back on the machine last night. It sure was cool to see the boom stay up instead of bleeding down by the count of 30.
Bet you was a happy camper.