I have 5 cylinders i need to rebuild this spring here, the prices for the seal kits from the dealerships are around $500 per cylinder for the parts alone. Has anyone had any luck with aftermarket rebuild kits? I see they can be found for around $150. I've heard Hercules Seals being thrown around, but when i search for my machines there's multiple cylinders and not entirely sure what is all included with the "kit" off hercules.
I've used aftermarket for okd stuff, try giving Hercules a call and see if they can narrow it down for you.
I assume your Cat dealer(s) gave you Part Numbers of the Cat kits when they quoted you the "$500" prices.? If you have the Cat P/Nos then why not contact Hercules and tell them you want a quote for their equivalent of Cat P/N "X".?
+3 for Hercules. I took my swing cylinder to a Cat affiliated repair shop a few months ago and the guy said if I didn’t give him seals he was ordering Hercules. Turns out that’s what I had bought anyways for them to use. new holland wanted 250+ for the seals I bought from Chris at CEA on eBay for 55 bucks.
Be careful with aftermarket kits on cat cylinders. Have had several instances where the buffer seal will not fit in the rod guide correctly and have to get oem anyway. Last one was Saturday building a bucket cylinder on a 953. Luckily dealer was open till noon and had seal on hand.
I had good luck with the CAT seals on my one tilt cylinder on my 973. The two lift cylinders need to get rebuilt they look to be original with the condition of the dust wiper seal. I’m not sure I want to cheap out on those, but I thought I would ask before making that assumption. On cat parts I added all the seals and wear rings to the cart and it’s $500 for each lift cylinder. I bought a hitachi 230 track hoe last year and I went into it knowing the two boom cylinders and the bucket cylinder would need to be rebuilt. They were useable, but leaked some. Now after this winter they are not in useable condition in my opinion. And dealership quoted me $500 a kit. To save money I was going to try Hercules seals on the hitachi cylinders. Boom : AT196466 Bucket : 9178294 Then I could afford to have my hydraulic guy rebuild the cylinders, and polish the rod. I’ve never rebuilt a cylinder before on a large piece of equipment like this. Just small(in comparison) ag cylinders/marine trim cylinders.
I have had very good luck with Hercules and Bulldog seal kits.
Also keep in mind the cost for the actual fix. My swing cylinder was around 500 to be fixed and that was a small cylinder. The guy said a bigger one would be a different shop rate and probably 2.5 times the cost.
It sounds like you priced up a list of individual seals to get to the $500. Did you price a seal kit.? For the 166-2286 Lift Cylinder Gp on your 973C the seal kit is Part Number 245-0606.
Hercules is the one I was mainly interested in as I’m from Canada and they have locations in Ontario and Quebec. Yes that’s the issue, my hydraulic guy use to be the main hydraulic specialist at the cat dealership for 20 years before he went out on his own. I can’t remember what it was to rebuild a cylinder but I believe it was $1,100 I supply the seals. i did add seal by seal, weird it did not show me a kit on the diagram. But adding the kit part number in it dropped the price down to $390 for the seals for the lift cylinders on my 973.
A lot of the time the kit info is missing from the Parts Manual, like in your case. I had another resource to look at.
How come these guys --> http://ber-del.com/part-detail/caterpillar-seal-kit-245-0606/ are only $37? $100 here https://www.industrialstop.com/products/245-0606-seal-kit-cat-alternative-part https://aftermarket.express/caterpillar/2450606 Seems to be quite a spread, and none of the official Cat sites show a price, have to send a request. Joe H
Hopefully someone could clear that up. But usually if it’s too good to be true, it usually is. If that was the case I’d order spare kits too. If you’re in Canada, my dealership shows prices on car parts. Finning Regina Saskatchewan. My Deere dealership does not show prices and everything says “contact dealer” Brandt Regina.
https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/aftermarket.express After those reviews, I’d rather same myself the headache. Is rather get my parts i need.
Just got my quote from Hercules. There was 4 different kits listed for my machine. But after talking to them they needed the rod size/bore size of the cylinder. Maybe even a cylinder number. So I went out with my calipers and measured my rod and got the cylinder number. 85mm rod on my bucket cylinder. And 90mm rod on my boom cylinders. The seal kits do not include the wear rings or rod bearing, so glad I talked to someone on the phone. Everything in it is $700 instead of $1,587. I’ll be giving Hercules a try on these cylinders to see how they do. side note, salesman just informed me if I create an account and order from the web store there is a 25% discount as a web store special.
give Chris at CEA a call. Might be able to help you get a bit cheaper.
Already ordered from Hercules, I’m in Canada so shipping/brokerage/border fees/taxes are a killer.
The Cat kit for the lift cylinder does. I hope you are planning on replacing both the wear ring in the piston and the one in the head. I wouldn't give your new seals much chance of lasting long if you don't.
When I got my tilt cylinder rebuilt it did come with them which The guy rebuilding my cylinder said to make sure I got those. I made sure to ask the salesman about the wear rings, I wanted to be sure it came with them which they didn’t. He said the cylinders have two on the piston and then one Teflon coated steel bearing for the rod. $40 for the steel Teflon bearings and $18 for the two on the piston. I only want to do this once. I’m going to be draining my tank completely cleaning it out, and changing the filters and adding all new oil.
Maybe the ones they sell are different. The OEM ones are both fibre. The one in the head is split so that is can be compressed and fit in the groove in the head. I don't quite understand how a teflon-coated steel ring would be able to do that. Also there is only one wear ring on the piston, not two. See the illustration in Post #9 above, Ref #14 & #16. I agree with your sentiments of only wanting to do it once but for me the salesman's comments don't add up.
I thought where the red arrow is pointing would be the steel teflon coated. i watched a video of a video of someone rebuilding a 120 stick cylinder and he showed it being split so that it can fit into the bore and then expands out when in the groove, and to remove it he took a chisel to knock it out. He is holding the old bushing where i have the video linked to.
Yes, but that bushing in the video is held in place by a snap ring. At around 16:45 it shows him removing it. The Cat wear ring is split (illustration below) and has to somewhat "collapse" in order to fit it down the bore in the head then open up again fo fit into the groove. Maybe the steel ones can also somewhat collapse as well but surely it would be a heck of a job trying to spread them back into the groove again. See this video betweenn 33:00 and 36:30 where he removes the wear rings & seals from the piston and the head and installs new ones.
I think we are talking two different things. I was talking the hitachi ones and it sounds like you are talking about cat. But side note, I very much enjoy watching cutting edge, the safety officer is awesome. When I receive the kits in the mail I’ll take pictures of what’s included. I’m going with CAT seals on my 973c the price difference isn’t worth it. That’s my main piece of equipment and gets me the most business so I do not want it to be down.
Sorry, I thought you were still talking about the seals for your 973C lift cylinders............