I have a few dripping hydraulic cylinders on my '81 Komatsu D31P and I am thinking of repairing them. Can anyone give me a sense of what kind of cost I am looking at to get them done? Or is it in the realm of a do it yourself project? Looks like a special spanner is needed to unscrew the cylinder and I read that a compression spring might be in some of these things. Both the angle cylinders leak with one being quite noticeable. They do not appear to be bent (the tilt cylinder is slightly bent at the rod end but it has minimal leakage). Being a old Frankenstein dozer it shows the traces of many a replacement and make work. But that is ok, if it does enough work to recoup the money I paid for it.
FurakawaMatt You might want to check out this thread:
ointhead Ok, I see it is out of my league as a part time wrench turner. Thank you for pointing to that thread. I read one reply that it costs about $300-$400 a cylinder, depending, to get done. I will have to talk to the guys that are going to reverse my tracks if they know of anyone that does cylinder repack.
:thumbsup
Repacking a cylinder is uually a 2-4 hr job if you are equipped. there is more to that than it though, How is the rod? any bends ( even slight ) any nicks or damage to chrome? and once apart does it need honing of the barrel and is the piston o k ? usually it might require a light hone ( depending if dirt was in cylinder from dirty oil ) and piston should be good. look good yourself at the rod on the angle cylinders and if they are good it should be a real easy repair ( both of them could be done before lunch )
Last cylinder i tried myself was a tilt cylinder off a TD-15 dozer, after about 6 hrs of messing with it I loaded that thing up and went to CL Boyd in OKC ( John Deere Dealer ) they got the nut off and had it repaired in about 20 minutes. And yes i had all the above mentioned tools, we even have our own machine shop here. It took a really good 1" inch impact, heat and an old shop hand to get it off. MY advice it take them somewhere they do that stuff.
Matt, I just repaired 2 badly-leaking rams from a 6 ton loader.....took some effort ,but really an easy & cheap alternative to paying $100 PH . I was equipped with large vise,3/4 sockets,bar & long pipe.I had trouble getting one nut off & took it to a bloke to loosen for me. Total cost : $160 per cylinder.(Parts here are dearer than in the USA.) A parts diagram & taking pictures is helpful. I've learnt to always have a go at it before paying to have it done,especially on a machine used in a hobby environment... Jim
Not to get OT here but why are you reversing the tracks? Are they installed wrong?
I paid $300 and got it rebuilt (the leaking cylinder) last year. Was not the best of jobs since it damaged the connection ball end of the push rod and tore the rubber insert at the cylinder end. I guess it was from fighting to get the thing apart. It does work now and there is no leaks so I am satisfied for what I need from it. There is a thread detailing my reversal of the tracks back in September. Someone had installed them backwards. They do not have much wear so I would guess whoever had them rebuilt before I bought the dozer messed up.