Anyone know a good place to get seal kits for hydraulic cylinders? I think I am going to build a hydraulic bench to work on them, tired of paying $400-$500 for my local dealer to remove the nut and change out seals. Thanks!
I've used after market seal kits in the past but after having problems with them I now use OEM kits. It seems that most after- market companies are sourcing their seals from off shore suppliers and the quality seems to be lacking. The problems I have had more than anything else is the I.D. of the seals are just a fraction oversized so when the equipment is at operating temperature everything is fine. But when the machine is shutdown and cools off, the cylinder starts to leak. I am also looking at building a cylinder repair stand and the biggest challenge seems to be getting enough torque to break loose the nuts while not bending the rod. I know of at least one hydraulic shop who have experience at bending rods this way. A John Deere 200 excavator arm cylinder nut is torqued to 7000 ft. lbs. and the nut is not like a standard 6 sided hex nut, so a socket is out of the question. I've got several ideas but any imput would be welcomed.
wow, 400-600! Send me your cylinders I will do them for 200-250 bucks. We charge 100 bench fee and then if they know what their doing should only be an hour to replace the seals and reassemble. This is the bench we use, it works great! Take a look at this bench, you could build something similar to this if you really wanted to, wouldn't have to so big for a 20 Metric Ton machine though. I was going to setup a make shift one in my service truck, but we never did it. All you need to do is have a head end anchoring point and have it elevated, then have a small cylinder at they other end. Install a porta-power and have a gauge setup, you can cross the fluid PSI to mechanical torque and then you will have your torque range. You could do it with a little ingenuity. http://www.tuxco.com/tuxco-disassembly.htm
I have never had to stand behind an O E M - unlike some after market-
Go here for a list of seal suppliers: http://www.kellysearch.com/qr-product-127007.html . You can google for seal kit suppliers too, and many can be bought on ebay. Used to be there were only a couple, one being Chesterton, the other Bulldog. The Bulldogs were cheap and you got what you paid for. The Chestertons were very good quality. Your other choice is to buy kits from the OEM manufacturers, hopefully you can get a discount. Good Luck!
Hey Deerdriver, You can repack your own cylinders without a bench if you have to. I've repacked several cylinders on a PC 200, every cylinder on a Cat 235 several times and the stick and boom cylinders on a 345. The stick cylinder on the 345 was torqued to 13,750 foot pounds. My Cat dealer is a 15 hour ferry ride, then a 6 hour drive. I just did the cylinders on the 345. I usually disconnect the polish rod from the stick and block the barrel up. The 345 was so tall I went ahead and pulled it off the machine. Then pulled the polish rod out. Next re pin it onto the stick. Slide the head up the polish rod and block it level. Make sure you pad the rod. Mark the nut in relation to the rod. I've already loosened this one but show it better on the boom cylinder. Then cut a wrench out of a piece of scrap. I used a piece of 1" plate and welded a piece of H beam to it. I use a loader or a backhoe to push the wrench. Once it loosens a 1/4 turn its loose. You spin it off and replace the seals. Assemble in reverse. Torque until the marks line up and put it back on. Here's a few of the boom cylinders.
I had this ramp off our barge so opted to weld up a box to hold the polish rod instead of pullin the barrel off the machine and re pinning the polish rod there. My wrench was to big so had to cut some shims to take up the slack. Used a 966 to loosen the nut. Not exactly the greatest way to do it but it can be done. When you live on an Island you have to get things done somehow. Not sure what happened but the pictures are out of whack. Hope it makes sense anyway.
I think your re-torque on that nut might be a little off, and as it's a nylon lock-nut, it should not be re-used in any case. But I realize that you are way out in the boondocks and likely do not have the big torque multiplier and socket available to do a proper job. (mighty expensive too) The new nut is not cheap either. Just so long as you fully realize that failure to properly torque a new nut on that rod leaves you very exposed to the nut potentially backing off with it's attendant hydraulic system damage, down time, and considerable lightening of the greenback load in your wallet. I've run across several instances of this happening on Cat 245 excavator and 992 loader cylinders and I can honestly tell you that the repair costs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's a huge risk not doing everything exactly right when working on large hydraulic machine components. I like the setup you did use however, very good for a shade tree repair. Good Luck!
That was some prety good Shade tree repair work. Sometime you just got to do what you got to do.
I realize this isn't the best way to get it done but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I've done a lot of them this way and the only piston I've ever seen come loose is a thumb cylinder on a PC 200 I took to Modern Machinery in Spokane Washington and had them repack for me. I do know the potential is there though. I've taken cylinders to the Cat dealers, Komatsu dealers, John Deere dealers and a few hydraulic shops before and everyone of them has reused the nut that came off the cylinder. My Cat manuals say nothing about discarding the nut either. I'm not trying to argue though because you may be right. I always read any post I see with your name on it because it always has top notch information, You have to believe me when I say I'd take them to the dealer if I could. Welcome back by the way. I was wondering where you'd disappeared to. I find it a little funny that my spell check tells me that Komatsu should be spelled Comatose. :lmao Maxpro, I was typing while you posted, We think along the same lines I guess. Welcome to the forum too!
I have never been involved in stripping and resealing a ram, I arrived just in time to see the shiney bit slide home when the dipper ram was done on my Atlas 1404 a few years back and a couple of months ago crept past the bucket ram being resealed on a Zaxis 160. Biggest pair of pipe wrenches I ever seen :notworthy and another duck putting the pressure on the end to shift the nut Great pictures and info Lashlander, and credit for the spanner :notworthy will you ever get around to chroming it :naughty Fair comment Surfer Joe, I understand your concern. :thumbsup
Lashlander, Thanks for the welcome. I'm enjoying the fourm. I've read alot of good things and learned alot. I got some cylinders on my Deere excavator that I need to be reworked and I'm definatly going to use your method of rebuilding them. I've rebuilt several on my Case back-hoe and was wondering how I was going to tackel the big ones on the Track-hoe. The way I look at it is... Some people have more money than they have time, and some have more time than they have money. Like I said before great post. I've learned alot.
Just be careful and keep in mind the forces your putting on things.
love the pics.... remote locations make for creativity! Some green Cat bearing mount applied to a clean (quick cure primer or brake clean) dry nut will do the same as the nylon on the nut if you have to reuse it. Cat 1U9891 hydraulic oil additive is a handy thing for assembly of cylinders. It is some very slippery stuff... helps get barrels and glands back on with new seals.
Lashlander, Same as my checker... OCR
Tanks for the idea! Have you ever bent a rod doing that? I am ready to give it a shot when my machine gets back home. Thanks!
I've never bent a rod. I slide the head up the rod to get the block closer to the piston though.
I've used that cylinder bench before and it works well. I do have a problem with them though. They use the same cylinder for turning the nut to jack out the cylinder and it takes forever. Every shop I worked for that had that bench had a long cylinder built for extending the bench and then put a motor and pump combination on it to run it. surfer-joe, When those nuts are torqued at 5,000 foot/pounds or more that little bit of plastic doesn't amount to nothing. You are correct about what happens when they come loose though. Lots of shiny sharp pieces that turn into cancerous tumors all through the hydraulic system. More than once I've played the doctor telling the patient how sorry I was for their problem and collected my money with no guarantees that we got everything. Lashlander; I've been told, and found it to be completely true that any fool can do the job with all the right tools. It takes a mechanic to get the job done with next to nothing. My hats off to you!
Are bench has the motor cylinder combo, the only way to go.
We are not in a remote area but work for a tight company. We have re-packed dozens of 992 c and d series lift and tilt cylinders with a homemade hammer wrench and a 20 pound sledge. No problems in the last 12 years, but there is always that 1 time..............
luckily you guys never fell into the cylinder failure, then control valve or pump catostraphic failure
These old loaders have between 40,000 and 70,000 hours on them. We have been through these hydraulic systems many times. We did have a pump failure and found a mystery bolt that went through the pump.
I do all my own cylinder repacking, I buy them from Hercules Hydraulics out of Florida. That's who all these machine shops buy them from. Hercules makes them. www.herculesbulldog.com
I know a good place for selling affordable OEM Seal kits for Komatsu, Hitachi and Kobelco.
Lashlander, that was an impressive way to get the job done. Love it! From one guy who had to do a lot of repairs in the middle of nowhere to another, here is a tip you may or may not know about: If you ever have to repack a cylinder and find the O-ring seal you have on hand is a little too small, fill the gap using Sunlight liquid soap. It turns to rubber under heat and pressure, allowing for a perfect seal. I have done it four or five times myself and have yet to have a failure. As for the obvious question about little balls of rubber getting into the valves and such, the answer is no. If there was anything, it got caught in the filters.
Lashlander, i replace my arm cylinder seal on my ex100-2. after replacement the cylinder drifts. whats the common cause for this? what to check? this is the first time that happens after so many rod seal replacement ive done.
Id have to say that the piston seal has been nipped or cut when fitting! or the wrong seals was fitted! Aiden
TRY THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!Maxi Parts Pte Ltd is based in Singapore dealing with hydraulic seal kits and hydraulic seals used in Hydraulic repair kits for Heavy equipment usage. We are able to assist you with wide range of products brand such as Komatsu, Kobelco, Caterpillar, Hitachi, etc. We are supplying parts for excavators ranging from BOOM, ARM, BUCKET, CENTRE JOINT, TRAVEL MOTOR, SWING MOTOR, MAIN PUMPS, CONTROL VALVES, etc. Furthermore, we also carry NOK, KOYO, SAKAGAMI, MPI SKF, etc, for hydraulic seals. And last of all we have extensive range of suppliers who are supporting us in terms of competitive prices and fast deliveries. As long as you are looking for anything, please feel free to send me any enquiry and I will try my utmost effort to source for you. Thank you for your time and kind attention. I sincerely hope that you will seriously consider using our services in this trade of business. For more information on our products, please don't hesitate to contact me at +65 91055807 or email me at: [email protected] or visit our website at www.maxipart.com.sg
Nice pics....i'm newbie...really appreciate all the information in this post
In general (although it's not widely published) on Cat cylinders the nyloc nut holding the piston can be re-used either once or twice after being installed new depending on the condition of the nyloc when the nut is removed. I have done the type of resealing shown above a few times in the bush in Africa and usually re-used the nut. Generally as insurance I always put a healthy dose of Loctite Hi-Strength thread lock on the threads before installing the nut and torquing it.
Hydrapak seals, inc. *** largest seal distributor west of the mississippi *** If you are looking for aftermarket hydraulic kits for your machinery please contact me. I have put our company link below to our home page, and also my contact information. https://www.hydrapakseals.com/storefrontCommerce/home.do Outside Sales: George E. Morales 801-808-0957 email: [email protected]
A note about Hercules, good looking kits and look 100% the same as the JD kits when they're in your hands. Now I did pick up some kits off of ebay, prices were a fair bit less than Hercules and I thought I'd take a chance, well, it was drop shipped from Hercules I think the seller was akin to reliable aftermarket seal kits.
I also use hercules. have had zero issues with them. And what the heck is with JD charging a kings ransom for the wear strips. Maybe its just since Hitachi took over JD.