Hello All, I have recently purchased an old Case 480B CK, serial #5231131 . This is my first piece of heavy equipment or tractor and am basically clueless. I had a mechanic repair three leaking cylinders: both tilt cylinders for the loader and the hoe bucket cylinder. Since then, I have started using the machine and found that both swing cylinders leak really badly. Probably gal/hr. I would like to at least attempt to remove the leaky cylinders and then take them to my mechanic to be repacked. This would keep me from getting it hauled or driving it a few miles on open roads (inexperienced operator) and it would save me the cost of my mechanic's time. Any info, help or resources for how to safely remove the swing cylinders would be very helpful. Also any general info about my machine would be awesome too. Thank you all for this forum.
Not really worth it. Bring the boom in the air, lock it in place. Disconnect the swing cylinders from the swing post on the rod side. Pop the cylinder head glands off and repack that way.
Hi jvay, welcome to this great site,, are you from Cumberland Ontario? You could "extend your boom" all the way out and support it at the end with a hydraulic jack, remove the pins and advance your hoe. Then remove the swing stage pins and remove it, then remove your swing cylinders. It's a big job but I just did this on my MF60, my swing stage was busted and I had to replace it. Having this done by someone else will be very expensive. After reading Mike's post, He has a better idea,, like he said, disconnect the swing cylinders and their lines, the cylinders will move in if you push on them. I'm not sure if you can take them out though with the boom still on, but you get the idea, it can be done.
Thanks for the responses. I am in Cumberland, Maryland. I am considering ordering an adjustable gland nut wrench from ebay for the task; good idea or waste? On my machine there is a bolt and nut which tighten around each swing pin on the boom shackle. Once these are loose or removed can the pins be forced out? Sorry if my terminology is goofy...
I'm not sure what model hoe is on your machine, but its probably similar to the 580ck in design. when the bolts you describe are removed, you should be able to remove the pins if they are not distorted. One thing to check on these old machines is for bent rods on the swing cylinders. If they are bent, they leak like a sieve and unfortunately, will need to be replaced. New gland packings will be damaged if the rods are bent or scored. When I did mine, the hydraulics shop replaced the rods with stainless and honed the cylinder bore. Hile you have them out, its worth putting new hoes on as well. Check the pivot bushings as its also an easy repair when on the bench. I had a lot of slop due to loose bots on the pivots and replaced the bolts as well. Now like new but ended up about $1500 plus my time to pull and replace.
Thank you all for the advice. Can anyone tell me how to know what the correct seal kit to order is ? The parts guy at my local equipment shop said he thought there should be a number on the gland nut somewhere. I could not find it anywhere.