good morning, I have been rebuilding an old MK36 pettibone and have finally gotten to the final stages when I located a severe leak in the rotary manifold. Just as a heads up I do not have a service manual for this equipment, if someone could direct me to one that would be extremely helpful. So to start do I need to remove this from the top (directly below the boom) or is it possible to remove this from the bottom of the machine (directly above the transfer case)? Is there any major concerns I should be worried about when removing for instance any hidden bolts where a solid safety tie off would be etc. thanks in advance for any/all information.
Never pulled a pettibone. Most Rt crane's , its easier to put it up on pads as high as you can, even block up under the outriggers and then raise the boom to work, but drop the swivel out the bottom. Usually dropping driveline, then hoses. Most truck cranes you end up pulling out the top, because the truck axles are in the way to go out the bottom. It sounds like you might have to decide which would be easier to remove, boom or transfer case. If you've got other cranes and forklifts, pulling boom isn't too bad. Just two pins and some hoses. If your limited in extra equipment, pulling transfer case is easier, transmission jack or big floor jack with a adaptor. Sometimes you want to boom up all the way for access, sometimes I've not boomed up all the way, and used a strap on the boom with a comealong to drop the swivel to the bottom. I usually just wrap the swivel with a strap, or use the mounting bolt holes with a picking eye.
Thank you for the response! I do have other equipment, the only problem with this particular crane is that it is on a barge in the water and undrivable (trans is locked in neutral and drivelines removed) I did end up pulling the transfer case which ended up being super top heavy but manageable. I was also fourtunate that their is plenty of room below to remove the hoses from the bottom of the swivel. Where I'm at now is I have the boom half raised and the main hydraulic for the boom up capped at the cylinder for safety (probably redundant) and have been looking at the top of the swivel and it is square, where the bottom is round... running into the old square peg round hole problem. do I separate this in the machine or pull the entire deal up and out then separate? I'll try to attach some pictures but I'm not entirely positive on how that will work.
Looks like I only got a picture of the bottom, I'll grab one from the top when I go to the yard tomorrow
Don't separate it in the machine unless there's no other way. Maybe drop just a little bit, spin it to turn the mount tabs sideways, then up out the top? Some boom cylinders don't like to hold themselves, and capping the lines beyond the cylinder won't stop migration from one side of the piston to the other (I"m used to working on older rigs that aren't perfect). You may have to rig up a big piece of angle iron or square tubing to put between the top of the cylinder and the bottom of the boom as a safety cage to hold it up.
thank you for your help and advice! I figured that I shouldn't separate in the machine but figured that I would ask. Also thanks for the heads on on using angle as a safety cage. I have a piece of 10' 4x4x1/2 sitting it the yard that would work perfectly. I will try to post more pictures as I go along for others out there with old pettibone cranes.
Right now I have all hoses separated and labeled (don't trust myself to memorize where 16+ hoses go) I started to lift the swivel out of the top then hit a snag, basically the "tabs" that keep the bottom stationary while the top rotates are 1/8" too big to come straight up out of the hole, looking at it it seems the main platform for the boom that sits on top of the body of the crane was not Built to allow just a straight up pull because I have an overlap of 1/8" on each side which was preventing the tabs from clearing the body...don't know if this was something that Was done so it couldn't "accidentally" come straight out the top. Ended up having to lift just a tiny bit then work the bottom end of the swivel around till it cleared the two holding brackets then drop it again and work them around until they were oriented 90deg from original position then I was able to lift it out. So to summarize basically it is one heck of a job just to pull a swivel manifold, one note to all other people who own pettibone MK36...everything that's on the inside of the pedestal and I do mean everything has to be removed in order to have enough room to pull the swivel out. Especially the extension hose reel.