Anyone have a favorite method of replacing the piston/rod back into the stabilizer cylinder? I tore the heck out of the piston seal as I erroneously thought you could just lube and bump it into the tube . Repacking otherwise has all gone well. Thanks
You need to use an engine piston ring compressor. I lube the hydraulic piston seals with vaso (petroleum jelly) , then clamp down on the piston for a few minutes, clean & lube the cylinder also filling the gland threads with vaso. Remove the compressor, another bit of vaso on the seals & install.
if you don't have a ring compressor, I occasionally will wrap the outside of the seal with electrical tape and then use gear-type hose clamps to compress the seal. leave it compressed for a few hrs or overnight, then remove the hose clamps and tape, lube the seal and the barrel and it should go in without too much trouble. you have to be quick because you don't want it to expand again before it goes into the barrel. just make sure to use a few wraps of tape so the hose clamp doesn't bite into and mark the seal. also, make sure the chamfer on the barrel is polished. my go-to lube is a combination of LUBRIPLATE and DOOR-EASE( its in stick form). door-ease first and then coat with lubriplate or VASELINE
Thanks guys, I was suspecting an answer along those lines. I will give it another try when the new seal comes in. What is interesting about the gland on this machine is that it seems to have an additional O-ring on the gland itself. The seal kit doesn't include this ring and I can't find a picture on the web of any glands on a 580 with 2 rings. It has a large o-ring and backer down low and then the regular thinner one and backer above the threads. I don't know what to make of it and am having to reuse the old larger o-ring.
I use a circular rocking motion while applying pressure. Only ever used hydraulic oil as a lube. Never an issue.
Case cylinders only use a single oring & backup, either at the upper area of the gland (early models) or the lower end (later models) It's would seem someone has fitted an extra oring to help keep moisture out of the threaded area of the gland. The oring with the backup is the one that controls the oil from leaking out through the threads.
The gland I have has the standard oring and backer as supplied in the kit located at the top of gland outside of threads. The new modified oring is deeper and below the threads. It is large at about 3/16 inch. Whoever cut the groove did well as it looks factory. Thanks for the help. Got it together few minutes ago and seems to work normally. Compression and vaseline. Thanks again.