Can hyd. hose fittings become super tight over time? I had to remove the 6 hoses from my backhoe valve that go down the boom and they all needed a snipe to get loose. One almost didn't come loose and started to distort the nut. I've had the hoses off before and put them on snug using the proper size wrench but certainly didn't reef them as tight as possible. What would cause them to be so tight to remove?
BSPP and German metric will both flare the tip of the fitting if over torqued. JIC and ORFS usually won't get messed up except for rust.
If the fitting is out in the open a hammer is your best friend, and I **** you not. Any fitting, smart whacks of the flats of the fitting nuts, the more flats you can access the better. I'm not talking about beating the hell out of it, just smart whacks on the flats. Does two things, 1) slightly expands the metal of the nut from compressive hammer blows, and 2) disturbs the thread connections, sort of like the difference between a wrench on a nut opposed to an impact gun. Some smart whacks on a fitting nut and I promise you it will come loose with ease.
Really hard to smack on a backhoe valve with multiple connections in close quarters and upper and lower fittings. Had to remove the top hoses to be able to get a wrench on the bottom ones. I got them loose but boy they were tight. Never heard of using anti-sieze on JIC hyd. fittings but maybe just a touch would be a good idea?
Air hammer and a long punch or chisel.
Sounds like like others have had the same problem.
Hammer and a long punch or chisel. I've done it on tight quarter fittings on valve bodies. I'm telling you it works.
I'll have to try that next time.
I have warmed them no hotter than you would do with a propane torch and they have come loose. A second person running an air hammer while you turn a wrench works well also.
I considered warming them up with a hand held propane torch.
The drawback to using propane is it is slow to warm the metal so both the female, and male threads tend to expand together gaining little. Acetylene, or another fuel gas heats quicker expanding the female threads faster than the male threads making loosening the fitting easier. I am assuming you have female threads on your hose ends.
Excluding rust, one thing. Overtightening. There's only one thing that boils my **** more than a hose fitting that has been reefed on so much that the nipple comes loose when you try to undo it. The recommended torque for a 1/2" JIC fitting is only 40 lb ft. Go easy people.
I agree with the proper torque comment, but some of the china adapters have to have the hose tightened way past proper to get the drips to stop.
And fittings that have been reused a time or two tend to leak if not overtightened......
if you Use a open end wrench make sure that it fits the flats really tight or it will ride up the humps and squeeze the nut,I found this out the hard way trying to get by with I had with me at the moment
I probably had them a little tighter than 40 ft./lbs. but certainly didn't use a snipe on the wrench like I had to to get them loose. I'll make sure to put them just snug when I put them back on. I also think fittings that have been reused need to be a little tighter to stop any leaks.
I wouldn't go light on reassembly, not with JIC. The flares and tapered seat are designed to be "tightened up " As soon as you put it to work and get a little vibration, you'll have a leak.
I'm wondering if there is something that could cause the fittings to become tighter, whether it's temperature changes or just over time they become tighter.
Like i mentioned earlier, a little corrosion can make things difficult. Aside from that, if the last guy pulled crazy torque and deformed the threads a bit, that'll make things rough. Now someone mentioned striking the flat with a hammer and punch. I've done that, it has both helped and hurt. I buy the right wrenches cuz, well, I'm a dealer tech and people tend to frown on seeing gouges and dings.
I was taught this was the way to properly tighten JIC fittings: https://www.terex.com/docs/librariesprovider7/tech-tips/techtip_96.pdf?sfvrsn=54dffcc0_10 All the Altec stuff I worked on had the paint marks on the fittings from the factory.
That someone would be me. I totally understand your sentiments as being a dealer tech, that's top notch thinking. But to be clear, I'm not suggesting beating the dog snot out of a fitting, rather, well placed smacks on the steel, not dings, dents, or codswallop. Steel is malleable, any blacksmith knows that and so should wrench benders. Case in point, I once had a 200 class rental excavator on a steep slope blow one of the hoses at the arm (stick) cylinder. That hose failure covered the machine with oil. On that slope with the machine covered with oil was neither a safe nor ideal situation to remove and replace that hose with wrenches, -16 JIC IIRC, I had to get the machine off of that slope to safely replace that hose. Choice of tool, a hammer. Carefully climbed the boom standing on the boom hoist cylinder while firmly gripping the pipes on top of the boom. Once in position, still firmly gripping a pipe with one hand, started smacking the JIC hose connection of the failed hose with the hammer and knocked it loose. Once I got it loose it promptly got a JIC cap fitted to the pipe fitting. Carefully clumb down from the boom, fired it up, lifted boom and walked that slimy animal to flat ground where I could safely do the hose replacement. There are times a hammer is a mechanics best friend.
The stupid adapter or elbow always spins loose when you can’t get to it. Turns a 20 minute hose replacement into a half day or worse ordeal.
I'm glad none of the adapters loosened.
Define snipe for me.....................cause all I can come up with is when I had a couple of my grandkids trying to sack one with some sticks
I had somebody on here explain it to me once before, a pipe or other cheater on a wrench. When I was young, my daddy would have said "extra man", I just call it a pipe.
Snipe, like “cherry picker”, has a bunch of different meanings lol
A used a length of aluminum pipe over the wrench for more leverage. That's what I call a snipe.
Should have said I used.