Looks like I'll need to put new seals in a few cylinders on my 931B with backhoe in the near future. I was getting it ready to dig a stock pile of clay and it took almost an entire pail of hyd. oil to get to the proper level. Amazing how much oil is lost from what seems like fairly minor leaks. One stabilizer on the backhoe leaks when it's lifted and just sitting. Maybe lowering after I shut the machine would help. I don't use the machine that often and usually just for smaller projects I want to do. Curious how bad weeping has to get for owners of hobby machines before they start taking the cylinders apart? I'm hoping the weeping on cylinders on the backhoe slow down after they've got warm and are used more. Thankfully the main boom cylinder isn't weeping. It would be a pain to take apart. A friend has a similar machine and I foolishly said I'd help him pull the badly leaking boom cylinder apart. At least he'll be helping though. I usually have to do all my repairs by myself and I'm getting a little old for it. On a positive note the new pain killer I'm on seems to be working a lot better on my nagging back aches.
Oil goes out, dirt goes in. If it can drip hydraulic oil that's too much for me, if everything is just oily thats enough to turn a blind eye to. Sometimes fixing the cylinders just turns into a can of worms. Can buy a lot of oil for an old machine before you'll make it to the labour costs of a cylinder tear down, let alone a new rod. I also believe in the whole use it more to get it to stop leaking.
Was using the backhoe today and it wasn't really leaking. I think warm oil helps. It could have been the colder mornings we've had recently and I haven't used the hoe for several month's. One of the stabilizer cylinders I do need to get resealed. Hoping to get enough clay dug I can fix it next year. Was a crappy year this year. I was flooded until mid July so couldn't do much. Now I'm trying to take advantage of the decent weather. Next year is my 20th anniversary and I want to make some big improvements on the MX track. It takes a ridiculous amount of clay to build jumps. The finish line jump took over 350yds. That's quite a bit for only having a 1yd loader bucket and a much smaller backhoe bucket. I'm glad I don't have to load the dump truck with the skid steer. It's about 18 buckets and I can't pile it too high. Sticky clay I can get about 1 3/4yds a bucket with the Cat. Takes 6 buckets to fill the dump truck and I can dump in the middle of the box.
One thing i do try and do is keep the wipers clean. So i wash around the wipers often, no idea if it helps any, but visually it helps me accept that they're seeping a bit because i can keep track of how much it actually is day by day. Didn't expect it to need that much clay for a jump. I guess i could be quite fortunate with the size of my equipment. With my 973C I can barely fit 6 buckets on a triple axle clam dump trailer becuase the yardage capacity. I think i'm going to put some wood sides on it so it can hold it better. We have to haul 400 yards of clay into our cold storage building this fall yet. I dont know how big the bucket is on my 230 hoe, digging bucket is smaller then the clean up bucket. Today i'll be hauling 100 yards of clay to a job i have building a pad for a hay barn.
You have to remember the jumps are packed down so it takes 3 or 4 times the amount of material.
I repair equipment for a living but have a 1835b case skidsteer for personal use, Ive had the bucket tilt seal kits for a year or more now but never seem to find the time to rebuild them. They get a little bouncy with a full bucket or something heavy on the forks so I should probably do them this winter.
When you say bouncy, is that from the cylinders internally bypassing? Or why?
I think he means the machine is bouncy when it has heavy loads close to its capacity.
The cylinders act like they have air in them to an extent, I actually resealed one this weekend and it made a noticable difference