Hydraulic cylinder nut removal. Homemade tool removal ideas.

[Georgia Iron]

I have a 4 foot long pipe wrench and a nut wrench. I don't believe they are up to the challenge of removing some of the nuts off my used excavator's piston rods.

A local hydraulic shop here uses a floor mount with a forklift pushing on a very big pipe wrench. I was told by a mechanic I know, that they have broken the wrench doing it this way.

Does anyone have any photos / methods of what they use to get the nuts off?

I have been watching several videos on youtube.


Wonder if these hydraulic wrench's will provide enough force.



2 1/2 drive

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[Georgia Iron]

around 9 min mark

 

[Vetech63]

Its more about having the rod anchored in a solid fashion. If you can do that, then you can use a torque multiplier.

 

[Jonas302]

You have enough equipment around to set it up easy burn out a wrench and use another piece of equipment to push on it sooo much easier and safer than jumping on a pipe ect mark the nut with a chisel to run it back to the same spot going back on

 

[Nige]

You have enough equipment around to set it up easy burn out a wrench and use another piece of equipment to push on it sooo much easier and safer than jumping on a pipe ect mark the nut with a chisel to run it back to the same spot going back on

That's exactly the sort of setup we would use for a field repair. Contrary to the opinion of some on here who believe you have to spend $$$$ to build a "cylinder bench". to get those nuts off Errrr, I don't think so.

 

[56wrench]

Ya, but I support the rod as close to the nut as possible under the piston to reduce the risk of bending the end of the rod

 

[Nige]

Ya, but I support the rod as close to the nut as possible under the piston to reduce the risk of bending the end of the rod

100%. I would suggest knocking the head a few inches down the rod in the direction of the black arrow to make space for cribbing under the rod tight up to the back side of the piston as shown by the red arrow.

 

[Georgia Iron]

You have enough equipment around to set it up easy burn out a wrench and use another piece of equipment to push on it sooo much easier and safer than jumping on a pipe ect mark the nut with a chisel to run it back to the same spot going back on

Very nice. I can do it exactly like that. Thanks.

 

[kshansen]

The only thing I would say if you are working some place where you have to deal with MSHA have someone keep an eye out for those guys and hide the tooling when they are around!

We did variations on those ideas for probably 35-40 years with never an accident I know that some of the "Safety People" would go into panic mode if you did not use the exact tooling some service manual says to use. Just think about where something might fly if tooling failed and stay clear of that area and have as few people around as possible so you are not distracted while doing it.

 

[Nige]

For us it was often a Sunday job.........

 

[Georgia Iron]

The only thing I would say if you are working some place where you have to deal with MSHA have someone keep an eye out for those guys and hide the tooling when they are around!

We did variations on those ideas for probably 35-40 years with never an accident I know that some of the "Safety People" would go into panic mode if you did not use the exact tooling some service manual says to use. Just think about where something might fly if tooling failed and stay clear of that area and have as few people around as possible so you are not distracted while doing it.

Will do. Since it is normally just me and my dad if I can get him to come around, we will watch out for flying tools. I have had my fair share of oh crap moments and my dad says that I seem to always find them.

 

[Shimmy1]

Will do. Since it is normally just me and my dad if I can get him to come around, we will watch out for flying tools. I have had my fair share of oh crap moments and my dad says that I seem to always find them.

Make sure to mark the nut and piston so when you reinstall, you get the nut back to where it was.

 

[cosmaar1]

I’ve only rebuilt one cylinder so far but my 3/4 Milwaukee impact had no issues taking off my “crowd” cylinder which I would say is the 2nd biggest on my 555e. I didn’t have it secured other than just holding it down with my hand.

 

[Welder Dave]

A cylinder on a 555E is tiny compared to excavator cylinders. If you could rent a hyd. torque wrench like the one in your pic. it would work as long as you could anchor it so it doesn't just spin. I worked at a vessel shop and tightening flange bolts to 5000 ft./lbs. for hydrotesting wasn't even half of it's full capacity. There are bigger ones too. They rented the hyd. wrench after trying to tighten the nuts with about a 10' long torque wrench. The blanking plate on the flange was 5" thick with 32 bolts around it. It was for pig traps on the Trans Canada pipeline. The hyd. torque wrench was made by Sweeney.