Big nick in the ram, replace or ignore?

[timcote42]

Greetings gents (haven't heard from any ladies here yet),

My swing cylindars on my Kubota backhoe were leaking and I am having the darndest time extracting them....see my thread under Kubota owning/operating for all the glories of the stuck pin destruction. Anyways, now having some luck and I see that the ram on one of them is quite seriously nicked. See the attached photo for an exact description

I am planning to purchase and repack them, but wondering if I MUST replace the ram too. The ram will cost about $150 from Kubota, the repack kit is about $15. What would you do? Tim

 

[RickB]

I hate buying cylinder rods, but that one is gouged pretty good. I think I'd buy the new rod before the price goes up. Not sure it would even pay to check a local hydraulics shop for a custom build on that one.

 

[EddieWalker]

After pricing what a new one will cost, I'd shop around to see who can weld it up, then machine it round again. All you really need is for it to be round again so that it will hold back the hydraulic oil as it slides in and out through the seals.

Eddie

 

[SPYDERLK]

Greetings gents (haven't heard from any ladies here yet),

My swing cylindars on my Kubota backhoe were leaking and I am having the darndest time extracting them....see my thread under Kubota owning/operating for all the glories of the stuck pin destruction. Anyways, now having some luck and I see that the ram on one of them is quite seriously nicked. See the attached photo for an exact description

I am planning to purchase and repack them, but wondering if I MUST replace the ram too. The ram will cost about $150 from Kubota, the repack kit is about $15. What would you do? Tim

My view of your pic is a bit out of focus. Is it dented and deformed, or gouged thru the chrome with metal missing? If the latter, perhaps you could soft solder to the bare steel in the gouge. This is done below 400F and would not hurt the surrounding chrome. Solder will not stick to the chrome. You would then carefully tool the solder to blend with the rod. Costs almost nothing to try. - - You will need a good flux and a eutectic tin-lead flux cored solder. It is probable that good cleaning will give good results w/o even using the separate flux. You could probably do this by using a gas stove to gently heat the rod till solder melts and flows onto the steel in the gouge. I would use the stove and a soldering iron. That way the rod would be a little cooler and you could fine tune the T of the gouge and the application of solder with the solder iron tip. Be sure you know how it looks when solder flows to "wet" the surface. Talk to some friends who are into electronics or plumbing. They should be able to help with this.
larry

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I am planning to purchase and repack them, but wondering if I MUST replace the ram too. The ram will cost about $150 from Kubota, the repack kit is about $15. What would you do? Tim

For $150 it is not worth it to play around with anything else other than rod replacement. That is a darn good price for a replacement rod from a dealer. The seal kit price is a good deal too. Either Kubota parts are very inexpensive or the parts guy likes you.

When it comes to a rod, don't play around with voodoo cures. Rods aren't chromed because it looks pretty and anything soldered or welded on can come off inside the cylinder and really do some hydraulic damage. Repair it once, repair it right, and you never have to worry about it again.

 

[ronjhall]

I have a friend in the Detroit area that runs a service for repairing cylinder rods. Used mostly by heavy equipment owners. His cost to repair a cylinder rod is about 1/2 of replacement cost. I do not think he could repair your rod for less than the $150 quote you have for a new cylinder rod. Better get that rod before price changes.

 

[EddieWalker]

I missed the part where it will only cost $150 for a new rod. That's very cheap and at least half of what I expected it to cost. You can't beat that price. Buy the new rod.

Eddie

 

[AlanB]

$150 sounds like less cost then how mad I would be doing it the second time.

I would be putting in a new rod and packing kit at that point.

 

[sandman2234]

I have a friend who built and installed new cylinder rods in another guys loader cylinders. The owner didn't want to spend the money on chrome stock, so they did it out of none chromed stuff. He was told to keep it under the barn and cylinders retracted when not in use, but he didn't. Guess what they look like now? Chrome is the only way to go.
David from jax

 

[john_bud]

If you have any "buddies" that have a lathe and can silver solder or braze, that would yield a 90-95% permenent solution. You can even silver solder it and then file and sand it. The fear is that the action that chunked the rod, may have also bent it a bit. Real hard to tool it down to round when the rod is wobbling about! I have trued up bent rods in a press. Not all that hard to do, you just have to remember to go past flat to get it to bend back the other way. Not perfect, but you can get many more years out by back yard repairs. Just degrease it until it is perfectly degreased, then do it again!


On the other hand...
The $150 is by far not out of line for a rod, and it probably comes with a new bushing too.

Are you the original owner of the hoe? If so, do you remember what happened to damage the rod so severely? Normally, the small chips and chunks are caused by rocks falling on the rod, or getting between the rod and hoe body. If that was caused by a pinched rock, you would have heard it and seen the puff of rock dust. Point is, you don't want to put in a new rod (or even repair the old one) and then damage it again right away!

jb