62F and partly cloudy @ 22:15.
Rain quit in time for me to get one of the hoses off and head for NAPA before they closed. A bit tricky though, as one end of the hose goes onto a fitting on a hard line which has fairly thin walls and would be easily bent. The reason why it was tricky is that four lines all terminate in roughly the same place, and there is just not much room to get a wrench on the hard line to apply counter-force while torquing on the hose fitting in the opposite direction. But somehow I managed ...
As I was heading out of the driveway I ran into my neighbor who I had called about the spanner wrench coming down the drive. He'd tried to return my call but wasn't able to get through so he came on down ... so we headed down to the house so he could put eyes on the cylinders.
He does have two of the adjustable spanner wrenches: honkin' large and small(er) ... but didn't think the pin on the smaller one would even be small enough. Which was kind of what I figured.
He also has experience replacing cylinder seals - including urethane ones - which he says are a complete #$%@! to do ... at any rate he offered his help if I feel I need it. He'll probably be getting a call ... :laughing:
Of course that all took time and by the time he left it was about 5 minutes before 17:00 (time the local NAPA closes) so that trip went out the window.
Perhaps just as well ... while we were standing around jaw-jacking I noticed the hose I had gotten from NAPA a couple of years ago (without the purty green strip) had developed surface cracks ... granted, the hose has a pretty extreme bend in it (around 180 degrees) but still not good. I think they changed over their hydraulic goods in-between the time I got the first hose from them and the time I got the newer one. (The newer one is Eaton Weatherhead hose - which I'd assume is decent quality ... but who really knows these days ?)
Some nylon hose sleeve is probably cheap insurance against UV damage.
At any rate, the revised plan at this point - since I'm waiting on the spanner wrench to arrive anyways - is to order all six hoses (2 for the bucket cylinders, and all 4 for the boom cylinders) from DHH ... just a rough guess, but I'd imagine that will save at least $60 ... will order them on Tuesday, and if I'm lucky I should have them by next Friday.
Once the new seals are installed, the cylinders will get degreased, cleaned up, sanded, and fresh coat of paint applied.
Depending on how it goes, I might even order the seal kits for boom cylinders as they're reasonable ($40 each) and rebuild those next.
