L4310 steering cylinder

[Ewcmr2]

It was time to fix steering cylinder leak, disassembly went fine, replacing all the seals and bushings while I’m there.
Anyone know how to swap out the seal in the middle of the cylinder rod? Service manual is of little help except saying to replace worn parts.
Parts manual shows an O-ring (under?) the brown (Teflon?) indicated seal.

 

[ptsg]

Pull the teflon seal out with a pick or something. That will expose the o-ring. Replace both teflon and o-ring seals.

The new teflon seal will be somewhat hard to put in. Some people will heat them in hot water or hot oil to make the process easier.

 

[azbinder]

Yes, put the teflon ring in HOT water before assembly. Also, warm the piston as it will draw the heat from the seal before you can get it into place. Then set it side for a bit before trying to assemble.

 

[Harry in Ky]

No doubt you will get an assortment of answers to this question. Here's mine. Do with it what you will.

I do this when and where the ambient temp is reasonably comfortable. This is because the seal material doesn't take to being manhandled when it's cold. The warmer the better. I remove the old parts, install the new O ring, then work the new seal over it, mostly by hand but often with a pick or small screwdriver to stretch it over the last of the piston surface and into the groove. Before doing that part I find a suitable hose clamp that fits over the piston and seal. Then take a strip of emery cloth long enough to just overlap itself around the seal. Put that in place with the back side against the seal. Put the hose clamp over that and tighten it down carefully so as not to pinch the seal anywhere. I do that and let it sit as long as possible. Overnight if I have time. At least do this part first, then clean the other parts, replace the other seals etc Get everything else ready for assembly while it's compressed.

It's simple, inexpensive, and has worked for me for years. And no, I don't use hot water.

 

[Ewcmr2]

Thanks all.
I didn’t want to remove old seal not knowing if the new teflon seal was elastic enough to stretch into place. I’ll warm everything up and get it done.

 

[rScotty]

Let us know how it goes. I have a selection of very thin pieces of spring steel as long as a finger - a couple came from some feeler guage sets, another one looks like it started out as a wide flat screwdriver. I've eased all the edges with a whet stone. You can see in your picture where that has been done to the edges of the center piece on the rod. That's a sort of clue to assembly.

Some of those thin pieces of steel have a bit of a hook on the end and others are just flat. With those and some wooden "pushers" I can usually get rings like that into place. I do it warm, but not hot. I'm such a slow worker anyway that everything cools down too quickly for hot things to stay hot.

When I see something like that coming up in a job I'll often order two of the seals. but rarely need them.

I'd like to see how the factory does it. They have to have a tool or technique that is quick.
rScotty

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

there are some seals that require a plastic guide to stretch them over the part. but on my kubota I put the seal in some hydraulic fluid that was heated to 200 degrees and it softened it. then put the seal on part then lightly put a hose clamp on it for a half hour and it was fitting nicely over the oring that is was placed on. The seal was as hard as a rock before oil heating.

 

[Ewcmr2]

I ”Practiced“ with old seal to get an idea of its pliability. Warmed up with a heat gun, with my hand behind it to insure I didn’t melt it, it was soft and resilient. New seal popped into place easily after warming it up in my hand with heat gun. I slipped piston back into cylinder to make sure seal ended up round.

All the steering bushings are split. A sharpened screwdriver peeled them right out.

Random stack of stuff to press new bushings in. I don’t think previous owner knew there were zerk grease fittings on steering linkages, what little grease there was was dried out.