Rotating the ends on a tie rod cylinder

bx24 · Oct 18, 2007

I am building a log splitter and I would like to rotate one of the ends (because the fitting is on the "side" rather than on the "top". I have never taken one of these apart .... Is it as simple as unbolting the tie rods and simply rotating the end?

Thanks

Kernopelli · Oct 18, 2007

With the cylinders I have dealt with, yes it is very simple. In fact, you may be able to simply turn the cylinder rod so that it positions the ends the way you need. If that places the ports in a direction that is undesirable then yes, you should be able to take the end off the cylinder and turn it 90* and tighten everything back up. Every cylinder I have seen is very similar and quite basic, I would be very surprised if one or the other methods won't work for you.

kennyd · Oct 18, 2007

Yes, you can just unbolt it and align the ends as you need them.

3RRL · Oct 18, 2007

I agree,
It is that simple to do. Try to make sure the tie rods are straight in line so when the cylinder is under pressure it does not want to re-align itself. (the tie rod bolts)
When I installed my dual grapples, I wanted the hoses to be as short as possible and not interfere with each other as they folded, so I did exactly that. You can see the rear of the cylinders and the fronts are 90 degrees to each other.

Wayne County Hose · Oct 19, 2007

You will probably need to hold the threaded rod with a vise grip as most of these have lock-nuts. I like to use a torque wrench to tighten these. The amount of tightness isn't as important as evenly distributing the torque. At the factory these are done with bolt stretch gauges, but we don't need to get silly here. Torque wrench is plenty.