Ford 575D Swing Cylinder Repair

Has anyone rebuilt one of these? I have a leaking rod seal, and I need to know the bolt torque (Item 22 on attached pdf) required to reassemble the piston to the rod.

How difficult is it to remove the hyd tube (item 1) from the cyl head (item 6), is a strap wrench sufficient, or is this thing really torqued on there?

Bottom line is, can I do this in my garage, or does it require special tools & fixtures?
20H08

Check out Part No. 7. Its a set screw that holds the trunnion (Part No. 6) to the barrel. Back that screw out and unscrew the barrel from the trunnion. There should be loctite on the threads which means you may have to use heat to separate the trunnion from the barrel. If you get the piston hot, the teflon piston rings will probably sustain damage. If you squeeze down on the barrel when removing the trunnion, you can collapse and ruin the barrel. Clamp the barrel at the end of the cylinder around the end plug so the plug will support the barrel. You might have to remove the plug and replace the o-rings as well. The fun part is still ahead.

You'll need a 3/4" impact to remove the bolt holding the piston on the rod. It probably has loctite on the threads. Same story; heat will damage the piston seals. Torque on the rod bolt is 1100lbs (+/- 50lbs).

I don't know how your garage is equipped but these things usually require a little grunt to disassemble. If you have a hydraulic shop in your area, they might disassemble them on their bench for you real cheap and you won't spend a day bleeding in the garage. On the other hand, it might come apart real easy and you'll be wondering what's wrong with me. No way to tell until you get there.

Hope this helps.

Awesome, that"s exactly the info I needed.

Thank you very much!

See this link for the current progress of my repair, I'm "stuck"
575d Swing Cyl

This is where the some guys apply heat. Unfortunately heat will ruin your piston pack (but then I've never tried to shield it with something like a ceramic blanket). That bolt should have Loctite on the threads. A cheater is another solution but a dangerous one. My guess is you are using a tire gun or one based thereon. Our 1" gun is rated closer to 3000, or at least that is what we were told when we purchased it; no longer available. Go figure.

So, the solution is an impact with more grunt, a cheater or a torque multiplier. If you had access to another impact wrench you would have already tried that. Some guys weld the socket or a square drive to a piece of flat bar; bar length determined by torque desired. 6' of bar will give you approximately 1200 ft lbs of force which probably won't do the trick. Some guys use a mechanical device like a come along or bottle jack to assist the cheater but now you're adding a serious level of danger; I'm not kidding. Something could slip and hit you in the head or tear a piece out of your body. Proceed with extreme caution if you do something like this. You won't get any warning!!! If she flies apart you'll either get hurt or not; no in between.

The method I like the best is the torque multiplier which means you now have to find a new best friend to borrow one from. Much easier to find than a 1.5 ton gun. I can tell from your pictures you're a clever guy so take a minute and figure out where you're going to get a torque multiplier or how to design another tool so you won't get hurt. Sorry I can't be of more help.

I had my Dad take them to a New Holland dealer, their impact gun was able to loosen them for me. I guess my Central Pnuematic 1400 ft-lb gun did not have enough "stuff"...

Now, I am having trouble with the U-Cup seals in the headstock.

They crumbled to pieces when I took them out, and I could not tell wich way the loaded U was facing.

To me, logic dictates the loaded U faces pressure, so towards the piston.

The parts manual and the service manual drawings both show the U facing outward toward the rod end, and not towards the piston.

I don't think that's the right direction?

(quoted from post at 18:34:55 03/24/12) I had my Dad take them to a New Holland dealer, their impact gun was able to loosen them for me. I guess my Central Pnuematic 1400 ft-lb gun did not have enough "stuff"...

Now, I am having trouble with the U-Cup seals in the headstock.

They crumbled to pieces when I took them out, and I could not tell wich way the loaded U was facing.

To me, logic dictates the loaded U faces pressure, so towards the piston.

The parts manual and the service manual drawings both show the U facing outward toward the rod end, and not towards the piston.

I don't think that's the right direction?

Click to expand...

There are two kinds of U seals; the chevrons and the dust seal. The chevrons are located inside the head and seal between the head and the rod. The bottom of the chevron or top of the U is facing the piston. The dust seal is reversed. The top of the U is facing the rod eye. Dust seals are backwards, the bottom of the seal is used to scrape dirt off the rod as it enters the head; the open bottom of the seal facilitates removal. So, as confusing as that sounds, the top of the U/bottom of the chevron faces the oil pressure and the top of the U on a dust seal scrapes dirt. Hope that helps before I confuse myself.

(quoted from post at 23:21:31 03/24/12)

(quoted from post at 18:34:55 03/24/12) I had my Dad take them to a New Holland dealer, their impact gun was able to loosen them for me. I guess my Central Pnuematic 1400 ft-lb gun did not have enough "stuff"...

Now, I am having trouble with the U-Cup seals in the headstock.

They crumbled to pieces when I took them out, and I could not tell wich way the loaded U was facing.

To me, logic dictates the loaded U faces pressure, so towards the piston.

The parts manual and the service manual drawings both show the U facing outward toward the rod end, and not towards the piston.

I don't think that's the right direction?

Click to expand...

There are two kinds of U seals; the chevrons and the dust seal. The chevrons are located inside the head and seal between the head and the rod. The bottom of the chevron or top of the U is facing the piston. The dust seal is reversed. The top of the U is facing the rod eye. Dust seals are backwards, the bottom of the seal is used to scrape dirt off the rod as it enters the head; the open bottom of the seal facilitates removal. So, as confusing as that sounds, the top of the U/bottom of the chevron faces the oil pressure and the top of the U on a dust seal scrapes dirt. Hope that helps before I confuse myself.

Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry, I was talking about the rod seal, not the outer dust seal, I knew which way that one was supposed to face.

Thanks for all your help.

As far as reassembly and properly torquing the piston bolts. I borrowed a 1" drive 600 ft-lb torque wrench from work, but our torque multiplier is only good for 1000 ft-lb, and I do not want to risk breaking it. So I went and bought a impact adapter set from Harbor Frieght, and will weld up my own torque multiplying arm with some steel I have lying around.






It will be a 36" extender. To get my 1100 ft-lb I will set the torque wrench to 565 ft-lb. The center of the torque wrench handle I borrowed is 38" to the center of the head.

May as well make this extender now, it could be handy in the future. As long as the actual adapters I bought hold up to the torque...

Good deal. That torque wrench and a short extension should get you to 1100 lbs pretty easily. Run the bolts in with your impact first. I can't help but be curious about what kind of torque your impact is delivering in F. Might be a good idea to loctite the bolts as well. I assume you're holding the rod end in the swing tower. Pretty good idea but be careful with that casting. We bolt rod ends to a 2" welding table but we are working on bigger stiff so maybe I'm being overly cautious. You should be able to shim and bolt it to the frame through one of the trunnion holes

How's your trunnion bearings and grease seals.

If she's an extenda hoe, take a look at the dipper on the bottom side about where the outer piece stops when she's closed. That area is usually full of grease. If you've got a hair line crack developing, now it the time to air arc it out and fill it with weld, long before they open up and self destruct.

If she's an extenda hoe, take a look at the dipper on the bottom side about where the outer piece stops when she's closed. That area is usually full of grease. If you've got a hair line crack developing, now it the time to air arc it out and fill it with weld, long before they open up and self destruct.

Click to expand...

Hmm, I do have an extendahoe, but I'm not sure where you're telling me to look, can't visualize it, will look tomorrow.

Ok, I found a crack along a weld bead in item 45, is that what you're talking about?

http://www.infinity-universe.com/~dev/WhiteDwarf/Projects/575D/575D-Dipstick.pdf

Can't see the weld in that picture, it's on the other side of the part, crack is along a weld bead for a gusset plate, about 2" long crack.

Yes. The crack usually appears forward of the No. 22 pin which in your picture would be towards the bottom of the page. If the crack is just the gusset cracking away from the tube, you're in luck. If the crack is parallel to the No. 22 pin, the tube is cracked. Anyway about it, sounds like your crack has not caused any damage. If the gusset is cracked, you may be able to grind or scarf it out and weld it. If the tube is repaired, air arc it out and remove enough material to obtain good penetration on both sides of the crack. Drill a hole in both ends of the crack so it will not run any further. If you have to pay someone to do this, you're only looking at an hour of time if you clean the site.

I engineered my own repair which consisted of a 1" plate inside the tube. This required removal and replacement of parts welded in the top of the tube. I later discovered someone else had been doing this for years with 3/4" plate. Once they're repaired, you're going to have to abuse them to get them to crack again. These days, these old girls usually end up doing light duty occasional work. An air arc and weld will be all she needs. Once you know what to look for, they'll run as long as you enjoy owning them.

With the fabrication of some special tools, I was able to finish the job.

Borrowed a 600 ft-lb torque wrench from work:



Mounted the swing cylinder in the pivot post and ran the bolt in with my impact gun after applying #271 loctite to the bolt:



Used my home-made torque multiplier to get to the specified 1100 ft-lb for the piston bolt:



Partially threaded on the cylinder tube, and endcap, and installed the home-made spanner wrench to the cap via a 9/16-18 bolt into the rear port:



Moved the swing cylinder to the trunion mount, applied loctite to both sets of threads, and ran the housing together with my impact gun:




Reassembled everything, tested the swing back and forth for a while, no leaks.

So I'm no longer afraid to rebuild HYD cylinders.