Dynahoe Cylinder rebuilding
Most of the hydraulic cylinders leak, so I have to replace the packings.
The end caps were very tight. The "regular" spanner wrench I bought
wouldn't move them. A 5' pipe on the handle only began to bend the wrench!
Heat, hammering, all the usual tricks had no effect. A big pipe wrench
would have made a mess out of the ends.
The longer piece of 2x3 steel tube is about 5 feet long, and the
shorter piece is abnout 2 1/2 feet. The red turnbuckle is actually
a John Deere part. I had to make the spanner adjustable, since there
are 5 different sized cylinders on the machine.
The 1/2 inch threaded rod holds the teeth into the notches in the end cap.
The springs on the threaded rod keep the moveable arm from swinging around.
The teeth are 5/8 diameter grade 8 bolts with the heads cut down to the
size of the notches. The turnbuckle adjusts the teeth so they are opposite
each other, and engage the notches evenly. The chain is looped around the
bottom of the cylinder to prevent the teeth from walking out of the notches.
The two 2x3 arms need to be close to parallel for the teeth to engage properly.
The long handle extension is a 10 foot length of 4 inch electrical conduit.
It only took about 100 Lbs of force applied to the end to move the nut.
Once the nut moved, I could switch back to the "regular" size spanner
with 5 foot pipe.