[slipshod]

On monday I had a drainage job to do for a customer. Went over to my yard and took the three point off my 4600 and mounted the back-hoe. Drove it over to the shop and greased it, checked the fluids in the tractor, and wiped up some of the excess grease and crap on the tractor. Since the homeowner was not going to be home for a few hours and I had already hauled all the stone to the job site I decided to dig a large stump out of the yard near my shop.
The stump was a very large ash and I dug all the way around it. Just got started loosening it from it's spot. I had the narrow bucket on the hoe and was under one corner of the stump. I curled the bucket in and bent the shaft on the cylander. A new cylander was $475.00 or $174.00 for a new shaft and $30.00 for a new seal. The pins on the cylander were bound up because of the bend in the shaft. I had to put a 4x4 block under the cylander and heat the shaft . After I got it cherry red at the bend I used the hydraulics to get it straight enough to pull the pins. When I got it off the tractor I went to my Deere dealer and got the bad news on cost. Fortunately I got away with the cheaper alternative and only had to replace the shaft and seals. The total cost with the Deere tech doing the repair was under $250.00. Al who has been working for Deere for 35 years has only seen this happen twice. All is well, dug me drainage job yesterday. The home owner is doing the pipe and labor to keep his cost down and I will go back and back fill when he is finished.
By the way, The repair was tested. I finished pulling the stump.

 

[leolav]

Must have really p**sed you off when that happened. It always does. Murphy's law is absolute.

I had on of my machines breakdown right in the middle of a snowstorm this winter. Couldn't get out so I had to use a snow blower to finish the job.

That sucks when you need something that you can't finish the job without.

 

[Live Oak]

Sorry to hear she broke Slip but glad you were able to get it fixed without taking out a second mortgage. That is a pretty odd type of failure. It is too bad that the shaft cannot be straightened and kept as a spare. If it bent once already, don't think I would want to use it again. I have rebuilt several cylinders but don't recall ever seeing one bent under its own power.

 

[GreenMtnMan]

I'm curious. Can these shafts be cut with a sawzall and a bi-metal blade?

 

[slipshod]

cutting

Originally posted by GreenMtnMan
I'm curious. Can these shafts be cut with a sawzall and a bi-metal blade?

Not sure on that, but I know they are hard.

 

[Live Oak]

Did the John Deere guy Al say what he thought could have cause the shaft to bend like that?

 

[slipshod]

Al

He thought bending that shaft was a fluke. I was not doing anything I had not done thousands of times.

 

[Live Oak]

Re: Al

Originally posted by slipshod
He thought bending that shaft was a fluke. I was not doing anything I had not done thousands of times.

Didn't mean to make it sound like you did anything wrong Slip. :thumbsup: I was just curious and had an off the wall thought that before the shaft bent, the spool for that cylinder should have gone into relief. Have you checked to see if the relief valve or all else is functioning properly? Just didn't want to see you bent another shaft is all. Could have been a fluke or just that shafts time to go like Al said.

 

[Chipmaker]

The shafts or rods in cylinders are pretty darnhard. Some are only case hardened, so once you get a few thousanths deep they cuit pretty well with a good blade, but an abrasive cut off wheel works better. Same for the pins that attach the cylinder and such to the frame or boom etc, some are hardened others are not.

I have rebused dozer and tracked excavator buckets and booms for the local excavating contractor for awhile one time and some went easy others were a real pain. I got that job doing the rebush and repining work after his ace mechanic had problems getting the cross pins out and used a cutting torch and really messed things up. I liked ot never have gottem those torch cut pieces out.

The rods in the hydraulic cylinders are some real good steel, lots of them are chromed, and the case hardening usually goes to about .050" at the most. Short of a torch or abrasive cut off wheel hacksaws even with a bi metal blade is gonna have its work cut out and odds are will fail, at least until you get under that casehardened surface. I have found very few that were hardened much more than a few thous'