brian falcone
Well-Known Member
our 336 has had an easy life so far. i personally put over 4k hours on it and aside from a few engine fault codes its been a decent machine. its equipt with a long stick and a hyd. thumb. this week i was feeding the crusher loading loose material into the hopper. i notice hyd. oil on the boom and parked the machine. the wiper came out of the piston cap and there was a deep gouge about an inch wide from about three inches from the end of the chrome all the way to the seals in the cap. it had to happen internally because it appeared to continue into the packing. anyway we removed the cylinder and took it to the loacal dealer . they called today and said the rod cannot be reused...obviously ,and its also bent and thats what caused the gouge. also the inside of the cylinder is also damaged and cant be reused. this machine had an issue with the stick creeping in and out on its own when it was purchased and it was noted in the dealer mechs. laptop. i think something came apart inside and caused it but dealer says otherwise. i didnt notice any bends when i took it off and the machine didnt hit anything or work hard. the gouge is at about 2 o clock if youre looking at the cylinder from the front of the machine. also pins are still like new , no wear, well greased. we havent seen the bend only been told what the dealer found. i have put in over 40k hours on various excavators in my career and have never seen or had this happen before. so i ask... what could cause that bend to happen ?
