[QUOTE="This sounds to me, and bear with me, like you're piston(s) is/are bypassing enough to put your cylinders into displacement mode, in other words the piston packing is still leaking a little, so the rod packing takes all the pressure, and it will be higher than normal due to the small size of the rod, which is acting as the cylinder piston. Still going with that assumption and the fact you said one old piston seal was broken, it probably settled less at first because the broken seal had the cylinders acting in displacement mode basically all the time.[/QUOTE]
interesting theory.
so correlated side note: when i installed the tilt pistons, they were really hard to get out and get back in. BUT when i installed the lift pistons, the ones in question, they came out super easy (by hand, no tools required) and went went back in super easy. i was really surprised.
a loose fit would create the effect you are referring to i believe.
so i bought this machine used, in Miami (my first mistake), where the cubans here are well known for jerry rigging everything to save a few dollars. the drive joystick is installed backwards on it. someone working on it didnt know what they were doing.
the oil seals on the lift arms had been replaced already, so someone before me already had had the lift cylinders apart before i bought it. all the main oil seal that keeps oil from leaking past the piston was not spec, it was a different color than what CAT supplied. and one was broken in half.
im wondering if someone didnt swap out damaged lift pistons in this machine for some other wrong size lift piston and call it a day?
is that even possible?
on the other hand, both of the lift pistons were loose like this. and this is just me guessing why the lift pistons would be not tight. i bought the new lift seal kit directly from Cat. and the other rings and seals appeared all to be the same as the ones i was replacing.
maybe there are size specs i can look up, and then measure the diameters on the lift piston parts i have and double check to make sure i have the right piston installed.
why else would a piston be loose like that right after a rebuild?