Bantam S-628 Telecruiser upper extend cylinder seal replacement

I am looking for information on how to remove the head gland from the upper boom extend cylinder on a Bantam Telecruiser. I removed the the set screw on the thread ring and successfully removed it. Next up is the head gland. I looked at the drawing in the maintenance manual and I don't see any other set screws or pins. I made a spanner and have got the head gland to turn about 1/2 inch around. It's not getting loose and I am afraid I may have buggered the threads up if there is a pin in there. Back story is I am 62 and my eyesight isn't what it used to be when I was 22. I looked at the location where the set screw in the thread ring met the head gland and it looked like it had just marked the aluminum. Now I want to know if I missed something. Am I actually looking at the end of a pin that needs to be pulled out so I DON"T SCREW UP THE THREADS? If so, I just made the job harder. If this is the case how, in a perfect world, would this pin have been removed. OR do I just have a really stuck head gland and I need to continue to persuade it. I really don't want to screw this up. I need the crane.

Will
Any info. would be GREATLY appreciated.

Pics. might help if you can post them.

I'll take some later this morning.

The previous pictures show the set screw indention, the head gland, and the cylinder end. I made a spanner to insert into two of the opposing holes. The set screw indention is where I thought a pin might be. After looking at close ups I now don't believe that is the case. It is just a mark caused by the set screw. There are no other visible mechanical fasteners in the barrel of the cylinder. The seal, located on the inside of the head gland, is in lots of little pieces. Am I missing something or is this just really really tight?

Hate to put this here, have you tried the OTHER direction? Being as Gland retainer, could it be reverse threaded? And on the face photo with the set screw "O", is than a ground down pin head to the right about half the length of the exposed in photo retainer face?

All questions are good questions. I did righty loosey but I couldn't get it to move any farther. I made witness marks on the barrel and the gland to judge movement. I couldn't get it to move any in the clockwise direction. It moved about 1/2 inch in the counter clockwise direction before I stopped. In regards to the possible ground pin, the answer is I don't know. I saw that but if they put a pin in and ground the surface then how do you remove it. In the maintenance manual for the Bantam crane they also don't reference any ground pins or reverse threads. One more questions. I am assuming the gland has to come out to get to the piston seals. Otherwise there would be nothing to stop the ram from exiting the cylinder at the end of the stroke. Any thoughts

Hate to say it, a Hydraulics Shop with a Cylinder Bench.

I know nothing about this particular machine. But having the word crane makes me wonder if there is a holding valve on this cylinder. If that's the case then there is pressure inside the barrel and that can make the gland nut hard to turn. You have to carefully remove the holding valve to relieve the pressure. Also I have had good luck with having a helper hitting the barrel where the threads are with a dead blow. While trying to turn gland nut.

There was a hold valve on the cylinder and that had been removed. I moved from a hammer, tapping on the spanner wrench, to a 4 foot cheater bar to which I could apply constant pressure. It was very very tight, but it did move very slowly. The cheater bar did the trick. The tightness was do to the large o-ring and the fact that it probably has only been removed once in its' life time. I know it has been removed once because the dinged up aluminum was not from me. I started with that. It also looks like some one started with a pipe wrench. Anyway, if someone in the future is working on a Bantam Telekruiser this is what the head gland looks like. You will need to remove the set screw on the Threaded ring on the end first. Then remove the threaded wring with a spanner. Then the head gland. There are no pins or set screws. All the threads are normal. None are left handed. You will need to make a special spanner wrench that engaged two holes at once. That did the trick.
Thanks for the help guys!! I'll post a picture of the spanner in a bit. It isn't pretty, but it worked.

At least NO galled threads!!

Amen to that. The advantage to the cheater bar is that you could feel the gland move as it loosened and it was smooth. Not rough like when you would be destroying threads. Here is a picture of the spanner I built. The back half out of the picture allows a long bar to be inserted. The studs were made out of 1/2 inch grade 5 bolts. I chucked them in a lathe and turned the studs down to 1/4 inch to fit the holes in the gland. Not pretty but it worked well. You wold screw the studs in to lock the spanner on. Turn the gland, then screw the threads out for another bite.

Necessity
The mother of invention!!

Actually I am very impressed!

Do you have a plasma or O/A table for cutting the handle? Some fabrication skills can be extremely helpful when you're fixing equipment by yourself.

Yes on the plasma table. My son bought the first version of a plasmacam a couple of years ago off craigs list. While it was an older unit it had never been used. He got a great deal and I was thrilled. We have a hypertherm for the plasma cutter. I have to admit, I like old machine tools and am a sucker from broken things I can use and fix. New machine tools are usually out of my price range. We lucked out on the plasmacam.

So it turns out everything is not completely done. I carefully removed the 20 foot ram from the cylinder bore. At the bottom of the ram there is a nut. The manual says there is one set screw holding it in place. Look for two because there is more than one. Remove the nut and then you are at the piston assembly itself. It has two actual steel piston rings one it. On mine one is loose and expandable and the other one is tight. I am assuming the tight one needs to be freed up. I don't want to break it because I am pretty sure I can't get a replacement unless I make it myself so kid gloves on that one. You can tap the piston off with a plastic mallet or soft piece of wood. There is an o ring on the inside of the piston and another ring of some type on the outside, between the piston rings. Then a spacer ring that is about 8 inches long comes off and the ram is clean. You can then remove the head gland and thread ring. You can see in the picture the condition of the seal. Probably why it was just DUMPING oil out when you hit the lever. Now to source seals and o-ring and reinstall everything.

The steel piston rings may be for alignment to keep the piston centered. I don't think they'd be for sealing under hyd. pressure.