Leaking swing cylinder

Hello,
I'm very new to owning heavy machinery. Less than a week to be precise.

I bought a very old ihi excavator. It works except for the swing cylinder, it leaks alot.

I'm planning to replace the seals but I'm sure it will take me some time. While I'm working it all out is it possible to still use the machine if I connect the hoses running to that cylinder together.

Alternatively could you remove the hoses for this cylinder at the control valve and plug the ports with something.

This may be a dumb question so let me apologise in advance. I have searched for a couple of days to see if I can get an answer online to no avail. Main problem is I'm not sure what terms I should be searching for.

Any help to point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Model of machine and a serial number would be nice. I would have to familiarize myself with what you have for a swing system before I can give you any input.

Thank you, the model is IS-011S. I don't have the serial number to hand.

Generally speaking I'm wondering if this is a common thing to do?

Good day
It would appear from my interpretation that the cylinder needs to be replaced by a solid link (Bar or similar) and then plug the hoses.
If you pin the swing so the boom is in line with the superstructure you could still use the machine.
Hope that helps
Kind regards
Uffex

I agree with Uffex, if you disconnect the hydraulic hoses to "stop" the hydraulic leaks then the cylinder will be able to float back and forth with little to no resistance. You would have to fabricate some sort of solid link to replace the cylinder otherwise your boom will just swing around uncontrollably.

Hydraulic cylinders seem pretty daunting, but most of the time they are pretty simple. The easiest fix in your case I believe will be repairing the cylinder. If your IHI is set up anything like mine in the swing that cylinder could be torn down on the machine and resealed as long as it didn't need to be bored.

Find a good local hydraulic shop and they can probably put together a seal kit for the cost of a few gallons of oil.

John

Thanks very much for your comments. I think I'll give fixing the leak a go and if I fail I have a back up with the solid link idea.

Much appreciated

You may also contact CES in Ky who is the importer for IHI (now Kato) in the US. They were extremely helpful when I had an IHI mini ex.