Assembly lube when rebuilding boom cylinders?

[fastline]

Curious if anyone here uses anything other than hydro oil to aid in assembly of hydro cylinder rebuilds? I usually use a little grease but thought I might ask.

 

[koldsteele]

I like a little Dish soap ...Its pretty slick ...

 

[Nige]

I'd use something heavier but still mineral-oil based, hydraulic oil tends to be a bit thin to stay in place. A bit of 90W EP gear oil if you have it handy, or maybe SAE50 powertrain oil. They're both pretty much the same viscosity.

 

[alrman]

Vasolene - petroleum jelly is my choice

 

[spanner]

Vasolene - petroleum jelly is my choice

Me too . Buying a large tub can get you some funny looks though.

 

[Nige]

Vasolene - petroleum jelly is my choice

Don't use it on radiator core seals though .......

 

[fastline]

Hey, I did want to ask - we are rebuilding boom cylinders on an excavator. Issue came up that because of the way we are doing them, we have no way to fill them because the oil lines are on the bottom the way we are assembling them. As well, we need to extend the cylinders with the machine to reseat them. I am never comfortable with unloaded cylinders with air in them due to erratic motion. Can anyone recommend a method of either purging or if going slow enough, will the cylinders extend decent enough to get them bolted up?

 

[spanner]

I have never had any trouble doing double acting rams this way . The air should bleed out after a couple of full cycles. Be gentle with the controls and move the rams in and out a couple of inches at first and you should be right. As soon as you have them bolted them up, run them fully up and fully down a couple of times. Whichever one has the least resistance will move first so bolt it down first.

 

[Nige]

Hey, I did want to ask - we are rebuilding boom cylinders on an excavator. Issue came up that because of the way we are doing them, we have no way to fill them because the oil lines are on the bottom the way we are assembling them. As well, we need to extend the cylinders with the machine to reseat them. I am never comfortable with unloaded cylinders with air in them due to erratic motion. Can anyone recommend a method of either purging or if going slow enough, will the cylinders extend decent enough to get them bolted up?

When you first operate the controls for the new-installed cylinder, do it with the engine at idle speed and a light touch on the control lever. Also worthwhile filling the hydraulic tank a bit over the full mark as you know the level is going to go down when the cylinder fills, and the last thing you want is your pump cavitating on an tank with a too-low oil level.

Fit the cylinder to the head end first and hook up the lines. With the rod end held in the air off a hoist, forklift truck, etc, put the cylinder through a few complete cycles to fill it with oil. Once it is responding correctly to the controls then you can go for installing the rod-end pin.

 

[EMCNOISNOTANOPT]

Hyperlube
I use it for hydraulic hose assembly too.