Case 580E steering cylinder disassembly

[old and slow]

If you have removed the locking ring or unscrewed the gland nut on any cylinder and can not remove the rod with the gland head do this. Attach a pressure washer to the piston side of cylinder and start it up. Most pressure washer run 1800psi and will hydraulically jack it out. It does not matter that it is water. It goes without saying to point the rod in a direction away from you. We have done cylinders up to 12 inch diameter like that. When it comes apart it spills water not oil oil. If it has a holding valve leave it in till you get it apart, then remove blow out water and spray it with wd 40 displace the water then place in a cup of oil.

 

[melben]

So I read through this thread while trying to figure out how to tear my steering cylinder apart on my Case 580SE. So since it was still a learning experience I figured I would add a few things for some others that may help.

First the things not included in the cylinder rebuild kit.
1. Outer Spiral snap ring is not included.
2. Teflon spacer between inner and outer snap ring

So from here I removed the outer snap ring tried to tap on the gland and it didn't budge. Afraid that I would ruin the gland from beating on it so like all things I improvise and made a tool for pressing the gland in the 1" that the manual says which found out is not critical you just need to reach the snap ring. To make the tool I cut a 3/4" black iron pipe and a 3/4" to 1" reducer in half length wise. Then welded one half of the pipe and half of the reducer together to make two sides. Then placed a spacer between the black iron pipe and the piston rod and held the two halves together with a hose clamp. loaded it in the cheap press that i have and pumped it up. I am glad that I did this because it took about 1,000lb of pressure before it started to move. Then removed my homemade tool and gingerly hooked under just the plastic spacer with a pick and worked it out of the hole then removed the inner snap ring that was hidden by the spacer. Finally the fun part pulling the piston rod from the cylinder. For this I used two ratchet straps one to fix the cylinder from moving and one on the end of the piston rod. Then proceeded to pull on it until I couldn't crank it anymore then tapped on the tie rod clamp until it finally came out. When tearing the piston down one thing that i was surprised me was after removing the rod nut the piston is actually screwed onto the end of the piston rod no locktite was on my piston nut or piston. In addition the manual says the rod nut should be re-torqued to 110 to 130 ft.lb That was my fun experience hopefully it helps some of you....

 

[melben]

That piston thread and rod and nut are 3/8 NF iirc, 110-130 ft.lb seems quite extreme to me, torque it to that and you will have pieces, 30-40 ft.lb with a spot of loctite will be sufficient. Doubt if I ever even torqued one. Where did you get that torque figure, that sounds about right for a 9/16 diameter bolt.