How to replace oil seal and disasemble rod from mast section?

[widfox65]

I have a leaking oil seal on the hydraulic rod. How do I disconnect the rod from the mast section? With two forks off of the mast, does the mast section need to be supported vertically, doing one side at a time? Does the hydraulic pressure have to be released and drained before this repair takes place? How to release the pressure in cylinder?
thanks

 

[TD24]

1st thing clean up the top there where the3 bolts are.
See I there is any little "ears" of plastic shims jutting out.

If they are, loosen those 3 bolts and take pliers and pull out several of the shims.
Then tighten bolts back up. Try it a few times. If stops leak, done.
If don't, pull some more shims.
That was Clarks way of tightening the packing in there.
Worth a try first.

 

[BillG]

Easiest way is one at a time. And the mast needs to be supported when you remove the cylinder. I usually tie the top of the mast to the overhead guard (FOPS) then operate the tilt until the pin on the yoke at the rod end is loose. Remove the key and pin then operate the tilt collapsing the cylinder, it may be necessary to loosen the yoke clamp screw and turn the rod (using the wrench flats) to remove the pin. Then disconnect the hydraulic lines and the rear pin and remove the cylinder. I have left the barrel in the truck and repacked it that way but clean up and inspection of the barrel is a lot more difficult.

 

[widfox65]

1st thing clean up the top there where the3 bolts are.
See I there is any little "ears" of plastic shims jutting out.

If they are, loosen those 3 bolts and take pliers and pull out several of the shims.
Then tighten bolts back up. Try it a few times. If stops leak, done.
If don't, pull some more shims.
That was Clarks way of tightening the packing in there.
Worth a try first.

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.

 

[widfox65]

Thanks BillG for the information. I will do one at a time, since this is my first time to do this repair. Much appreciated.

 

[Delmer]

Widfox, I'm not sure if it was clear, but those are two completely different ways to go at it.

Td24's way doesn't require anything to be loosened (except the tilt pressure released, and safely blocked), the cap comes loose on the rod when those three bolts are loosened, you pull the shims out, and the cap tightens up the vee packing when you tighten the bolts. If that doesn't work, you can pull the cap up on the rod and add a shim for the top of the vee packing, but hopefully you don't have to go that far.

Only if that fails do you have to think about taking anything else apart.

 

[widfox65]

Okay, here is what I did. Removed the three bolts securing the first plate. Saw a seal around the shaft on the next second plate. Found 3 adjusting bolts. Do I need to turn them towards me, with them in front of me, to tighten the seal? The three adjusting bolts seem to turn relatively hard. I have turned the three adjusting bolts equally about 1/2 turn, so far. The leak still occurs. I have found no shims. Am I missing something?
thanks,

 

[Delmer]

Don't turn those three bolts, they hold pressure on the locking ring, a wire ring inside of a groove in the cylinder that keeps the gland from coming out the end of the cylinder, you can see the ring right by the top bolt in the bottom pic. You'll loosen them if you take the cylinder apart, but not yet.

The outside seal you see it the wiper to keep dirt out of the cylinder, it's not the seals you're looking for. From here, it looks like that round plate with the three holes in it will separate from the rest of the gland. Try working a pry bar in where those rubber fragments are.

 

[widfox65]

Okay, this is where I am now. I see six seals, some of them are different widths as seen in pic. Are there more seals to the rear of shaft?
thanks

 

[Delmer]

Those are the vee seals. They don't have to come out to remove shims. It looks like you have at least one shim bent up/ still sticking to the gland on the right side of this picture. Carefully remove that one, don't scratch the rod at all costs. You may have to cut it with a snips and curl it up to get it off. Then put it all back together and see if the leaking is better. If it still leaks there may be shims still on the bottom of the disk thats to the left of the reddish bushing.

The other side or the next time you take it apart it will be much easier.

 

[widfox65]

What is a gland?
thanks

 

[widfox65]

Can the vee seals become hard and no longer effective?
thanks

 

[Delmer]

What is a gland?
thanks

The gland is the round part that goes inside of the cylinder tube, and has the rod going through the middle of it. In your case it has the three bolts that push against the cylinder tube.

Yes, the vee seals can get hard and inneffective, but in my limited experience, they wear the rubber off of the cloth backing and the cloth won't seal the oil. Your's look relatively new (about 30 years?) and should work fine for you if you have any shims left to remove.

New vee seals are $20 or so, it's just a question if you want to remove the gland and rod, take the piston off the rod, and reassemble with the rest of the parts you ought to replace while you're at it.

 

[widfox65]

I really appreciate this info. This fork truck rehab is getting more involved than I anticipated. I only need it to remove some lawn and garden equipment from the second tier industrial shelving. Any who, I need to get this truck to a operating state. I think I only want to replace what needs to be replaced to stop this leaking of the fluid. Although, I really do not know what should be replaced at this time. Any thoughts?
thanks

 

[Delmer]

Take the shim out and put it back together. Probably a good idea to try to realign those vee seals the way that they were squished together. And don't pull the vee seals out when you do the other side, just remove the shim.

 

[widfox65]

Delmer
I am confused. You have stated in post #10 to remove the shim that is bent up and to the right side of the seals, near the gland. If those seals do not come out, how would I have access to the shim?
thanks

 

[Delmer]

The inside diameter of the shim should be the same as the outside diameter of the seals, and the seals should be recessed inside of the gland when you pull the cover off, I'm not sure how the seals came out like that. Typically the shim is obvious when you take the cover off, and the seals have to be "dug out".


In the first picture in post #9 it looks like there is a bent piece of thin metal on the far right side of the picture. That looks like a shim to me, and it's where it should be, remove that piece.

Alternately, there could be shims stuck to the underside of the disk on the left side of the picture, the outside "ring" of this disk was contacting the outside "ring" of the gland (with shims keeping some small distance between them), while the inside "ring" of this disk was compressing that red bushing and the vee packing. Removing the shim allows the "disk" to push the seals farther down, compressing them more.

 

[widfox65]

Okay, I will have to investigate further with this. The gasket needs to be replaced. In the past , I have purchased a muti- use gasket material. Said to be good for water, gas and oil. Can that be used for a new gasket? Does the thickness matter for the gasket?
thanks

 

[Delmer]

You're trying to remove a little bit of distance to compress those seals some more, so removing the gasket is no problem. Forma gasket, or the tarry gasket sealant, or a cereal box cutout will work fine there. That gasket looks like it's for keeping the dirt out, not the oil in, and the rubber part to cover the gland but that's gone.