pinhole leaks in cylinders

[cartzblown94z]

i seem to have 3 leaks i know of in the gehl i just picked up, one was a hose that was loose, easy, and one bucket cylinder had a pinhole in the base of the cylinder that sprayed hyd fluid out, i welded it and it seems fine now but i see my arm lift cylinders both seem so have a similiar pinhole leak thats not as bad but still needs fixed, is this common on hyd cylinders??

 

[smokey1]

I have seen this on imported Cylinders on the end castings. The welding might cause a stress on the casting and it might crack upon heavy hydraulic stress. It would be a lot safer to replace the casted part. I don't think I would repair one that supported overhead loads. Depending on where the leak is , you might also try to drill out and tap a brass screw into the hole this will also give you a look deaper into the hole. One thing you never want to do is weld on an assembled cylinder..

 

[cartzblown94z]

i took the one off the machine and welded it, it was a very small pinhole leak right near the area thats weld on the end of the cylinder for the pin to go through. im assuming these are OEM cylinders on the machine, just never seen anything like that before.

 

[buckfever]

our jd 555g track loader cracked both bucket cylinders about 4-5 years ago. Took a couple of trys but they have held since. just make sure the fluid is drained and the packing is as far away from weld as posible.

 

[RobVG]

Kind of weird but I have welded small cracks in cylinders without draining them and while they were still leaking. To my great surprise, they held and didn't have to be re-welded. I think the weld burns and vaporizes the fluid as you go.

 

[motrack]

Years ago when I worked for the Gehl dealer we often see hyd cylinders cracked on tube end where the mount was welded on. This was on the old 2500 models and a few years later machines.

I havent looked at a Gehl in years....... dont know it the cylinger design is the same now or not?

 

[cartzblown94z]

i cleaned the crap out of the one i did on the bucket cyl, used a wire brush and brake part cleaner, fixed it, now i have another to fix on the lift arm cyl, they dont seem to be cracks just pinhole leaks in the weld, maybe from years are heavy use, i dont know, the machine came from a blacktop company so i know it was worked good and it has over 5k hours on it, but again for less than 4k i got it and i dont mind repair it to get it up to snuff, just never seen a leak like these.

 

[frogfarmer]

I have seen leaks of that nature on several makes and models. They are usually far and few between. I suspect a porous weld upon assembly and the stress of use opens the holes. Personally I remove the cylinders and disassemble them before trying to repair. I have seen repairs made by owners that were obviously done on the machine without disassembly and some worked.