Tilt Cylinder Rebuild

[JD8875]

My 20Z 953 recently blew a seal in the cylinder head and started leaking oil horribly... Pulled it off and took to my local hydraulic shop I use all the time for hoses. Dropped it off and they said "no problem we'll order seals and have it ready in a couple of days." A week later I picked it up and got the bill for $2026.33!!! I've rebuilt several cylinders myself and would have done this one as well if it wasn't for the horror stories of getting the ungodly tight gland nut off. Does this price seem outrageous to anyone else??? The seal kit runs about $160-200. They honed the bore and polished the rod as well but damn that seems steep.

Opinions???

John

 

[Jonas302]

I would sure be asking for a breakdown of pricing and explanation why it cost that much

 

[Junkyard]

For a cylinder that size I would call that outrageous. I've had rush jobs done on IMT tilt cylinders that are 8' long and they weren't much more than that. In that price was overnight charges on seals as well as their $160 an hour expedited rate.

If they encountered some difficulty in disassembly I could see some extra but dang I can't see it being that high! Get a breakdown, maybe it'll make sense. I doubt it'll make 2 G's worth but ya never know.

 

[Welder Dave]

I had both tilt cylinders done on my 931B and it was around $1750 which included re-chroming the shafts so I'm wondering if they had to repair the shaft instead of just polishing it.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Yup.. Re-chrome.. instead of polish.. shipping weight & cost.
& if they say its labor to polish, ask them what it would have been if it HAD BEEN re-chromed..[done right]
"Basically", polishing is REMOVING material to make it smooth.. instead of ADDING material to make it smooth..{chrome}
Ask for a break-down of the parts & labor.. & you'll know better "next time"..
Let me just say that, if it took that much labor to make it smooth,[get the scratches out] what are the chances its gonna last.?? I would be doing a GOOD inspection of the chrome.
Granted, you cant see into the cylinder but a break down in parts & labor will tell you what other pieces were replaced..
I hate stories like this..
& why the hell didn't they call you??

 

[JD8875]

I thought it seemed outrageous myself, but had to pay it to get my cylinder back. Waiting on call back about breakdown. The receipt just said "Polish". I know the rod wasn't beat up, damaged, or bent. "Next Time" I'll do it myself. At that rate I could have tore it down myself, bought some tools, and f$#&@d some things up, bought new parts and had my machine back up the next day. I love these guys for hoses as they are cheaper than the local CAT dealer and carry odd metric fittings in stock, but I think this was a little out of their normal scope of work. I looked around when I was there to pick it up as I had to go into the shop to help load it and didn't see a hone bigger than 4", I've heard CAT uses a hydraulic torque multiplier to break cylinders down which I didn't see there either. I'm thinking they farmed out breaking it down, tacked a little on for dealing with it, and then just resealed it in their shop for me. I won't be going back to there for a cylinder repair.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions that I got screwed and didn't even get dinner....
John

 

[td25c]

I hate stories like this..
& why the hell didn't they call you??

Absolutely ! Call the customer & let them make the decision ......

That bill was over the top without contacting the customer .

One more reason to do your own cylinder work .

 

[Welder Dave]

Well, I thought my bill was outrageous too but my cylinders are like new now. If the shop is generally decent with prices I'm betting it needed more done that you would have thought. I thought my cylinder rods were in good shape too but they said they were in pretty bad shop. Nobody has confirmed you got screwed because no one on here knows what all was done. I think even with re-chroming they are still polished somewhat. I never realized how expensive Cat cylinders are. I bet a new cylinder for your machine is triple what your repair cost was.

 

[mikebramel]

$2000 for one cylinder.... should have came with a new rod and piston for that price lol

 

[old and slow]

Well, I thought my bill was outrageous too but my cylinders are like new now. If the shop is generally decent with prices I'm betting it needed more done that you would have thought. I thought my cylinder rods were in good shape too but they said they were in pretty bad shop. Nobody has confirmed you got screwed because no one on here knows what all was done. I think even with re-chroming they are still polished somewhat. I never realized how expensive Cat cylinders are. I bet a new cylinder for your machine is triple what your repair cost was.

The rods are honed on a lathe type tool to produce a cross hatch, same reason the cylinder is honed it gives a place for micro amounts of oil to lubricate the seals. New chrome rods have the cross hatch on it, very hard to see. Just like honing a engine when you rebuild it.

 

[Bls repair]

I would call cat and see what a cat exchange or new would be for comparison.

 

[kshansen]

Well I just looked on SIS for a tilt ram for a 20Z, not sure of your full s/n, and the price for a reman rod is about $850 plus a core charge but if your rod was not totally trashed it should be acceptable. So $2,000 does sound a bit high if all they did was "polish rod and quick hone" the barrel and stick in new seals.

Went back to SIS and checked what a new cylinder part number 1U0539 that is a tilt for at least some 20Z machines would list for and it came up as about $2,600.00 and they show at least one in stock in York Pa.
So at that price I would have to say paying $2,000 for a reseal job is a bit high!

 

[Dave Neubert]

A OR rod is 926.00

 

[kshansen]

A OR rod is 926.00

The reman rod price I mentioned in post #12 is what I see when I check price on SIS it maybe a bit lower as my SIS account is the one I can still access that was from the place I retired from. It may be lower as the company I worked for is a major international account for Cat.

I still feel a $2,000.00 bill for a resealing is high even if they did hone barrel and polish shaft!

 

[bam1968]

I feel your pain JD8875. Unfortunately it's not just Cat. I have a Komatsu D65 EX-15 that we have been chasing a leak on a lift cylinder for about 6 months. It started where a fitting is welded to the barrell and eventually started cracking up the barrel. So a couple months ago it started leaking again. I called local Komatsu dealer the parts guy said a new barrel was $3200.00 but he would look for a used one and call me back. He called me back and found a used one for $1000.00. I said I take my chances with the used one. We agreed that I would take mine off and take it to there shop and they would swap barrels along with new seals. 6 days later they called and said it was ready to be picked up. I went over and loaded it up. The guy that helped me load it was the one who did the work and said everything came apart and went back together easy. Then I pulled around and went in to pay my bill. That's when things went south. The invoice said $2970.00. I wrote the check out and said I was wondering why the shop was only half full of machines. Now I see why. And for what it's worth if I'm going to be paying Caterpillar prices then they will be going into a Caterpillar at least they have some resale value. I'm sure he could care less about what I said but it made me feel better. And yes I called the Cat sales rep the very next day!!!!