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Weird hydraulic cylinder parts identification

cj7jeep81

Well-known member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
660
Messages
65
Trying to help a customer of mine (I do machine work), and he is trying to find some parts for an old cylinder from I believe a 1970's truck with a dump/lift bed. The truck has a couple of cylinders with these spring steel cupped/slotted washers. Basically there are supposed to be 2 at the end of each cylinder, and they will expand out under hydraulic pressure and put pressure on a fiber cup to seal. The truck had these, but at some point in the past the other 4 were lost for a later stage. So the bed will lift up partially, but once it gets to this stage it just leaks out oil. He went to a hydraulic shop, and they hadn't seen them before.
 

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Tell him to go to a different hydraulic shop.
What's he need? The seals, or the cup and seal?
 
Unfortunately we are in a pretty rural area, he went to one about an hour away (although I'm sure there are others). He was able to source the fiber cups?, but not teh metal part.
 
What do you mean they were lost for a later stage?
 
AKnate said:
What do you mean they were lost for a later stage?
Click to expand...
The way it was explained to me is its a two stage hydraulic cylinder to lift the bed. When the guy bought the truck, they only partially lifted, and it lifted fine. However, later found out that when they tried to lift to max, it wouldn't go. There were two pairs of the fiber cups and slotted washers/springs. The larger set was complete (two cups, 2 washers each) so they sealed properly and worked. The smaller set had the cups, but the slotted washers/springs were not there (someone had tossed in a flat washer to we guess try to push out/seal that didn't work). So the ones pictured are for the first stage, and work. But the smaller ones are missing. So if I can figure out what they are called and a place that sells them, I should be able to guess close enough at the dimensions.
 
Ok
Let’s back up.
Is this a telescoping cylinder? Sounds like it is.
Who made it? Brand. Should have a tag on it. Or who made the hoist. Again, should be a tag.
 
IH Man said:
Ok
Let’s back up.
Is this a telescoping cylinder? Sounds like it is.
Who made it? Brand. Should have a tag on it. Or who made the hoist. Again, should be a tag.
Click to expand...
I guess so (I haven't seen the cylinder, just was described to me and I saw the washers/fiber cups). I can check with him tomorrow if there were any brands/tags. I know he said it was a 1970 or 71 international truck, so hard to say if there is still any identification on them.
 
cj7jeep81 said:
I guess so (I haven't seen the cylinder, just was described to me and I saw the washers/fiber cups). I can check with him tomorrow if there were any brands/tags. I know he said it was a 1970 or 71 international truck, so hard to say if there is still any identification on them.
Click to expand...
The tags are metal and typically welded on. They should be there.

Year of the truck isn’t really relevant. The hoist could be the same age. Could be 10 years newer. Could have come off an older truck that it replaced. No telling.
 
IH Man said:
The tags are metal and typically welded on. They should be there.

Year of the truck isn’t really relevant. The hoist could be the same age. Could be 10 years newer. Could have come off an older truck that it replaced. No telling.
Click to expand...
Thanks, will give him a call in the morning. He can rebuild any part on a dozer/excavator/etc, but the internet and smart phones are not his thing. Guy is an incredible wealth of knowledge, but computers aren't in that list.
 
Actually didn't catch one of the pics he sent did have Edbro FM2L written on it, and google says that's a hydraulic company in England, so assuming that was on it (but I'll double check with him).
 
Id think any decent hydraulic shop could source parts or source/make something that would work.

Get nervous when you go see the expert and he goes... "huh... that's interesting...., never seen it done like that before..."
 
AKnate said:
Id think any decent hydraulic shop could source parts or source/make something that would work.

Get nervous when you go see the expert and he goes... "huh... that's interesting...., never seen it done like that before..."
Click to expand...
Yeah, he rebuilds the vast majority of the cylinders he does himself, and has never seen one like this himself (he's been doing this for 50 years or so). Shop he usually uses for stuff bigger than he wants to mess with it hadn't seen it either.
 
Found a company in Poland that had an exploded diagram of a similar cylinder, but no washers. Looking at the diagram though it looks like the spring washers are only on the first 2 stages, and not the third. When it was torn down, we found that the seal cup looked different on the third stage, and someone had most likely drilled a hole in it that was a bit undersized, so the cup probably didn't sit down all the way to actually seal. He was able to buy new cups, but they didn't have holes in them. Outside is tapered, so didn't want to hold in the chuck on the lathe as I was afraid I'd damage the sealing surface. Ended up 3d printing some bushings that fit inside, and made some punches out of scrap 1.25" cold rolled. Seemed to work out pretty well, so hopefully this can fix it up. Should have drilled a through hole in the punch to make it easier to get the slug out, but only had 2 of each size to do so not a big deal.

cup.jpg
bushing.jpg
punch.jpg
punching.jpg
done.jpg
 
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