Ok, this probably not your usual d-iy post...
..I have a small mini-digger and a couple of the rams are leaking through the seals and so is most of the control valve bank (where the levers are). Has anyone had any experience with rebuilding these?
It'd be nice if it was just like replacing brake seals on a car but something tells me it might be different.
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I've always taken them off and bunged 'em at the specialist hydraulic ram place on the local trading estate - most such places have them. Last one was off a minibus tail-lift - the makers wanted to replace the entire tail-lift because they no longer made that one. £20 compared to over a thousand.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:
What he says. I've rebuilt one or two, but if a local specialist can do it cheaply it's one hassle less.
Piece of cake. Rebuilding valves and rams is worthwhile, making up hoses isn't -- and you're probably dealing with the same parts supplier for both.
(Screw-together hose fittings cost much more than swaged fittings+labour)
Best option though is to find an industrial hydraulics fitter with a boxful of surplus valves. Most of my hydraulic and pneumatic kit came out of the backs of vans in pub carparks.
Replacing the seals in the rams is usually straightforward and cheap, as you say like replacing brake seals except they are multipart. The leak you see is the gland seal but the internal piston seal may be leaking also.
The leaks at the ends of the spool valves probably indicate wear in the spools, this will mean replacing the leaking slices or whole block.
AJH
One problem I might have is that I can't unscrew the hoses from the ram without damaging them so I'd be looking at new hoses too. I've seen control valves advertised and they're about 100 pounds each.
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