To35 Lift Piston

I continue to have problems with my hydraulics. It will not lift a 5' shredder. I have replaced the relief valve and now I am replacing the lift piston. My piston is 2 1/2" with three metal rings. When operating there was a lot of fluid flowing from the top. The cylinder looks good. The old piston is scared badly with groves like it had no lubrication. How does that happen?
 
The cylinder looks good, meaning you looked for ocean waves and saw none? or you just glanced at it?
Broken rings? Stuck broken rings? Thin oil?
 
The scaring comes from chunks of metal getting picked up from the sump, passing through the pump and valve, getting lodged beside the piston.

From there the chewing up of the cylinder wall begins, releasing more metal...

Unless someone replaced the cylinder and didn't replace the piston, chances are the the cylinder is going to be equally bad.

The seal surface of the cylinder is more important than the piston skirt.

Be sure to clean the sump while you have it apart. The only way to really get it clean is to remove the pump, wipe and flush as best you can. Now would be a good time to disassemble the pump, control valve, everything hydraulically related, clean and inspect thoroughly!
 
Out of curiosity has anyone swapped out the piston for a Ford style with the Rubber O ring and flat ring setup? I recall an NAA that I had used would hold up a brush hog for a very long time after it had been turned off. Just wondering.
 
Tom, I've wondered if that would work, never tried it.

Seems the rubber seal would be a lot easier on the cylinder walls too!
 

I recall that was done quite a bit on the TEA series with success. Don't know why it wouldn't work on another model - assuming the size of O-ring is the same, or you can get the size you need at least.
 
Dave, I just went through the same thing on my 1955 TO-35. Piston and rings were scarred pretty badly and there were some pretty big scratches inside the cylinder. I was able to have a machine shop hone my cylinder which cleaned up the scratches pretty good, I went with a new three ring piston and rings. She now lifts and holds anything no problem, when you shut the tractor off it takes about a full minute for the lift to sink down with my grandfather's two row Dearborn plow attached. With nothing on the lift the arms will stay up for hours.

I still have a bit of oil drooling out of the cylinder, probably because of the scratches and the slightly increased inside diameter from honing. I think the Ford NAA piston would seal better in my situation, parts suppliers list it as an alternate for this tractor. In any event I am quite happy with the repair. Tip: when reassembling, make sure that your position and draft control levers have full travel before you reinstall the lift cover. It is possible to reassemble with the linkage not correctly positioned and have the levers with only half travel or stuck in one position, meaning you have to do the job all over again. Yeah, learned that lesson the hard way! :oops:
 

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