Hydraulic cylinder

I am rebuilding a hydraulic cylinder, most of the o-rings are rubber and they go one easy, ther are a few flat o-rings that are made of what appears to be some kind of hard plastic, not much give on them. I am afraid I will stretch them too much when installing and they will not retail their original shape and size. Is there a trick to this? What am I missing?
Any advice would be greatley appreciated.
 
Not a lot you can do to put them on without stretching them some. If they don't retain original size and look, putting a hose clamp (protecting the seal from the grooves in clamp with a thin piece of metal) on them and tighten it down will usually get them back in shape. I have done that with a lot of plastic seals and rings. I keep a couple different sizes of clamps around from the air cleaner hose clamps IH went to, with the protective piece in it. You would not believe how many hose clamps lose their tight grip on hoses when those grooves dig into the rubber. IH bought a few engines back in the day due to dirt entering under air cleaner hose clamps. Pre delivery tightening those clamps was critical but they usually needed a few more snugs after a few hours that did not happen. Little off subject here but just throwing that bit out there for those who wonder why IH hose clamps had that extra piece inside of them. Hard to find now days though.
 
They are back up washers for the O rings. They will go on tough. Never tried heating them up in water, might be worth a try.
 
Few minutes in water that is almost to a boil will solve your problem.. They need to be suspended on a wire in the water and not touching the bottom of the pan.
 
I rebuild a lot of cylinders, and the hot water trick does the job just fine on the seals your talking about. Once heated, they usually go on easier of you manually stretch them a bit before putting them on. The trick of using the hose clamp, with something to protect the seal from the ends of the clamp works, but if you've got a piston ring compressor, it works even better.

One thing to make sure of is that the hard seal has shrunk back down to where the back edge is below the surface of the piston before trying to put it in the barrel. If it's not, it will try to jump out, and it's easily damaged if your not careful. I'll often leave the clamp/ring compressor on the piston until it goes into the bore far enough that the seal can't jump out.....basically just like loading a piston in an engine.

Beyond that, as you've seen thus far, it's not rocket science, it just takes a few tricks of the trade to make things easier.

Good luck.
 

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