John Deere 60 rockshaft cylinder packing update

Working on the rockshaft cylinder of my JD 60. The 3 pt arms would raise but dropped immediately. I pulled the Piston out and the old packings we're intact and didn't look too bad. The only thing that looked odd was that the Piston rod wasn't centered in the bore but I am not familiar with this design. My question is how do you install the new John Deere packing? It is not like the old oring, it has a lip to it and I am not sure which way it should be installed. First pic is the old packing second picture is the new packing the way I currently have it.Thanks,

Pete

Now with the paper washer installed...

It sure looks like you have the vee packing in backwards. Pressurized oil should be able to get under the lip of the packing and force it tighter against the cylinder wall.

ok thanks, I will flip it around, just checking

You may have a blown gasket where the rockshaft cylinder bolts to the housing ?

Mike,

I considered that but the gasket appeared to be intact and my transmission is not picking up oil so I figured it had to be the packings. Now I am not so sure. Could a leaking check valve do that? Hydraulic remote operation works fine. Thanks,

Pete

Could be a check valve ? or even as simple as the 4 o-rings that seal the 2 removable outlet plugs ?

I will try to replace those orings while the powrtol is off. do you have any experience reseating a leaking check valve?

No. I never had to fix anything in those old systems other than the piston seal,o-rings or cyl. gasket. Pretty trouble free units that seemed to hold up when shut off forever unlike many newer units.

For got to add. IIRC another fellow Fred from MO ? had a 60 giving him fits leaking down. Not sure what he ended up with ?
Just because they normally don't give problems does not mean your check valve may be leaking ? or could be as simple as maybe an adjustment to the lever ? JD offered a separate service manual just for those units. I'd get one if you have to dig in deeper. It should have some good trouble shooting guides.

Oh Boy!! A subject that I can give advice on for sure as I have chased my issue all over the place!! Thanks Mike, I lurk on this site from time to time but have been very busy and the old 60 is hanging in there. I even planted 6 acres of sunflowers last spring and pumpkins with it. Etc.

Anyway back to the original post. Your Piston has the o-ring (rubber) and I packing (which looks like leather). The packing slides into a groove cut into the inside of the piston to get the packing to go on the piston only (almost like fitting a piston ring but reverse (on the ring portion) in that start one side of the leather in the grove and pull the other side over the piston as you go). You cannot pull the leather over the piston like you can the o-ring because the leather dosent give much and you will tear it. Look closely at your piston and you will see the groove on the inner diameter inside the machined portion where the o-ring sits above the leather. I don't have a picture to show you or I would post it here. Here is the picture of how things should look when your done.

Also Mike the problems I had with whole rockshaft assembley were: 1) 1 weak checkball spring which allowed flow back from the 45 loader pistons and the loader would not stay up 2) The Gasket would blow out between the rockshaft housing and the piston housing. The fist time was because I didn't have the bolt that holds the 2 together bolted down to 120 ft-lbs. 3) Someone had put washers under the throttle valve in the rockshaft and I was running way over the recommended PSI. I removed several washers and bought it down within spec (I cant remember the spec off the top of my head but its in the back of the operator manual)

I also quit lifting my buddies heavy 7 foot box blade because I was too worried to blow the gasket out again. Went to a pull type system on everythinglow, disks etc so I am not using the 3 point as much. So far so good.

flipped the oring around so the lip should catch the pressurized oil. Is this how everyone thinks it should look?

Also started replacing the packings in the powrtrol plug ports. Boy is that back o-ring fun to get in and out, even with the pipe plug out on the side (or in my case a quick coupler) and 4 different oring picks I struggled for an hour to get just the one done---the front one took about 30 seconds...I do notice though that the plug takes quite a bit more force to get in and out now and since they always seeped oil it was probably time the job was done anyhow.

Look at my picture above with the blown gasket. The pressure
port to the piston is the small hole. When the gasket blows the
port leaks back into the hydraulic system as in my case so you
won?t neccesarily pick up more fluid in your transmission. The
springs that hold the check valves are behind. The 2 big nut
looking covers on the rear of the power troll. They are as easy
to replace as unscrewing the big nut looking covers. You may
need a pick to pull the assembly out. Just pay attention to the
order which everything comes out. JD no longer stocks the
little springs but they can order them from their no longer
stock supplier company that their name eludes me at this
moment. The cost was like $17 bucks per spring.. I didn?t have
a spring checker to measure the spring tension but they
looked mysteriously similar to springs my local hardware store
stocked for a buck or so. You could always pull yours, take it
to a hardware store and eye one up and try it out. You would
be out some time and a little hydraulic fluid or buy the one
through Deere?

When those "o" rings get really bad, they'll allow the coupler to blow out (along with a big squirt of oil). It seems like there's usually an unlucky bloke standing behind the tractor working the lift lever when it happens.

Voice of experience.

Fred,

You've got me good and worried about that rockshaft cylinder gasket. I have one on hand and I replaced it on my B recently and it wasn't too bad. I figure I will get the powrtol and pump back on and see if I have fixed the problem. If not I can drive the tractor over to the barn where I have my shop crane and pull the rockshaft housing. I don't suppose there's anyway to test the gasket while I have the powrtol off? Thanks,

Pete

yes

No there isn?t. You will have to pull the rockshaft housing. That
means pulling in this order: battery/battery box, platform, both
steel hydraulic lines. Use a hoist or cherry picker. While you
have the rockshaft housing off now is a good time to replace
the pto shaft oil seal which is on the inside of the rockshaft
housing