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Sky track 7038 Boom Cylinder repack?

Started by Old Greenhorn, April 08, 2023, 08:47:11 PM

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Old Greenhorn

Does anybody have any experience removing and repacking/rebuilding the main boom cylinder on a Sky Trak 7038? No real idea here how to get this thing out safely and easily but we have a good leak and it needs fixing. Actually, done the best way, I see no way this will be easy. Looks like we have to take the boom apart? 
 Just getting into it, a 'new to us' machine. She's a dandy though. :)
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Southside

Got any pictures?  I had to do the one on my Lull so I rested the forks on a big mulch pile which gave me room to work under the boom, then used my excavator to carefully remove and reinstall the cylinder.  
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

thecfarm

Must be a youtube on it.
Just make sure they know what they are doing.  :(   ;)
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Old Greenhorn

Ray, good point. I took a quick look and didn't find any, but I didn't scour videos to see if the details might be hidden in one.

 SS, not yet, I jsut have this one I shot yesterday before I knew the cylinder had a leak.

 

 The cylinder is inside the boom. I have not crawled around on this thing yet, maybe tomorrow or Monday for sure. Looks like we may have to disassemble the boom. Gonna go at this one carefully.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Old Greenhorn

I did find an illustrated parts manual online. It appears the cylinder can be slid out the back of the boom, but I think the boom has to be removed from the machine and partly extended to allow access to the anchor  pins. I will have to do some climbing and moving the boom around to see what we might get away with. It's a heavy boom so we have to be careful.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

newoodguy78

I can't offer exact pointers on that machine. Been around a few different makes and I'd be surprised if the boom had to be disassembled. I hope for your sake it doesn't. Look it over good there's probably access to the pin on the fork end of the boom somehow. Might have to telescope it a bit to get things lined up.

Took one out of a JCB about that size, wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was dreading it would be ended up removing and reinstalling by myself. Wasn't fun but can be done. Put the mast on a dirt pile to level it up. Disconnected the lines,removed the pins then used a backhoe to slip it out the back.

Just be careful that sucker is heavy,and everything is slippery. I much prefer slings over a chain for lifting those big cylinders. They bite and hold better in my opinion.
Keep in mind as you're doing it any aggravation is well worth it on that job. Those types of machines are so handy to have,unlimited ways to make things easier,faster and safer with one around.

Old Greenhorn

Well yeah, I know how handy this is gonna be, between the lift height and the all wheel steering I am reservedly excited ;D. Which is why it jumped up to number 2 in my priority list. It only just occurred to me I may be able to lift wood from the mill up to the the shop ground level without doing the 3/8 mile drive around and up the hill. That would be pretty huge turning a 15 minute loop into 2 minutes.
In general from what I see so far, I think you are largely correct in your summary. The one thing in question so far is the boom pivot pin, which I think is in the way of cylinder removal. Possibly it could come out the from the front if we can get the hydraulic lines off and the pins out. I will need to do an inspection to dope this out. I was very glad to see it wasn't a compound cylinder, but I don't think they use these in heavy equipment anyway, just a fear I had.
We have a fielders choice of machines available to assist with the removal, so that's not an issue. We'll probably use a nimble little excavator having 4 sizes to choose from. The big question is how, and so far this has helped me get my head in the game. So thanks everyone... to be continued.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Oliver05262

One of the contractors I do work for has a Lull, 744 I think. It had a leak on the cylinder packing at the rod end. I thought we'd have to pull the cylinder out, but the retired guy who looked at it just had me remove the fork frame so he could get access to the rod end of the cyl. He removed the retaining nut and pulled the boom out enough to get the rod free of the boom. He then removed the head from the cylinder, which took a bit of effort. All the problem parts causing the leak were now easy to replace. His part of the job only took about a half day. My part was putting the fork frame and forks back on after he got done. I think he'd done it before😀
Oliver Durand
"You can't do wrong by doing good"
It's OK to cry.
I never did say goodby to my invisible friend.
"I woke up still not dead again today" Willy
Don't use force-get a bigger hammer.

Ljohnsaw

OGH,
You're talking about the boom extension ram?  I noticed the boom lift ram on the right side was weeping.  I've done that one on my 9038. I need to do the left one (between the boom and cab) now that it is leaking a bunch.

On the lift rams, I set the forks up on a hill so the cylinder was leaning uphill.  Then I supported it with ratchet straps so I could pull the top pin.  I ejected it with the machines hydraulics, catching oil in a bucket while supporting the chrome rod with cloth ratchet straps.  That rod by it's self was VERY heavy.  I can't imagine how heavy the boom entire cylinder would be.  I just have a simple operator's manual for 7038/8038/9038 so it doesn't show that detail

When you do this, also look at the Teflon wear pads to see if they are still good.  Might need to replace those while you are at it.  There are 3 types and a lot of them.  You need 4 each of two types and 22 of a third.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

caveman

Tom, you mentioned that you found an illustrated parts manual online.  After we bought the JCB 506C telehandler a few months ago, we found a digital repair manual online.  It cost us $25 but has been very helpful to have around.  We printed out the pages on the hydraulic system and the parts about repacking the cylinders so we would have it handy while working on it.

If your manual is only for parts, it may be beneficial to find a repair manual.
Caveman

Old Greenhorn

So far the only repair manual I have found they want $300 for, so I will keep looking. ;D
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Don P

Be careful, I guess they know I'm desperate and tired of looking, I see more sketchy hits and I locked up one computer trying to download a parts manual. Look at the web address.

That is good to know @Oliver05262 my partner's 644 needs doing, I've been dreading it but we've done so many recently might as well keep on the roll :D.

chevytaHOE5674

Never worked on that exact model but I would be shocked if the boom needs to be removed of disassembled to repair the extension cylinder. There is usually an access hole to get the pins and hoses removed.

Old Greenhorn

I did a little poking around it today, nothing about this cylinder looks easy. I tried to start it so I could run the boom out, but it cranked slow and I didn't want to kill the battery. I don't know the starting procedure on this, can't read any of the switch labels, the ones that are there, anyway, so I figured I'd wait until Bill was around. He was off doing family stuff today.
 More news when it happens.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

scsmith42

I haven't done a telehandler but last year we rebuilt the extension cylinder on a 25 ton crane.  Although the bottom portion of the mast stayed attached to the crane, we had to remove the rest of the mast extension portions in order to remove the cylinder.  We used a large forklift and a crane mounted to the mechanic's truck to do the work.

Not something that I would look forward to...
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Old Greenhorn

The only thing I am CERTAIN of is that I (we) are NOT looking forward to this in any shape, manner, or form. :D >:( ;D
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Remle

 JLG Skytrak 7038 Telehandler Parts Catalog Manual PN 8990084-001

Ebay link deleted by Admin,  refer to posting rules of such links
but link was forwarded to OGH 

Shoot him an offer..

Old Greenhorn

Thanks Remle, I did get the link. The parts manual I did find free on the internet and have spent some time with it, the shop manul or operators manual woul be nice to find. The only shop manual I find is 300 bucks, we'll think on that a bit. Bill tells me he got one book with it, but he didn't even check to see which one it is. I got the mill back together today, so I'll be making some lumber first, maybe after the sawing project we'll start to get into it.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Old Greenhorn

Well, the rai finally stopped for a few hours today and we got into it a little. It's a pretty big (and long) cylinder. We found a way we can knock the rear pin out and the front pin out but not in the same positions, which means you knock one out, then need to extend the boom a ways if you want to knock the other out. The gland is on the lower end of the cylinder and buried inside the boom. There is not much working room in there and a bunch of hose management stuff will have to be removed to get a gland spanner socket in there. We would have to make the socket I think. I cant think of a conventional tool that would do it. There is a big Tee bushing top on the rod end that precludes a socket going on over the rod. Even if we could get in there and get the gland off, we would have to pull the rod out the back end and its a big rod, maybe 3" dia. by 12' long?
 We looked at every approach we could think of and each one has it's 'challenges' that may be show stoppers after we are well into it.
 Bottom line is, we really need that shop service manual to do it right. All we did today was pull inspection covers and move things around to explore ideas. It is leaking like a sieve for sure. (It is also a very cool machine.)
 I have found some manual sources, but I get a bad feeling with some of these sites, like they are selling snake oil. None of them give any info about the manuals they are selling. I'd be happy with 'number of pages' because a shop manual with 150 pages is not a real shop manual and surely not worth 300 bucks. I did find one site called 'DIY Repair Manuals' that lists it and they have an actual phone number, so I will call them tomorrow to confirm what we are buying. We don't mind the cost at all, just want to make sure we get what we pay for. We are pretty sure there is a 'trick' to doing this repair and it will still have a lot of heavy, ugly, tricky work but at least we won't have to try all the methods that don't work, before we find 'the trick'. While I work on this, bill is trying to get the right seal kits on order. We finally found the serial number today. ;D 

 Again, if anybody has done this, or knows a reliable suppliers of manuals, I would appreciate the input. At best, this is a nasty un-fun job but we think it will be worth it. After watching what Jake was doing with his last weekend, I can't wait to jump in the seat on this one. :)
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Don P

On the 644 Lull they are calling it a 500 lb cylinder. Watch fingers and hands in there.
If you click on a big thing that says "I am not a robot"(not a normal recaptcha one) on one of those sites you will be the owner of a non-working computer.

Southside

I would not attempt to reassemble it with the cylinder still on the machine. The shop I go to has sets of support rollers that support the rod and cylinder at each correct height so when pushing the gland back in you aren't applying a ton of off set leverage to the seals and wipers before the cap is set back on. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

Peter Drouin

Sometimes it's best to get a good man with a service truck who has all the tools to do the job and know how. He will do the job in half the time. While you can make lumber and $$.
If you do it wrong, you might have to do it 2 times to get it right.
I have done that, made more $$ running the saw mill to pay him and me that day. And for an LLC it's all a right off.
I let the trades do their thing and I do mine. Unless it's a simple thing.
Only thing I want to know all about is the mill, to be one with it. ;D 
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

barbender

 I'm with Peter, let someone that does it daily and is set up for it fight those things. 

 I have a mechanic friend who is missing a finger thanks to a heavy cylinder bumping it during installation.
Too many irons in the fire

Old Greenhorn

Peter, if 'that guy' were available around here we would call him. In fact Bill may know one guy and is working on that this week. But those guys are mostly tied up with regulars and the guy Bill knows has a full time gig with a dealer, so does a little work on the side, provided it is not the same brand as his full time gig, which this is not.

 SS what you suggest would be best, but I think to do that we would have to take the whole boom apart, a huge undertaking. I don't want to do anything before we get that manual. Knowledge is not only power, it is money in your pocket. ;D
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Old Greenhorn

Update: I found and ordered the full shop manual after calling and confirming it was no scam. 300 bucks, well worth it if it's aa full manual, of course.
 We'll hang tight until it comes and hopefully it will lift the curtain of confusion from our eyes. :D ;D Well, some of it anyway.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

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