More equipment woes

[Ax-Man]

Since we are sharing and bonding of sort about our equipment problems as of late. I might as well contribute a little.

This is old news for me. But was it ever a headache to get fixed. I won't talk about the time I lost and a few jobs.

My problem was with our boom truck. It started out as little electrical problem. Got that fixed and was putting it through a test run to make sure I had actually solved the problem.

Extended the boom out all the way and the darn thing wouldn't go back in. I knew the solenoid that trips the hydraulic valve was working I could hear it but the boom was stuck. The only way to get it to go in was to go up and use gravity to force it in. This was not a good thing. It did finally start to work again only about half way in you could tell the boom was binding and was making a hell of a racket inside the boom. This is not a good thing either.

No way was I going to run it like this on a job. With the main extension cylinder inside the main boom there was no way I was going to chance tearing that up. I have been down that road brfore when I first got the truck. I don't even want to know what it would cost today to replace that cylinder not to mention the aggrivation to take it out and put it back in.

So we shut er down and starting making plans on how to take the two section boom apart to see what was causing the problem. This would be a first time repair for me on a piece of equipment like this. The problem was a worn out wear pad on the top of the inner boom had worn thin and came loose with a couple of mounting bolts.

Here are a few pics of taking the boom apart and putting it back together. It really wasn't all that hard. Getting the wear pads and the right hardware was more of a pain in the behind than taking the boom apart and putting it back together. Elliott wasn't sure which pads my truck needed. They sent me kit to replace the remaining pads and some blanks that I could drill and countersink if need be. Most of the pads fit but the attaching hardware was wrong. Had to do some custom work. The pads that keep the boom centered were .020 thousands over 1/2 inch. thickness for my truck. Had to go buy a belt sander and mill them down.


The inner boom came out easy by puilling it with a come along anchored to a tree. Getting it in was easy also to a point. Then we had to use a come along to pull it into the main boom till we reached the point we could run the extension cylinder out and put the pin back in to let the cylinder do the rest.

Even though this was long drawn out frustating and some what expensive affair. It did have it's good side. I know what to look for if I ever buy another Elliott boom or crane. Paying attention to the way the boom looks on the outside tells you a good deal about the inside you can't see.

I ommitted the pics of the taking off the cage and removing the inner slide tube with the cat track system that contains the electric cable and hydraulic lines that level the cage.

I am not saying we did this the right way but it worked for what we had to work with. I am only putting the pics up in case someone ever has to do this to a similar piece of equipment and can see what they are in for.

The dealer wanted a minumum of $ 3000.00 to do this.

 

[lumberjack]

Did you replace the rest of the wear pads while you were at it?

Glad you could save some money DIY

 

[stehansen]

I have a hydraulic guy and I take the ram in to him and his guys can reseal it. I can take it apart, but I wouldn't know where to get the parts from, or how to assemble it properly. Very impressive Ax-man.

 

[Ax-Man]

Sure did LJ, they were all worn pretty thin. I didn't know there were so many in it as this was the first peek inside of this part of the truck. The only ones I didn't replace was the two on the sides of the boom at the rear of the inner boom. Each pad had one seized bolt in it and we couldn't get it out. Recessed Allen head screw type bolts that are counter sunk into the wear pads. I figured it was just best to leave it alone and not screw it up anymore than it was and create more work for us. I did check them out with a square and measured it for thickness on all sides. Those two pads had the least amount of wear and were darn close to being as good as the new ones. Except for the color. The new pads are basically nylon and are snow white. They are just dicolored from the hydraulic leak in the main extension cylinder. All the rest got replaced. Works nice and smooth now and no noise at all. Also helped straighten out that flex in the boom someone made a comment about awhile back when I had a picture of the truck with the boom extended.

Another good thing that came out of this was I was finally able to get that pesky hydraulic leak fixed on the main extension cylinder. I was planning on pulling the ram out of the cylinder while it was easy to get at and repack it. Lucked out on this one. The head of the cylinder needed to be just tightened down. It had back itself off probaly due to vibration and being run in and out all the time. I have been down this road before with this truck pulling the guts out of the main extension cylinder to repack it. Greasy oily dirty messy job to say the least. Getting parts for this cylinder is nightmare from the manufacturer. They only want to sell OEM parts because of liability reasons. If they don't know what it is they won't sell it . They make a big deal out of O rings and rubber seals. Luckly, like Steve I have found a good hydraulic shop that can locate what I need and no hassle.