3CX rams and seals.

[Scooby]

Elementary question I know but my Project 8 3CX rams have the large nuts that keep everything up together. The older machines had the collar with holes in and I made a tool for undoing those to get at the seals. With the large nut type of collar is it just a case of unscrewing it out of the ram cylinder with a great big spanner and a length of scaffold tube or is there a grub screw or something like that which has to be undone first. I have noticed a row of punch marks on one of the flats of the nut. Are these marks significant in any way.

TIA for any help.

[hubert]

Not familiar with 3cx rams but I have worked on jcb 525/58 rams. The big nuts just screw out. They were not very tight or maybe I was lucky. There were no locking screws. Hopefully 3cx rams are exactly the same. Don't know about the row of punch marks.

[jcb4cx]

the newer ones just screw out , there is a grub screw in the rod nut thought ,as the jcb fitter forgot and it had a new ram

[Scooby]

Many thanks to both of you. Battle will commence today ! I have a bucket ram and a leg ram to do. The leg ram looks interesting. Looks like a gas axe job to get the bolt out that secures the pin that holds everything together at the bottom.

[rlambert]

gas axe to get the pin out as well probably and if your unlucky youl have a damaged rod

[Scooby]

I did the bucket ram today. I think they were easier to do on the earlier machines. This one obviously hadn't been taken apart before because I couldn't budge the cylinder cap with 30" stillsons and a length of galv. pipe. I tried drifting it with a lump hammer but it wouldn't budge. I warmed the cap up a bit where the threads are to melt the Loctite and it came apart like a dream. It isn't a grubscrew in the rod nut, just a dowel that has an internal metric thread. The dowel sits in a groove where one of the seals sits. I screwed a small metric (3mm?) bolt into it then levered it out with the pliers. I presume that because it is under one of the seals that it won't come out.

[jcb4cx]

yes you are right ,i remember now he screwed a small bolt in it after he had found it ,but it was too late it would not come undone

[Scooby]

yes you are right ,i remember now he screwed a small bolt in it after he had found it ,but it was too late it would not come undone

I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't taken the seals off first. I couldn't understand why I couldn't get an allen key to unscrew it and then got a decent look at it and saw the threads on the inside. And I can understand that if your man had bent it by trying to undo the nut with force and then couldn't get it out it would have made the job go pear-shaped .

[Scooby]

gas axe to get the pin out as well probably and if your unlucky youl have a damaged rod

You were seriously not kidding were you ? Have been on it most of the day and still haven'y got that b!!!!y ram out. Couldn't undo the retaining bolt so burnt that off. Then tried to drift that out and it wouldn't budge. So then cut a part of the telescopic part of the leg away so that I could get at it to drill it out. Got half way through on one side but from the other side the drill went blunt in 2 seconds. Then I realised that there would be a bush in there and because I hadn't got things quite right on that side I was trying to drill the hardened bush and so I'm in the process of drilling right through from the other side as I seem to have got past the bush on that side.

When I had cut the bit of the leg out I heated up the eye of the ram and belted the pin using another pin and the sledge hammer thinking I might shear the bolt. Nope, that didn't work either. So tomorrow I try and drill the last of the retaining bolt out and then heat the eye up again and have another go. If that doesn't work then the pin is going to get cut up from both ends. Either way the b^$t^&d is coming out !

[rlambert]

my bolts came out but still couldn't move pins so I took them to Vickery plant where they gassed out the pins supplying me with new ones
they also resealed the rams while they had them I didn't get to see the rods as they were fully in when I got them back but one is slightly
weeping again I suspect a scratched rod from the legs being full of shit for the last 23 years wild be interesting to see what your rod is like
when you get to it