Bolts holding on Slew cylinders

Discuss loaders/backhoes here

Topic author
hubert
Posts: 58
Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:01 pm
Real name: Hubert Mooney
Location: Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 7 times
Flag: Great Britain

Bolts holding on Slew cylinders

Post #1 by hubert » Sun Apr 13, 2025 10:07 pm

Working on a friends 3cx and trying to change the slewing seals. We tried to unscrew the bolts holding on the cylinders using a 3/4 drive socket and bar with apiece of pipe but they would not budge. Some one has had the slew cylinders off before. Would they usually be this tight? Do we need an air gun to get them loosened? Would they be put on with loctite? Would this be usual practice. Thanks in advance.


gecko.cx
Posts: 358
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:44 am
Real name: ian
Has thanked: 138 times
Been thanked: 138 times
Flag: Australia

Re: Bolts holding on Slew cylinders

Post #2 by gecko.cx » Mon Apr 14, 2025 3:02 am

There is a lot of force on them, so they need to be tight, but not 'silly tight".
From memory, I used a pipe-extension on mine, but mostly to maintain control.

My personal preference is to use a very small abount of the weakest loktite (222), but not enough to make dissasembly difficult. Sounds like the last person was a bit too enthusiastic.

I don't think you have much option but to use brute force. A rattle gun will probably help to crack a tread lock if that's the problem.


gandamaluco
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:09 pm
Real name: Hélio Sequeira
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Flag: Portugal

Re: Bolts holding on Slew cylinders

Post #3 by gandamaluco » Mon Apr 14, 2025 11:46 am

Hello
I did mine a few years ago and I tell you it was hell to remove the damn bolts. I broke a wheel wrench and only managed to do it after a lot of effort with a 36 socket (I think) and a thick-walled power tube.

It really takes a lot of perseverance.

Try heating the slew box to dissolve the Loctite and expand the thread.

Good luck


Jeremy Rowland
Moderator
Posts: 8829
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:36 pm
Real name: Jeremy Rowland
Has thanked: 1972 times
Been thanked: 1770 times

Re: Bolts holding on Slew cylinders

Post #4 by Jeremy Rowland » Mon Apr 14, 2025 7:39 pm

hubert wrote:Working on a friends 3cx and trying to change the slewing seals. We tried to unscrew the bolts holding on the cylinders using a 3/4 drive socket and bar with apiece of pipe but they would not budge. Some one has had the slew cylinders off before. Would they usually be this tight? Do we need an air gun to get them loosened? Would they be put on with loctite? Would this be usual practice. Thanks in advance.


An expensive power nut runner, either air or electric may release the bolts; sometimes things seem to tighten up for no given reason, make sure if you are using an extension bar that it is not flexing too much as you are loosing sone of the torque, also try putting pressure on and getting another person to hit the bar on the top of the nut/bolt with a hammer, sometimes you can 'shock' them loose.

Jeremy


Return to “Loaders/Backhoes”