[AT] Hydraulic cylinder rebuild.

[James Peck]

What tool does the person who rebuilds cylinders for a living use

[Cecil Bearden] Yep!  There is a guy in the Frozen North who runs Cats.  I got the idea from one of his postings.  Since I got AutoCAD, it is so easy to draw wrench patterns.  I don't know about the torque, but when I tightened the nut, I bent a tempered steel round and square 6" pry bar my Grandfather had from the 1800's.  

[Richard Walker] I rebuilt the outside one 5 or 6 years ago.  They are a 6 inch cylinder x 4 ft long with a 2.5 inch rod.  Everything Metric.  The last time I rebuilt one I made a wrench for the rod nut from an AutoCAD drawing and cut it with the plasma cutter then put it inside a 8 ft piece of Drill stem.  I used a 2 inch dia. shaft to hold the rod end.  Held the rod down with one loader and used another to push the wrench down.   

Grinning, because a dozen years ago I did something similar to disassemble a backhoe cylinder.  Burned a wrench profile from 1/4" plate, welded on a long steel rod handle, parked my Dingo skid steer atop the cylinder's butt end, and used a small gear hoist to pull between the wrench handle and a 5' pipe tong to unscrew the end cap.