What To Look For When Inspecting Your Hydraulic Cylinders

If you look up how to maintain your hydraulics, you will often get the advice to make sure that you perform a thorough inspection of the cylinders to make sure that nothing is wrong. However, you might not know exactly what to look for, resulting in your inspection being less useful than you would prefer. Here are some specifics that you should look for in order to make sure that you don't waste your time performing inspections on your hydraulics and that you can keep your cylinders in as good a shape as possible.

1. Check Your Piston Seal

Your first step is to check the piston seal of the hydraulics that you are inspecting. Look at the seal itself and make sure that it hasn't become brittle and cracked and that it hasn't eroded at all. You then need to move your inspection to the barrel that the seal is attached to. If the edges of the barrel and not symmetric or do not appear to have the same smooth curve as a new barrel, then your barrel needs to be replaced. A bulging barrel is going to start leaking more quickly than a new barrel. You can replace just the seal to temporarily fix the problem, but you will need to call a company that specializes in hydraulics repair in order to permanently fix the problem by replacing the barrel.

2. Look at the Rod

Next, check your rod that's attached to the cylinder. You can check the rod for any cracks or holes by using a dye penetrant. The penetrant will help identify any holes because you will be able to take the rod apart and look inside to see if any of the dye was able to get in. If you see dye, then you have a problem with your rod and the hole needs to either be filled in or the rod replaced. If you don't have a ton of the penetrant left, make sure that you use it at the cross sections first because these are some of the most common places for leaks to occur.

Once you've done that, look at the chrome of your rods. If one side looks really shiny and another side is very dull, then you have a bent rod. This is a problem because it won't be nearly as effective. You don't necessarily have to replace a rod that is bent. A professional can bend your rod back into shape with a press.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in hydraulics repair, like http://fivestarhydraulicslv.com and other businesses.


Share