Hymac 580BT 1969

[Jeremy Rowland]

Well this Sunday was the working event at Andrew Beaulah's and the Hymac saw some action on the day; I already know the next job that I will be sorting on her, the seal in the bucket crown ram. I went up on the Saturday and managed to get the Poclain moved from where it had been unloaded from the low-loader.
Just a few pics; the first show the home made bracket for the engine stop and a couple from the working event I will try and post a few others too but not tonight.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

I have just not had the chance to get up to the machine since the working event although it is my intention to tackle the bucket ram seal and pivot pin when I do; however there was another issue that was annoying me, when the dipper arm comes in it makes an awful groaning/creaking noise like there is no grease in the dipper pivot pin.

Now grease does go into the pin okay and it does come out each side of the dipper arm so I was wondering what could be wrong with it? Somebody suggested that the pin could be turning in the boom fork and working on this idea I took a look at some of the photos I have taken of the restoration work to date and found that this appears to be the case as the locking bolt can be seen in two different positions.

So next time I'm up there I intend to take the pressure of the weight of the boom and dipper off the pivot pin and try and turn the nut on the other side of it to correctly align it, then remove the bolt and hopefully the broken end of the boss should come off, I can then clean it off and grind it back to enable me to weld it into position, lets hope this works okay?

Jeremy

[Andy80]

Good luck with that procedure. Locking forward to pictures

[Jeremy Rowland]

I don't have to tell anybody who lives in the UK that we have had bad weather over the last few weeks so I have not had the chance to get up to my machine; however today I travelled with Julian Carder down to a yard where there was some very interesting machines lying around, the one that I was interested in was the cannibalised 580BT.

While there was not much left of this old gal I rescued what I could and purchased a set of spool valves that I took off the machine plus the two boom hoist rams and the dipper ram. Sadly this machine had been acquired with a grab fitted so there was no bucket ram which was a real pity as I really need one, however the reality is that the rams on my machine need the seals changing which is not the easiest of tasks adding to which you just don't know what you will find till you get the said components apart.

I was lucky in as much as the boom hoist rams on this machine are the earlier internal cap design as opposed to the external cap design; I have also decided that as Julian can get them rebuilt for me at a reasonable cost it would make more sense to have ready reconditioned rams to put straight onto my machine rather than me struggling to get the old ones off the machine, stripped apart the bits that need replacing sent out to be made, plus getting the bits shipped around etc. Oh well I suppose it will help me get my machine rebuilt that little bit quicker, I hope!

Jeremy





It was cold taking those spool valves off too!

[Andy80]

Walking around there must bring back the feeling of Christmas eve when being a boy
When you talking about the rams, do you mean the hydraulic cylinders of the machine?
Interesting to see the swing gears. There should be some kind of bearing there i have understand, but i cant see it on the spare parts image.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Walking around there must bring back the feeling of Christmas eve when being a boy
When you talking about the rams, do you mean the hydraulic cylinders of the machine?
Interesting to see the swing gears. There should be some kind of bearing there i have understand, but i cant see it on the spare parts image.

Yes Andy I mean the hydraulic cylinders when I say the rams the swing bearing or slew ring has been unbolted from the undercarriage I did not see the undercarriage and the hydraulic cylinders were already taken off the machine so we simply had to load them into the van, had I more time I would not have minded getting the slew motor off the machine, sadly there was not the time and the guy who owned the machine wanted it gone so it will end up in a scrap yard in the next day or so, by the time I had the spool valves off and a few steel hydraulic pipes our time was gone.

Jeremy

[topkit]

Jeremy, the ram seals are not that difficult to do yourself, i have done a few over the years including two this weekend on my MF860, i finished the main dipper ram yesterday in the snow, i got a can of plusgas and sprayed around the end cap (internal thread) thursday evening then went back to it on friday and with a lug spanner ( i had some large stillsons in back up) and a piece of 6foot scaffold tube and with very little effort the cap came undone. Mind you i would love to have a few spare rams already resealed which would save time. Ive got the boom lift ram seal to do on my little B15-3 Yanmar next! Keep up the good work with your Hymac it's looking great
By the way were there many other machines where this hymac was.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Jeremy, the ram seals are not that difficult to do yourself, i have done a few over the years including two this weekend on my MF860, i finished the main dipper ram yesterday in the snow, i got a can of plusgas and sprayed around the end cap (internal thread) thursday evening then went back to it on friday and with a lug spanner ( i had some large stillsons in back up) and a piece of 6foot scaffold tube and with very little effort the cap came undone. Mind you i would love to have a few spare rams already resealed which would save time. Ive got the boom lift ram seal to do on my little B15-3 Yanmar next! Keep up the good work with your Hymac it's looking great
By the way were there many other machines where this hymac was.

David, thanks yes I was set to do the ram seals myself and even got a tool fabricated at work to do the job, however the ram end eye is shot on the bucket ram and possibly on the dipper ram to, plus there is a pitting on the actual rods so I don't want to be doing the job twice I'd rather bite the bullet and get new rods made for the rams with new bushes and kill two birds with one stone.
There was other machines at the yard I did not have the time to photograph them all as time was tight but I have posted a few pics in two other threads if you look, the Akerman thread and the Bray loaders thread.

Jeremy

[antevante]

Nice to see the progress of your work! Not much spares left on that old girl, but it has a extra weigth at the back! I been looking for one here in sweden a long time..

[Jeremy Rowland]

Nice to see the progress of your work! Not much spares left on that old girl, but it has a extra weigth at the back! I been looking for one here in sweden a long time..

Yes the counterweight but the cost of shipping one over there would be very high; sadly what's left of that machine has now been weighed in as scrap else I would not have minded a spare Staffa motor.

When I eventually get up to my machine I have to start some of the bigger jobs on her although I do sort of have a plan in my mind on what to tackle first.

Jeremy