After the local hydraulic shop, in a state of incompetence, screwed up my short lift cylinder, I decided to rebuild this one myself. Rebuilding the long cylinder is no easy task for two reasons. One: Due to its location within the mast (not to mention its weight), it is heck to remove and reinstall. Two: It is also more complex than the short lift cylinder as the long cylinder has a feed tube with all the associated bushings and seals. At first glance, there’s no logical strategy for getting it out, and since my service manuals don’t cover anything to do with the mast, I’m flying purely on what I hope to be at least a moderate level of competence in terms of my skill level. Nevertheless, I endeavored to persevere.

Since I figured the mast would have to be raised at some point during the procedure, I had to work on it outside the shop. I began by removing the hydraulic line attached to the feed tube. Then I removed the nut that fixes the feed tube to the top stage of the mast. You’ll note that I’m using a manual ratchet instead of an air wrench on this because the nut is self locking, and often times if an air wrench is used, it will destroy the threads because of the high rate of speed.

Hydraulic Line Removed from Feed Tube

Removing Feed Tube Nut

Might I add, the humidity level that day, and throughout most of the project, had to have been 200% if that’s even possible, which explains the somewhat foggy photos and my drenched shirts. Moving on… Next, and before loosening anything else fixture-wise, I decided to loosen the gland nut while the cylinder was still firmly in place. I didn’t have a wrench big enough, so the next day I borrowed a large chain wrench which did the job nicely.

Feed Tube Nut

Loosening Gland Nut

Next, I had to raise the mast so I could lower the junction block at the top of the feed tube through the second stage of the mast. For this I took my Clark lift and raised the carriage on the Allis lift until the second stage of the mast begun to raise. This was NO easy task. The Clark lift would barely handle the weight. To make matters worse, the junction block is slightly offset and refused to go down through the hole in the second stage. Careful not to bend the feed tube, I pried and hammered a bit before logic struck at which time I decided to loosen the bottom mounting nut on the cylinder (exactly like the top nut on the feed tube). This allowed some wiggle room, and alas, it dropped through and the top of the cylinder was now completely free.

Feed Tube Junction Block

Raising the Mast

The next step in removing the cylinder was to finish the bottom mount and unhook the bottom hydraulic line, but first I made certain the mast was safely suspended. Don’t let the compact size of this machine and these parts fool you; this stuff is very heavy. The machine weighs about 13,000 lbs, and the mast components are made from very thick and very heavy steel. There is literally a ton of weight hanging above me here, so safety is very important. I used a strong, heavy-gauge pipe to hold the mast up, then I chained the top portion of the mast for a backup safety mechanism. I also had the carriage double chained.

Safety Check

When attempting to unhook the hydraulic line from the base of the cylinder, it became evident that there was not enough room to maneuver the wrench in the tight space. So I decided to unhook the line back at the hydraulic valve. This would give me slack enough so when I removed the cylinder I could pull the base out far enough to use the wrench to remove the line from the base of the cylinder. Back at the valve, I also had to unhook and move the hydraulic filter to have enough room to work at the valve.

Filter Moved Back from the Valve

Disconnecting the Bottom Hydraulic Line

Finally, the heavy cylinder was ready to come out.

Now that the cylinder is removed, it is time to disassemble the components for inspection at which time we can also take measurements which will be needed to order the new parts. We place the cylinder down where we can easily work on it and remove the main gland nut, and then the main ram easily pulls out of the bore. Then, using the same chain wrench, we remove the feed tube gland from the ram, and the feed tube pulls out. Then, although it’s not pictured, we removed the feed tube gland which proved to be extremely stubborn to slide off the tube, but a long pipe and a sledge hammer did the trick.

Loosening Feed Tube Gland

Removing Feed Tube from Ram

Once everything is apart I can begin measuring the components to place an order for new packing. I couldn’t simply measure the old seals because they had completely disintegrated. This explains the hemorrhaging, and it also explains how rainwater was entering the hydraulic system. Nevertheless, I took measure and proceeded into the office to do what the incompetent local hydraulic shop said was impossible: find new seals. After approximately one Google search and three minutes of viewing an online catalog, I easily found the parts I needed and placed the order. Since my application has a feed tube involved, it required the most expensive packing kit. This is largely due to the addition of bronze bushings and extra seals. However, it was still much cheaper than anything the local guys could have ever came up with and I was happy to find the parts. Now, on to the business of reassembling the cylinder…

First we took the feed tube gland and knocked out the old plastic bushings and replaced them with the new bronze bushings that came in the kit. We used the hydraulic press to install the new bushings:

Installing Bronze Bushings

Reinstalling the gland back on the feed tube proved almost as difficult as removing it. We used a brake cylinder hone to reach precisely the correct inside diameter of the bronze bushings, then we used a buffing wheel on a Dremel tool to polish off any scars on the chrome feed tube. After that, we were able to slide the gland back on the tube with moderate pressure. Then we installed the feed tube back into the ram, and after installing the new wear ring / guide band,  we reinstalled the ram back into the cylinder. Once completed the final step was to install the new oil seal and dust seal into the main gland nut.

New Oil & Dust Seals for Gland Nut

With new oil and dust seals in the gland nut, it’s time to install the nut back onto the cylinder, and it is a tight fit over the feed tube gland and ram. To keep from destroying the new seals, we placed a spacer on top of the gland nut and then used two bolts through two flat bars and threaded them into the top of the feed tube gland. This slowly pressed the gland nut onto the ram without damaging the seals. And that concludes the assembly of the cylinder.

Installing Gland Nut

Cylinder Assembled

Now, before reinstalling the cylinder onto the forklift, we needed to paint it. Jose uses a wire brush to strip all the old paint off. Then he masks off the chrome before applying primer.

Stripping the Old Paint

Applying Masking Tape

To conclude, I come in behind him with a new coat of gloss white industrial enamel. We then reinstall the cylinder in the same sequence used to remove it. The final step was to refill and bleed the hydraulic system and give the machine a good scrub and wash.

Applying a Coat of Industrial Enamel

Finished and Back in Service!

Everything worked out great bringing us to the conclusion of this project. My Allis-Chalmers ACP 80 is back to work and running great.

Until next time…

This truck has been setting up for a few years and obviously needs some work to return it to roadworthy status. I’ve always wanted a winch truck for loading heavy equipment, and this one is larger than anything I imagined owning (you can see a much smaller version of winch truck that I also bought last summer here), but the price was right and the bed is in good shape for its age. Very cool old rig.

So once purchased, the first order of business was moving this monster. At first, I checked into getting it running and driving it home. However, upon close inspection I found the brakes, as well as other components, had taken a beating from the weather and it would take more time than I had to get it going. I thought about hauling it, but I didn’t have access to the type of trailer that would likely be required. The most viable solution was to have it towed. I called a local towing company and we immediately got to work. Concerned that the rear brakes may be stuck, we opted to tow it from the rear…

Once we got it rigged up, we hit the road. Since the yard at my shop isn’t quite big enough to have much non-running equipment present, I decided to have it towed to my friend’s property until I have time to get started on it. We had to get it into some tight places to reach its final parking place.

It was a tight squeeze for the wrecker to back out of the road we dropped the Mack on, but he got it done. Once the wrecker let it down, we used a 2006 Caterpillar D3 to move the truck into place. I jumped up into the cab of the Mack to steer. Below you’ll see some pics and a video clip of the process.

There are a few projects on the list before the old Mack, but once I thin some of those out, we’ll move it to my shop and get started. Until then….

Before

After

When I got this lift, it ran OK and was overall functional, but I knew it needed service so I began planning the project.When we finally got some down time, my new mechanic Jose and I pulled it up into the shop and got started….

Getting Started

The first order of business was a general tune-up and service. The engine in this Clark CY20 is a very small, 4-cylinder, gasoline Red Seal. Since I don’t have a manual on this unit, we pretty much had to go on skill. The ignition points were fried, so we replaced them along with the condenser, distributor cap, and rotor. We also installed a new set of plugs and wires, wrapping up the ignition system.

Next, we changed the fluids starting with the engine oil and then the transmission fluid. Forklifts are usually compact and difficult to work on, but fortunately the engineers at Clark had a little foresight and placed the filters in an easily accessible area (see the engine oil and transmission oil filters below). While changing the transmission fluid, we found something troubling. Metal shavings? No, not quite that bad, but still troubling: There was a large amount of water in the transmission. The fluid looked like strawberry milk. My first thought was the transmission oil cooler which is in the radiator. I was prepared to mount an external cooler if necessary, but upon further testing we determined that the water did not get in through the cooler. So how the heck did it get in there? We never fully solved the mystery but surmised that it must have been due to the machine having set out in the weather for an extended period of time before I purchased it….either that or someone ran it off into some deep water? Whatever the case, I had to flush at least five gallons of costly transmission fluid through it and change the filter twice to get the water out. I’ve run it several hours since, and no sign of water so I’m calling it resolved.

We decided to wait on hitting all the grease points until last because the next step was to put a shinny new coat of paint on her, and I didn’t want to fool with washing a bunch of grease off before painting. We pulled it outside the shop and begun stripping it down. As I point out on this page, my general goal is not to pursue a show-quality finish. The aim here is to have a good, solid finish without the unfeasible cost of completely disassembling the machine and stripping all parts to bare metal. So we went over it with cup brushes and various abrasives to remove any loose paint and most of the faded paint.

Then it was time to remove the side panels, seat, and roll cage to deal with them separately.

Once everything was adequately sanded, we began the priming process.

Next, we began the final painting process. Like most Clark forklifts, this unit was originally green. However, at some point in its life it was painted orange and white. So rather than trying to go back to the original color, which would have meant painting the entire engine compartment, transmission, and running gear that was all now orange, I opted to keep it orange. In fact, I painted it one of my favorite equipment colors: Allis-Chalmers Orange. LOL Below you’ll see Jose mixing up the paint and applying the first coat. We used a tractor/implement paint and added hardener for a durable finish.

We painted the wheels, side panels, and roll cage white, and once dry, we removed all of the masking and began reassembling the machine.

In keeping with my lighting policy (notable in several other posts) the final step was to add lights and of course decals. We fixed the strobe light on the roll cage and added front and rear work lights wired to a switch on the dash. The front lights are such that the operator can adjust them by hand if needed. The rear light is similar, but without the adjustment. I purchased “Clark” decals to go on the mast.

And now for the finished product…

And that pretty much sums it up. Many more projects like this to come…

The guys spent the morning rebuilding the camp while I cooked breakfast burritos for everyone. Once we recovered from the previous night, the storm, and the rebuilding of the camp, we geared up to head out to the main event: magnum mud, rugged terrain, and everything else we could steer toward. We plotted a course that would take us over a large portion of the property through the most challenging routes, i.e. abandoned trials, wash-outs, deep water, etc. On the first leg, we encountered a series of creek crossings that proved to be moderately challenging. In fact, it took most of the day to get through them all. Second, our path took us through a long stand of flooded timber. The challenge of riding in murky water is that you cannot see the bottom and have no idea if or when you might drop out of sight. Below you will see a slideshow, followed by videos of our encounters. The video footage, which contains the subsequent and moderately humorous dialogue, is from Chris Taylor’s hat cam.

Slideshow: Outlines the Day-2 highlights.

Video 1: Our encounters with the creek.

Video 2: Flooded pipelines.

Video 3: Into the unknown – Flooded wilderness.

Alright, that sums up Day-2, but last and certainly not least, I will be posting the Day-3 freestyle ride; one of the best rides of the event….lots of action (and carnage) so keep an eye out for the upcoming post!

The second truck in the lot is a 1979 F-600 which used to be a U-Haul truck, converted and extended to be used as an oil field pump truck. I got it as a cab and chassis, no bed. The engine, transmission, and PTO are in it. It also has a nice pipe bumper on the front. I have no use for it as is, but it will be a great parts truck.

Once purchased, I decided to haul the F-700 first for logistics reasons. They were stacked back in a corner and we needed to move the F-600 over a few feet to have room to load the 700 which was in the bushes ahead of the 600. Below you’ll see a video clip of us moving the 600. My friend came out with his 1979 F-600 4×4 with PTO winch and 25′ goose neck trailer to help me. The first order of business was to get the trucks moved out and lined up for loading. For this, we used the PTO winch on the front of the F-600 4×4.

Then it was time to drag out the 700. We backed the trailer up to it, tied on with a chain, and pulled it out in the open to level ground.

After resolving a slight debacle with the winch cable on the F-600 4×4, it began to get dark so I pulled my truck up to supply lights for the loading procedure. We used a 10,000 lb electric winch on the neck of the trailer to winch the F-700 up the dove tail and onto the bed.

We got it back to the in-town yard that night and decided to reconvene the following morning to haul the truck out to the country where I will store it. The next morning… I took several pictures of it up on the trailer.

We set out to the country…

We found a nice shady place for it out of the way and fired up the Cat D3 dozer to unload and move it…

Below you see it in its final resting place, at least until it is robbed of all usable parts at which time it will likely be hauled for scrap….but that probably won’t be anytime soon. At least for a few years it will likely remain as a monument of industrial history to be enjoyed only by unusual people like me.

These aren’t the only trucks I’ve recently acquired. I’ve gotten bigger and better trucks, machines, and equipment to be posted soon. Until then….

Winched onto the trailer.

Without running, it is difficult to get the implements up which makes it a challenge to load and unload. We used a winch and some planks to skid it up on the trailer. When I got it home, I used my Allis lift to drag it off the trailer and set it down.

Getting it Home

Unloading with Forklift

Once I got it unloaded, I pulled the spark plugs and filled the cylinders with transmission fluid and let them soak for three weeks. Then I pulled the starter and used a pry-bar on the flywheel ring gear, and after much leveraging, I got the engine to turn over. I flushed the engine with diesel and then tried to get it running. Unfortunately, the rings took a beating from all the rain water and it no longer had enough compression to run. So, the plan is to pull the cylinders and ring the old gal and hopefully she’ll live. The rest of the machine appears to be in good enough condition to justify fixing the engine, so maybe one day soon you’ll see the project posted. Until then…

Brad works for an industrial lubricants company that specializes is lubricant filtration. He travels around the country with his specialized machines and equipment to refineries, power plants, steel mills, offshore rigs, or anywhere there are turbines in use. They’ll flush the turbines, run the oil through an advanced filtration unit that restores the oil, and replace it in the turbine.

In the case of the oil I received, it was removed from a steam turbine after very little use because they decided to use a different weight of oil. Brad ran it through his machine and to my shop it came.

This is the most hydraulic fluid I’ve owned at one time. Given the amount of time it will take me to use it all, I placed it in one of my fallout shelters to keep the sun from deteriorating the plastic container.

Until next time…

A friend had this nice little 1971 Clark for sale, and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it. $1500 later, it was delivered to my shop.

It’s a compact machine powered by a 4-cylinder Red Seal engine. It has pneumatic tires, a 3-stage mast, and 2,000 lbs lift capacity. It does great in grass as seen below:

With the amount of back-tilt it has, I can easily lift and carry ATVs from the side, as seen above, or from an end, as seen below…

…and if I need to place it on the roof, I can do that too…LOL…thanks to the 3-stage mast:

I love forklifts!

Before long, we’ll pull it up in the shop and slick it up with a new paint job. I’ll post the results as well as more detailed specs, and I’ll put together some pro’s and con’s after I’ve used it a bit more.

Until next time…

So after getting the camp squared away, we decided to hit the trails for an afternoon sport ride. The first spot on the list was the TNT Plant. There are multiple ways to get to the plant from our camp site, so the ATVs took one route, and the dirt bikes took a second route. The dirt bikes consisted of Chris on his XR650R and myself on my KLX650R. We proceeded at a fast pace, and while headed east on a gravel road, we had a very close encounter with a deer. Chris and I were riding side-by-side when the deer jumped out of the roadside brush and narrowly avoided collision. We got it on video; check out the clip below:

At the TNT plant we took a break and climbed up to the roof, or what’s left of it…

Then we decided to check out the basement…only it was under water. After unsuccessfully attempting to persuade Moore, our resident scuba diver/pilot, to conduct some under water spelunking adventures, we just threw rocks at the entrance instead.

Leaving from the area shown above, there is a mysterious concrete sidewalk about six feet in width leading north into the dense woods. It goes on completely unobstructed for about an eighth of a mile through the woods until it runs into a massive concrete theater of sorts. This area is believed to be the small arms testing site. In the photo below, I am standing by the south wall near an indentation where targets were apparently hung.

Now it’s on to the dunes…or our version of “dunes”. To build the 68K acre complex of mostly concrete bunkers and structures, it required a large volume of rocks and gravel. The surrounding area is rich in gravel and wash-rock which is one of the reasons the government chose this location. Subsequently, there are numerous gravel quarries indiscriminately scattered throughout the area. Most are abandoned, but some are still in operation today. All were linked via railroads, as too were all the structures in the area, however, all of the railroad tracks in the abandoned areas were long since pulled up and scrapped. Two large gravel yards border our lease, so we can easily access them on our ATVs. We road over to one on the NE section of the area, which we refer to as “the dunes” because the small, fine type of gravel there gives the appearance of sand dunes. There we find a variety of riding terrain. There is an abundance of long, steep hills, open flats and table tops, as well as wooded trails and lakes. It’s fantastic.

Although we didn’t have the chance to take many photos, we did manage to grab some video footage as seen below. We did some hill climbing and general riding. I learned first-hand how difficult it is to ride a dirt bike in sand and gravel, although Chris makes it look easy. Toward the end of the clip, Brad takes a pretty big spill attempting to climb an insanely steep hill, but I only caught the aftermath on video.

After all that, we retreated the few miles back to camp to cook diner which was dear steaks, burgers, potatoes, cut green beans with bacon and a touch of garlic. And if that wasn’t enough fun for one day, we headed back out for a late-night ride at which point we had entirely too much fun which subsequently put us out of commission until noon on day-2. The Day-2 4×4 ride will be posted next, so stay tuned!

After having planned all year, my core group at last gathered at the Omni Complex for a quick trip briefing before hitting the road north to the remote region known as “The Area”. To learn more about The Area, see my post on the 1st expedition. Since this trip was geared toward riding, it is only fitting that I give a brief rundown of the bikes and quads that the five of us employed on this trip.

My machines:

- 1993 Kawasaki KLX650R- I think this is the first appearance of my 650R on this blog. At some point within the next century I intend to do a full post on this bike. For this trip, I plan to ride it on our sport bike ride scheduled for day-1.

- 2002 Honda TRX350XX- This one was also taken in anticipation of day-1. After several years of storage, I pulled it out of moth balls specifically for this occasion.

- 1998 Honda 450 Foreman- Of course I took my faithful companion. No camping/riding trip would be the same without her, especially since day-2 was slated for a 4×4 adventure.

- Kawasaki Bayou 300 4×4- Here’s a new face in the crowd. I built this quad for a backup unit and took it along as a spare. Our rides can get pretty intense, and I don’t want to be knocked out early due to ATV failure like last year. At some point, I’ll post the project build for this one.

Brad’s Machines:

-1998 Yamaha 600 Grizzly- Armed with a new set of 28″ Dirt Devil XT’s, Big Grizz was quite impressive on this trip.

- Suzuki Z400 -Borrowed from a buddy for the day 1 sport bike ride at the dunes. Seen at left.

- Honda 420 Rancher 2WD- Brought as a backup unit, this quad has been to heck and back and still runs like a champ. Unbelievable.

Chris’ Machines

-Honda XR650R-The infamous 650R, seen at center, brought for the sport ride, day-1.

-1999 Honda 450 Foreman -You’ll see more of this quad later, and only then will you understand why I say that I haven’t seen one this clean since 1999.

Brian’s Machine

- 1986 Honda FourTrax 350 4×4- A legend, the FourTrax 350, later known as the 350 Foreman, easily held its own with the newer machines.

Moore’s Machine

- Honda 250 Recon -Brought for multi-purpose use, the Recon is another one that holds it’s own surprisingly well.

I know, a lot of machines for just five people…but we like to be prepared. So, the first order of business was to get loaded and hit the road. Below you’ll see a slide show of us trailering up, hitting the road, and setting up camp which included a 20″ enclosed trailer for sleeping arrangements, canopies, and a fantastic shower enclosure I purchased on Amazon. You’ll also see that upon arrival we determined that the functionality of the gate at the road was insufficient. Chris, our resident welder, immediately sprang into action…

That wraps up the intro. Later I will be posting the Day-1 sport ride and the surrounding events. TO BE CONTINUED…