Trail Gear steering ram leaking

[1993yj]

I installed a 10" double ended Trail Gear ram earlier this year. I bought the whole hydro steering system and it was nice that everything was spec'd together, easy install, and up until this past weekend has worked great. The right side rod seal has started leaking.

Contacted Trail Gear today to get a replacement seal, and was informed that they do not have replacement parts for their Rams. WTF? They said that since it is out of warranty (by 3 months from purchase date) they will sell me a new ram at a discount, but not sure I want to go this route. I would prefer to have a way to replace seals when they go bad. I am ok buying replacement parts, but wondering if I should look at a PSC ram or other brand. PSC sells seal kits. However, I do have internal stops, and a buddy who runs PSC said PSC told him not to open their ram and do internal stops but rather just find a way to make the steering work. That solution for him was RCV shafts. That's not in my budget so I will still need to do stops somehow.

Other potential issue is how would another ram work with my system. I would assume that if it's the same size everything should be fine, but I also assumed that I would be able to replace seals.

Thoughts on which way to go?

 

[skippy]

pull it apart and go find a seal, chances are its a pretty common seal.

Kaman bearing off of bangerter and 201 is amazing with seals and bearings. I have ran and installed probably like 6 trail gear rams with no issues. are you sure you didnt hit it or something is binding?

 

[1993yj]

I know others who have used TG rams too without issue. I don't have any binding, and the rod is clean, no Knicks or scrapes and hasn't hit anything. Hopefully I can find seals at Kaman. The rod wiper will prob be the hard one to find. Still can't believe TG doesn't have replacent parts.

 

[I Lean]

Hydraulic Controls is another place to check--like their name suggests, all they do is hydraulics. (whether they're any better at matching up seals or not, I have no idea)

 

[YROC FAB.]

Not much to add other than what ever one else says.

I will vouche for trail gear though. I bent my double ender 8" inch ram down(ya down dont know how that happened) on my toyota axle and it was out of warrenty (like a full year) and trail gear told me to ship it to them and they would take care of it. Two weeks later i had a brand new ram.:thumbs:

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Hydrapak will have the seals, Johnson Hydraulics will rebuild it. They did mine (6+ year old RL4x4) next day.

 

[neagtea]

Gustin hydraulics can fix ya up with seals
Make sure all the bushings are good also.

 

[1993yj]

Kaman didn't have the seals and directed me to Hydrapak. Luckily they had them. $25 for everything for one side. Hopefully will find time this weekend to put it back together, then I need to drop the T case and reseal it.

 

[1993yj]

Put the new seals in today, but that Teflon one was such a PITA that I probably damaged it and will have done all this work and it will still leak.

 

[UNSTUCK]

The Teflon seals are easy to stretch when installing, because they go on so hard. Then because they are now oversized they can get cut when you install the rod into the cylinder. Next time if you stretch it, put a hose clamp around it after you put it on the rod/piston. That will help compress it back to its original size. (Remove the clamp before trying to install the rod)

 

[1993yj]

The hard part about this setup is the Teflon seal gets installed in a groove inside the end cap. I continually used a heat gun to make it flexible (instructions from Hydrapak) but it was such a pain to fold it so it fit inside the end cap and then turn it to fit in the groove. It's the primary rod seal in the diagram. Currently it's not leaking, but I haven't run it with lots of pressure yet, just idling and steering arms not connected.