Upgrading John Deere Loader Cylinders

mars1952

New member
Hi Folks: I just finished upgrading the hydraulic cylinders on my JD 420 Loader. The tractor only has 1400 hours on it but I was having trouble with the loader leaking down. It would leak down about 10 inches in one hour.

The real impetus for the upgrade was that I broke one of the bucket cylinders. I had curled the bucket all the way down and hooked the bucket teeth on a large vine. I was creeping backwards very slowly, being careful not to tip the tractor over, when I heard a loud bang. The bucket cylinder on the left side had snapped. So to rebuild the broken cylinder was going to be over $250. I refitted with new oversized Bucket cylinders for about $275 for everything. The loader lift cylinders were even cheaper, about $200 for everything. I bought cylinders hoses and fitting from the Surplus Center and cut the ends off and refitted them with the correct ends.

The 2 inch cylinders have about 30% more lift power and about 18% more curl power than the 1-3/4 inch OEM cylinders. The 17 inch lift cylinders that I used yielded 10 inches more lift highth than the OEM 16 inch cylinders.

I posted a few picture on this site and I posted two 15 min videos on Youtube. Here are the links:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCKbyk6s5o"]Upgrading John Deere Loader Cylinders Part 1[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jdzYscm91Q"]Upgrading John Deere loader cylinders Part 2[/ame]
Please Comment, share and "Like" my videos.
Thanks, Mars
P.S. A picture is worth a thousand words and a 10 minute video has about one hundred thousand pictures in it.:wink:
 

Attachments

  • Snapped Loader Rod.jpg
    Snapped Loader Rod.jpg
    182 KB · Views: 38
  • Surplus Cylinder.jpg
    Surplus Cylinder.jpg
    111.6 KB · Views: 38
  • Cutting off the ends.jpg
    Cutting off the ends.jpg
    115 KB · Views: 38
  • Installed in Loader 1.jpg
    Installed in Loader 1.jpg
    81.7 KB · Views: 38
Top