And it never ends

[Spangles]

I think I can still see the retaining bolt in place, although its loose .. if it hasnt been put back in,.. maybe the pin has broken up first .. but it doesent explain why the flange on the 'end' of the pin is all bent and distorted where the bolt goes through?

Indeed, i could not understand why it's bent there either till mechanic pretty much said he welded back where the eye connects to the rod. At this rate, i'm going to run out of people to give the boot. So now from what I can understand, pin came off due to lack of grease, cylinder rod eye snapped while operator was still digging and that pretty much caused the damage to the flange.

[Muz]

No i have not owned this machine from new. Was initially a demo machine at volvo duxford then went to a road maintenance company before i bought it.
It was checked by fitter when I bought it.

Volvo would have made sure it was ok ... some thing might have gone wrong in between. I saw marks on the underside of the dipper which were suspicious of some leverage jamming. This kind of force would wreck your boom forks easilytoo just for the record, but I didnt see a similar mark on the forks ?

comp marks.jpg

[Spangles]

Volvo would have made sure it was ok ... some thing might have gone wrong in between. I saw marks on the underside of the dipper which were suspicious of some leverage jamming. This kind of force would wreck your boom forks easilytoo just for the record, but I didnt see a similar mark on the forks ?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1729[/ATTACH]

The last job was on a diary farm - normal ground works, clearing etc plus the last job was to dig a 6 metre deep hole for water storage. I don't know how close or far he was from the edge so this might explain the marks under the dipper arm. I would not be surprised the pin fell off first, he went on to dig that hole and the eye broke off from the cylinder rod which went sideways and caused the flange to bend that far out cause I really can't see how the flange would bend out if the pin was still in.

it's actually looking clean right now. The underside of the dipper was full of mud. You can still see traces of mud on the hoses. Took mechanic two days to pressure wash the machine to the state it is now. The grease was so dried up at the joints it came off like rubber.

[Muz]

due to lack of grease, cylinder rod eye snapped while operator was still digging and that pretty much caused the damage to the flange.

The flange (or forks I think you mean ?) would have been damaged first due to the pin moving .. the rod would have been secondary... so .. the end came off the rod too ? did your fitter weld that back on ?

[Spangles]

The flange (or forks I think you mean ?) would have been damaged first due to the pin moving .. the rod would have been secondary... so .. the end came off the rod too ? did your fitter weld that back on ?

Yes the rod came off... Yes fitter weld it back on. Sorry, yes you're right, forks would have been damaged first due to pin moving so someone is not telling me things in the right order. Emailed a breaker in south africa for the parts and hopefully it's not going to be out of my budget. If it is...then i'm afraid I won't have much choice other than buy new pins only and have the bent fork straightened with a bit of blow torch.

[Muz]

Yes the rod came off... Yes fitter weld it back on.

Its pretty hard to weld them accurately without mounting them in a jig, so regular failures thereafter are not uncommon .

And I have to say, I have experienced rams separating for absolutely no reason other than component failure. But when that happens the boss/eye just shears from the rod, little other damage takes place as its usually a clean break.