Possible water in log splitter hydraulic fluid

[Lab-lover]

I heard that about teflon tape too so I've been using the liquid / paste pipe dope in the tube like I have always used on gas pipes. Thanks for the confirmation Sandhill Crane.

By the way I didn't realize that cranes flew in a V but I had a flock of about ten go over my house last week and they were V'ed up and gargling and giggling as only Sandhills can.

 

[Lab-lover]

You're probably right GeeVee but I work out of town during the week and can't get my hands on the splitter to try all of these ideas so all I can do is think about it and plan which is a lot like sitting in a rocking chair, it keeps you busy but you don't really accomplish anything.

Also, since I only have a couple of days (the weekend) to fix the splitter and use it I like to have all of my ducks in a row when I actually get a chance to wrench on something.

Thanks for indulging me and for all of the great ideas. I will update this thread with what I find out this weekend.

 

[Lab-lover]

I made it home early this week and just drained off a gallon of the hydraulic fluid. After sitting for 5 days the fluid it looks like chocolate milk. No water appears to have settled out and any air bubbles certainly haven't worked their way out. I removed all of the hoses and swabbed them out. Now I am draining the rest of the fluid out of the system. I will reassemble everything and put new fluid in. Hopefully this will take care of the foaming problem but I'm still not sure what contaminated the fluid.

 

[kevin j]

the chocolate milk look is water, the foaming is air. Water contamination inhibits the ability to release air (defoam additives). Check for water going in the breather, and find out where the air is getting in. Two problems.

 

[Lab-lover]

I have a new question for all of you. Do you ever get tired of always being right???? :msp_smile:

To remove the old contaminated fluid: I disconnected all of the lines and cleaned them out, drained as much fluid as possible from the pump and valve, manually worked the shaft back and forth a few times to pump the old fluid out of the cylinder.

To eliminate the possiblilty of an air leak on the suction side of the pump causing the foaming fluid: I repositioned the pump to allow a large loop in the suction line. This replaced a shorter line with more bends and more hose clamp connections.

I ran the splitter hard for 2 hours on Friday and 3 hours yesterday with no problems. Zero foaming, smoother and faster extension and retraction of the shaft, more power at the business end.

I finally tracked down the cause of the water in the fluid. I had some welding done on the splitter and the welder flushed the reservoir with water to reduce the chance of fire. I was unaware that he had filled it with water so I when I got it back I just filled it with fluid and voila, contaminated fluid. I'm convinced that the fluid got contaminated the second time because I didn't manually pump the old fluid out of the cylinder before pouring new fluid it. I was surprised at how much fluid was sitting in the cylinder and I think when this mixed with the new fluid it turned the whole batch into chocolate milk again.

So now that I have made a long story longer, I would just like to thank everyone for their help in fixing all of the issues I ran into. My Huss Abe's Baby is up and running great thanks to your input.