Replacing Hydraulic Cylinder Seals - Part 1 - Preparing to tear down the cylinder

I am preparing to replace the hydraulic cylinder seals on my New Holland LB75B backhoe loader tractor. The cylinder has been leaking and getting worse by the day and I want to replace the seals myself. People also call this repacking or rebuilding the cylinder. Bringing the cylinder into a dealer or hydraulic shop is going to be anywhere from $500 to $1000 just in labor and I am sure I will need to replace more in the near future.

I purchased the PDF service manual fro the tractor and plan on doing most if not all of the work myself. There are 10+ hydraulic cylinders on this backhoe which counts for a lot of seal kits to replace. Then add the fact I have 4 tractors that will all need this done one day and you have a lot of money invested in cylinder rebuilds.

I also go over the different types of hydraulic cylinders that you will find on a backhoe and what they are named so you can find the seal kits easier when looking online. This tractor is a New Holland and its parts catalog is available online. You can print out your parts and the diagram to help you with your rebuild.

The New Holland LB75B is a pretty popular backhoe in mainstream construction. I bought this one for what I think was a good price to use it strictly on the farm. It has about 4000 hours on it and still runs great. I can expect to add a few more thousand without major issues.