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Rant: That old crane on the I-5 job site gave me fits last Thursday
I was working a pick near the 134 interchange last week and the load line started creeping on an old Grove RT. The brakes felt spongy and I had to ride the deadman the whole time. Any of you guys dealt with tired hydraulic systems on these older rigs? What's your fix for a shaky hoist brake?
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piperb9319d ago
That spongy brake sounds like a worn out master cylinder or air in the lines. I'd start by bleeding the system first before tearing anything apart. Sometimes it's just old fluid causing the problem, not the whole brake.
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the_thomas19d ago
Wait hold on, have you actually replaced a master cylinder on one of these before? I'm gonna push back a little here. Bleeding the system almost never fixes a truly spongy pedal, especially if the fluid looks fine. Nine times out of ten that soft feel is the seals inside the master cylinder giving out internally, letting fluid slip past. You can bleed it until your legs give out and the pedal will just go soft again after a day or two of driving. Plus modern brake fluid doesn't really go bad like the old stuff used to, it just gets dark from heat cycles. I'd rather swap out that $45 master cylinder now than waste two hours bleeding a system that's gonna fail on me next week.
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