Chuck actuator intermittent leak?

pgmrmike · Jun 7, 2019

The actuator on my 2004 Daewoo Puma 300LC is leaking. I have seen this before but this time its kind of weird. The leak is intermittent and I dont know what the variable is. Some days it leaks, some days it doesnt. A ran a job on Op1 and it didnt leak ( raw stock ), then turned the part around and bored the jaws and oil poured from inside the chuck. Unchucked and let it sit idle and it slowed but didnt stop. Finished the job and next day set up another job and didnt leak at all. Closed chuck all the way and opened all the way and still didnt leak. I know the chrkme can flake and have spots that leak more etc but this is inconsistent and illogical. I ahve thought about just having it rebuilt, looks like $3500 but maybe it just needs orings ? Can do myself if just need orings. Any experience with a leak acting like this?

Bobw · Jun 7, 2019

A few months ago, I did the rings in the cylinder (pancake) that pulls my turret back..

It was on and off, It would release and pull back nice, and then it wouldn't, sometimes
I could go weeks without having to top it off, sometimes only days, sometimes months.
Sometimes it would work great, other days, not so much..

Then one day it just started pissing, and nothing would work.. Ripped it apart. It
was the rings.. I have no idea how they were sealing at all.. (2 of the 3, all different sizes).. They were
shot, they were rolling, and sometimes they would seal, and sometimes they wouldn't..
Looks like to me that one finally broke, and it wouldn't roll with the rest of the o-ring,
that everything just went to shit..

Total repair cost.. $40.. And that is for enough o-rings to repair it 4 more times.
It was actually $80, because I bought 5mm o-rings, and they worked, but still leaked,
so I had to dump another $40 and got 5.3mm thick o-rings... But we won't talk about that.

Rip it apart and take a look, if its sealing sometimes and not others, its generally
going to be something stupid and cheap.

Other Brother · Jun 7, 2019

My guess would be the o-rings are wore and now and then they will roll, then the leak is bad. They probably straighten back out when direction is changed. That would be intermittent. The other thing would be a bad spot in the housing when a different diameter part is clamped and the piston stops in a bad area, but the first guess is rolling an o-ring. It's probably a Samchully which I have replaced o-rings on and it's not a big job. I say go for it if there is no bearing noise. Daryl

Edit: What I meant to say is I agree with everything Bobw said, lol.

pgmrmike · Jun 8, 2019

Bobw said:
A few months ago, I did the rings in the cylinder (pancake) that pulls my turret back..

It was on and off, It would release and pull back nice, and then it wouldn't, sometimes
I could go weeks without having to top it off, sometimes only days, sometimes months.
Sometimes it would work great, other days, not so much..

Then one day it just started pissing, and nothing would work.. Ripped it apart. It
was the rings.. I have no idea how they were sealing at all.. (2 of the 3, all different sizes).. They were
shot, they were rolling, and sometimes they would seal, and sometimes they wouldn't..
Looks like to me that one finally broke, and it wouldn't roll with the rest of the o-ring,
that everything just went to shit..

Total repair cost.. $40.. And that is for enough o-rings to repair it 4 more times.
It was actually $80, because I bought 5mm o-rings, and they worked, but still leaked,
so I had to dump another $40 and got 5.3mm thick o-rings... But we won't talk about that.

Rip it apart and take a look, if its sealing sometimes and not others, its generally
going to be something stupid and cheap.

Other Brother said:
My guess would be the o-rings are wore and now and then they will roll, then the leak is bad. They probably straighten back out when direction is changed. That would be intermittent. The other thing would be a bad spot in the housing when a different diameter part is clamped and the piston stops in a bad area, but the first guess is rolling an o-ring. It's probably a Samchully which I have replaced o-rings on and it's not a big job. I say go for it if there is no bearing noise. Daryl

Edit: What I meant to say is I agree with everything Bobw said, lol.

Well I was feeling pretty good about it till you mentioned bearing noise....a few months ago started hearing a noise from the spindle area off and on, scared me but I put a stethescope on the spindle bearings and didnt hear anything....wondering if its all related now, maybe bearing going bad causing the leak? Not sure because if I remember right the seals arent "related" to the bearings, are they? I have been in one before but still dont quite get the entire mechanical operstion..

Other Brother · Jun 9, 2019

You are right, the bearings are not related to the seals. The seals can be changed without disturbing the bearings. The bearings are in the rear part where the fins are located. The seals are in the front piston area.

To determine where the noise is coming from I removed the actuator from the machine and run the spindle alone. You might have to fake out the clamp/unclamp switches or hook the hydraulic lines back up the the actuator. If you don't hook the lines back up you need to plug them with the correct JIS plug before clearing e-stop.

Obviously the bearings will be harder than just replacing the seals but it's not rocket science either. Go for it.

Daryl

Note: The bearings are lubricated by the hydraulic oil, that is why it's important to follow the preventive maintenance schedule of changing the hydraulic oil every year, which no one does because it costs too much.

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