2 Post lift repair question.

[samert111]

One of the cylinders on my Forward DP97 two post lift is leaking at the lower gland seal where the rod exits the cylinder. It's the cylinder opposite the pump and controls. I have the seal kit for the cylinder and want to remove it to rebuild it.
If I raise both carriages normally to the top so the rod is up inside the cylinder, then remove the 2 nuts where the rod connects to the carriage, can I just lower both carriages normally to clear the carriage from the disconnected cylinder, while relying on the equalizing cables to support the weight of the disconnected carriage until I can apply the carriage stops to relieve the hydraulic pressure so I can disconnect the hydraulic lines and remove the cylinder?

 

[OccupantRJ]

Can you raise the lift, then lower it onto the stops to be able to remove the cylinder once the cylinder is unloaded? You will need lots of shop rags when you tackle it as hydraulic work tends to be rather messy. If you have the tall support stands used with lifts I would also tend to use those for backup support of the carriage. I would also watch a video on the process for ideas, and be aware that some hydraulic cylinder assemblies can have tricky retainers in not so obvious places.

 

[samert111]

Can you raise the lift, then lower it onto the stops to be able to remove the cylinder once the cylinder is unloaded? You will need lots of shop rags when you tackle it as hydraulic work tends to be rather messy. If you have the tall support stands used with lifts I would also tend to use those for backup support of the carriage. I would also watch a video on the process for ideas, and be aware that some hydraulic cylinder assemblies can have tricky retainers in not so obvious places.

On this lift the cylinders pull the carriages up, so I need to raise it all the way up to compress the cylinder and remove the 2 nuts that connect it to the bottom of the carriage. At this point the cylinder is inside the carriage, and it needs to be lowered to clear the bottom of the cylinder so I can swing it out of the post.
I did watch a you tube video on the same lift where they used an engine hoist to lower the disconnected carriage down while using the pump controls to lower the other side at the same time. I understood that part, but they didn't show how they lifted it back up to connect the carriage to the new cylinder. The other carriage needs to go back up at the same time and the only way to do that is with the pump motor and to do that the hydraulic lines would need to be connected to both cylinders, then the new one will start to extend. They left out alot of the details.