Hydraulic hose repair

[green.bubbly]

I have an old Gravely outfront mower. One of the hydraulic hose was being rubbed by the deck drive belt and wore a hole though it. My grass in my front yard may not need cutting again for a while due to the two gallons of hydraulic oil that my wife sprayed everywhere before she realized there was a problem.

Pics of dead yard will be posted in a few days.


A new hose is $139.00 and I really did not want to spend that much on this old mower. Is there a hose repair kit or splice that would work on a hydraulic hose?

 

[sjsfire]

Don't know about down there but here in Illinois you can get a hose made up pretty cheap at any farm supply stores or implement dealers. Down there you might try a boat shop??

 

[bluwrench]

Napa makes most hyd. hoses here.

 

[mrbreezeet1]

Napa here to

 

[nissan_crawler]

Yep, take it off and get a new one made at one of the places listed above. Heck, O'Reilly's even makes them here.

 

[green.bubbly]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I needed one on a Saturday, could not find a store that made them, located one of the traveling guys who makes hoses out of a van, goes to construction sites and such and makes a zillion dollars fixing heavy equipment. Went to his house, he made one in a couple of minutes for a reasonable price.

Look in the yellow pages under Hydraulic.

Charles

 

[nehog]

In my town, both auto-parts stores do custom hoses while you wait. Just bring in your old one so they have the details (ends, size, length, etc.) and give 'em a few minutes. Helps to come at a 'slow' time, however.

 

[fatboyf150]

How bad is the line? The old man is a cheap *** and a farmer. When he would have a line burst, he would just have the line cut and to mating fittings crimped back on the line to repair it. You just got to make sure you have room for the fittings.

 

[jcouch1]

well as far as hydraulic hoses go, it's not the hose that is exspensive it is the fittings. a regular fitting isnt horrible but when you get to using swivel 90* blah blah blah the price goes from ~5-10 up to ~35-50 dollars a fitting. for two standard fittings and say 6 ft of hose it would probably run $35

 

[Full Size 66]

The only "repare" for hydraulic lines is replacement. NAPA is a good place and around here there is many industrial supply houses that make new hoses. In your case it doesn't sound like a serious safety issue but most times hydraulic lines make a nasty mess at the very least and the extra fittings or hose that a repare would include makes more connections and places to leak. The end conclusion is to get a new hose of good quality and the correct length; this will make your life so much easier.

 

[nissan_crawler]

How bad is the line? The old man is a cheap *** and a farmer. When he would have a line burst, he would just have the line cut and to mating fittings crimped back on the line to repair it. You just got to make sure you have room for the fittings.

That's scary. There's a reason they burst, and the rest of the hose isn't much better.

Dad was a cheap farmer also, but any bad hose was replaced, period. Our neighbor didn't...he's now missing 3 fingers due to a hydraulic leak.

 

[Spam16v]

https://www.mightyfixit.com/flare/next

really? no one suggested this great stuff?

 

[ibedayank]

the fix.... replace with a new hose

 

[green.bubbly]

Just to clarify, the hose did not burst. The drive belt was rubbing on it and wore a hole.

Autozone and Oreily's around here do not fix hoses. But I did find an old farm/tractor parts store that fixed in in about three minutes. Luckily, the hole was right near the end so they just cut off the bad part and crimped the fitting back on.


Had lots of fun removing it and re-installing it.

 

[GunnerJim]

"But I did find an old farm/tractor parts store that fixed in in about three minutes. Luckily, the hole was right near the end so they just cut off the bad part and crimped the fitting back on."

I hope your new fitting was compatible with the older hose.... Normally that's not a good idea in the hydraulic world.

 

[gf0012-aust]

"But I did find an old farm/tractor parts store that fixed in in about three minutes. Luckily, the hole was right near the end so they just cut off the bad part and crimped the fitting back on."

I hope your new fitting was compatible with the older hose.... Normally that's not a good idea in the hydraulic world.

they recrimped the old fitting...

 

[countryroad82]

I used to work at an auto parts store that made hoses, when a hose would come in that wasn't our brand we would measure the i.d. and o.d. to check the compatibility with our fittings. Also after a splice like that there were no guarantees it would hold!!!!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You take an abrasive disc, cut off the crimp sleeve, cut the hose off just before the damage, carefully slit the hose and remove without scarring the existing fitting, and you reinstall it using a new crimp sleeve (hose clamps would have worked in a pinch) and you put it in the hose crimper and squeeze the dog doo out of it and its done.............

Its an open center hydraulic system on a mower, pressure probably never gets over a few hundred pounds at the most when its under load, worst that happens is that it fails (why would it?) and you do it over again (probably since it was a belt rubbing, the shorter hose don't bow out into the belt now and it won't fail for YEARS, whats so difficult for everyone to understand about this?

I DO understand that several of you made proper and acceptable comments BEFORE the OP stated that the hose was damaged by the belt and did not fail due to rubber component failure...........

Charles

 

[green.bubbly]

The hose was a very thin hose for hydraulic so it was more than likely a low pressure line. A couple of hose clamps probably would have worked but since I had to go through all the trouble of removing it, just as well get it repaired properly.

 

[flyingjohn]

I have an old Gravely outfront mower. One of the hydraulic hose was being rubbed by the deck transmission shop drive belt and wore a hole though it. My grass in my front yard may not need cutting again for a while due to the two gallons of hydraulic oil that my wife sprayed everywhere before she realized there was a problem.

check harbor freight I believe they have a repair kit if memory serves

 

[nissan_crawler]

You take an abrasive disc, cut off the crimp sleeve, cut the hose off just before the damage, carefully slit the hose and remove without scarring the existing fitting, and you reinstall it using a new crimp sleeve (hose clamps would have worked in a pinch) and you put it in the hose crimper and squeeze the dog doo out of it and its done.............

Its an open center hydraulic system on a mower, pressure probably never gets over a few hundred pounds at the most when its under load, worst that happens is that it fails (why would it?) and you do it over again (probably since it was a belt rubbing, the shorter hose don't bow out into the belt now and it won't fail for YEARS, whats so difficult for everyone to understand about this?

I DO understand that several of you made proper and acceptable comments BEFORE the OP stated that the hose was damaged by the belt and did not fail due to rubber component failure...........

Charles

Both of my mowers run over 800 p.s.i., and have no crimp sleeves on the hoses, all real crimped fittings. Since he didn't give any info, my best advice was to get a new line built. Personally, I will never repair one. Ok, his was worn by a belt, and most likely, will be fine. What if the hose had swollen a little? Would the crimp sleeve still hold tight enough? Will it start leaking in 6 months? Who knows?

I replaced ALL the hydraulic hoses on mine, and it cost me under $250, and I think there was 11 or 13 of them.

 

[green.bubbly]

Mower is still going strong. Since I had put it back in service last year, it seemed to be lacking power but figured for a '83 model, I should not complain.

Started noticing lately that when i went over bumpy sections or made a left hand turn, it would start missing for a few seconds. After a little thinking as I was cutting, I figured it was probably a float issue. Tore it down but still had the problem.

Decided to get a new carb. WOW!!!

This thing is now a freaking beast. Huge increase in power. I can almost cut at full speed the entire time now where before, I was lucky to go half speed if the grass was not too thick. Pulled the blades off and sharpened them today and rebalanced the deck with the front about a 1/4 lower than the back. I would put this old thing up against any new mower.

I almost enjoy cutting the damn five acres now.

Oh, and the hose has not leaked yet.