T103 bucket cylinder

Hey guys first post here. I am a veteran of many mechanical things, I have a Jeep that I have pretty much rebuilt from the ground up. But I am going to buy a skid steer this year to plow and maintain my private road and property. I am looking at an older Thomas T103 or it may be a T133 which I can get cheap. It is in fair condition mechanically but it is rough cosmetically. There are two things that will need to be addressed right away, first the bucket cylinder on the left side of the machine is broken at the welded tube, second it is missing one of the lower bucket pivot pins. I have already found a source for the pins, but the cylinder is eluding me. A couple Q's: Are the dimensions of the bucket cylinder bore 2.5'', stroke 13.3'', and rod 1.125''. Secondly the cylinder is not available through Thomas I called, but all of the hydraulic shops and cylinder suppliers I talked with say they don't have a cylinder with 13'' of stroke its an oddball OEM cylinder, but I have found cylinders that seem like they will fit but will be an inch longer or shorter than factory,will a 12'' or a 14'' work, will it work with the other factory cylinder on the other side of the bucket. Another question is what size hydraulic fitting are the factory cylinders, its a three eights hydraulic hose so I would guess half inch o-ring boss. Does anyone think its a good idea to try to weld the piston back to the cross tube. If the machine runs and drives all right on Saturday i'm probably going to buy it. I've been doing a lot of research on here and around the internet and have a good idea what to look for. Any help you can lend for a first time skid steer guy would be much appreciated, Brian

Are you able to weld up the damaged part of the cylinder?
If you need to go for another cylinder and it is too long, you can install a spacer inside the cylinder to limit it's stroke.

Tazza said:

Are you able to weld up the damaged part of the cylinder?
If you need to go for another cylinder and it is too long, you can install a spacer inside the cylinder to limit it's stroke.

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I'm going to try to weld the tube back on to the rod for sure if I buy the machine. The OEM cylinder is a weird size. 2.5 inch bore, 13 and three eighths stroke, 20.68 retracted length, 1 and an eighth rod diameter.

2003rubiblue said:

I'm going to try to weld the tube back on to the rod for sure if I buy the machine. The OEM cylinder is a weird size. 2.5 inch bore, 13 and three eighths stroke, 20.68 retracted length, 1 and an eighth rod diameter.

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Good move on trying to repair it first, if that fails those sizes aren't too weird. Just the stroke is a bit odd, but that can be done easily enough.