Lost my track

[EddieWalker]

It took about 4 hours for them take care of me. I didn't have an apointment, I just showed up and two guys went to work, with one doing most of it. He just kept at it until he got it done. They used two old taps to retap it, and decided to go to town and buy a brand new one to make sure it was right.

This is that same 755B Ford they use for everything. They said the one track with pads weighed around 2,500lbs.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is the tracks at home. In the morning I will bring them down to the dozer, walk back for the backhoe and spend the day trying to install them on the dozer on my own. I have an idea on how I can do it, but this will be a first for me.

 

[EddieWalker]

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I have a Century 2535 CUT that does its job just fine, but when something breaks on it, it's a nightmare to work on. When I bust something on my full size Loader/Backhoe, it's extremely easy to work on. Lots of room, full size bolts that are easy to get to. Everything is designed to be rebuilt.

 

[KiotiJohn]

Cool update on the progress. Thanks. Some of those tracks are just amazing. That "little" Ford sure can lift. John

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Thanks again for taking the time to photograph everything and present it here. The pics and comentary are facinating.

Cliff

 

[Junkman]

I had to remove the tracks on my Oliver OC3 once.... I would rather wrestle an alligator than try that again. Once was more than enough. Never though that such a small track could weigh so much. I miss that old machine, but I don't miss the time and effort it took to keep it running. Spent half of the time locating replacement parts and the other half of the time installing them... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Degree]

Can you please give me the company name and location for future reference just incase i have something like this happen? Do they service every model? rubber tracks?

 

[BobG_in_VA]

If I read you right, lay the track out behind the drive sprocket, getting the track as close to the sprocket teeth as you can. Unroll it straight back. Start the dozer, in reverse slowing back over the track till you get to your first idler. Make sure it lines up. Once there, continue back till all idlers are lined up' then line up the front roller. We always tried to unhook and rehook them at the rear sprocket Oh, don't forget to retrack the track aduster all the way in so you will have as much slack as is possible. Hopefully you asked the guys as the shop how they do it. They are are experts and if there is a trick, they should know it. I think you MUST get a second set of hands to help. Manu you can get hurt easy foolin' with this stuff. Good Luck. BobG in VA

 

[EddieWalker]

Degree,

The company is called Cypress Equipment Co.

Phone is 903-856-6684

They are about 5 miles outside Pittburg TX

 

[EddieWalker]

Good news, hell day is over!

I started out just lining up the track straight back from the sprocket.

 

[EddieWalker]

My plan was to line up the track with the sprocket, and just pull the track under until I could get a chain on it and pull it over. Seemed like a simple idea, but it never worked. I then tried to back up onto the track, but the same results.

 

[EddieWalker]

Two problems kept coming up. One was keeping the track strait. It just didn't want to. The other was the master link kept getting caught up in the sprocket and binding up.

I had no idea how much climbing up and down from one tractor to the other I'd be doing. Most time I could only move the track and inch or two and then climb back down to make sure everything is lined up, climb onto the backhoe to adjust the track and back onto the dozer to move an inch and then undo it and start all over again.

This lasted until around 2pm when I gave up. I'm stuborn, not overly bright and pretty clueless, but I do get an idea every now and then.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is something I didn't want to do. In fact I was a little itimidated about the idea of jacking up such a big peice of machenery on uneven dirt. But its how the pros do it and I really didn't have a choice.

I save my PT blocks of wood for just such an ocasion and have a 20 ton jack from Northern Tools that I used on home repair jobs. And of course my trusty shovel. I have over $50,000 in tractors for moving dirt, and my $20 shovel is now my most important tool. Go figure.

It was kind of scary watching those boards compress under the weight of the dozer. It's about 40,000 lbs. I kept thinking that if this thing drops and I get caught under it somehow, nobody will even look for me for a week at the earliest, so I put my cell phone in my pocket in case I lived through an accident.

No problem, just slow going. I'd max out the jack so I could get one 2X8 under the dozer. The weight would compress so much thats as far as I could get each time.

Then it was shovel time.

 

[EddieWalker]

I had no room to pull the track through, so I just inched it in underneath one link at a time. Any faster and the track would bind up and I'd have to pull it out again.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is another angle. My back was really feeling it by now. I was killing myself climbing up and down off the tractors.

I really like this photo though, I like the way the track goes under the backhoe.

 

[EddieWalker]

I didn't know it at the time, but the hardest part was now over. Getting that track underneath was the hardest part. I also realized that I had to have it in the air to get the track over the idler

I hooked a chain to the master link and just pulled it with the backhoe. It came just a smooth as cream!

 

[EddieWalker]

I released the presure on the idler.

 

[EddieWalker]

Then all I had to do was pull it all together and put the pad back on and the new bolts.

I like this photo because it shows the outline of the master link and how it all holds together. Its one of the features of this dozer that I liked. If I had no master link, it would be too big a job for me to do on my own.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is how it looked last night when I quit. Track is on and bolts are tightened to my 190 lbs jumping on the socket wrench setting.

I'm still wore out the next morning and not real exited about finishing up. I will when I finish my cup of coffee.

I need to get the jack and blocks of wood out, adjust the tension in the track and get it back to my container barn and torque those bolts down to 400 lbs with my impact wrench.

Todays project is just the formalities. The worse is over.

See ya'll on the next project
Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

One last photo.

These are my buddies before the track problem.

1998 New Holland/Ford 555E Loader Backhoe

1989 Case 1550 Dozer with 8 way blade