Willie B
Senior Member
A year and change ago I bought my first dozer. Spent the winter going through it. It had rubbed the tracks on both hydraulic cylinders for blade angle. The pivot points beneath the tractor were allowing a bit of motion. Some research revealed that the tractor was built with 15" wide shoes. Mine has 16". There isn't much clearance anyway, the 1/2" eaten up by the wide track it seemed too much. Reggie, worlds most experienced crawler mechanic said give in, cut the shoes inside. I looked into "The Expander" a pin system that tightens up worn bores. Cost was substantial.
I ultimately discovered my recent undercarriage had been installed without refurbishing the guides that center the front idler. I reworked these, and had at least 1" clearance.
We have had a couple days of bitter cold weather here. I figured it might be last chance to skid some trees before everything went permanently soft. Here and there I was knocking the tops off ruts formed in the warm weather. I thought a couple times I was noticing sideways motion in the blade. I gauge this by looking at the cylinders from the seat. If the gaps are even, all is well. They seemed even. Minutes later the blade moved sideways. It was obvious something was wrong!
Sure enough, one of the pivot pins is missing. They are held in place by a bolt. In this case the bolt had a lock nut, one of those crowned compressed two wrenches to tighten it nuts.
I have no explanation, nut, bolt, and 1.75" diameter pin are gone. The right track has damaged the hydraulic cylinder.
Oh well!
Willie
I ultimately discovered my recent undercarriage had been installed without refurbishing the guides that center the front idler. I reworked these, and had at least 1" clearance.
We have had a couple days of bitter cold weather here. I figured it might be last chance to skid some trees before everything went permanently soft. Here and there I was knocking the tops off ruts formed in the warm weather. I thought a couple times I was noticing sideways motion in the blade. I gauge this by looking at the cylinders from the seat. If the gaps are even, all is well. They seemed even. Minutes later the blade moved sideways. It was obvious something was wrong!
Sure enough, one of the pivot pins is missing. They are held in place by a bolt. In this case the bolt had a lock nut, one of those crowned compressed two wrenches to tighten it nuts.
I have no explanation, nut, bolt, and 1.75" diameter pin are gone. The right track has damaged the hydraulic cylinder.
Oh well!
Willie