IH TD 15C Tract tension problem

Sure hope I am doing this correctly!! Just joined in with you fellows. Been looking around and reading some of the problems and replies. Looks like a whole world of knowledge in the heave equipment section in this forum. Maybe one of you can give me a little advice and I will try to return the favor.
The idler wheel on my TD 15C suddenly collapsed while operating. I assume the seal in the tension adjustment busted. Can anyone talk me through the process of replacing the seal?

I'll get some more detail if you need, or someone else chimes in but the short of it. Once blade is removed, get your master link just behind the front idler, this will allow you to "roll" the idler wheel out and keep it up on the rail. Remove the grease cap located next to the zerk for the tessioner...to release any pressure left if any. Remove at least 2 pads each side of the master link, and finally removed the master link pad...watch you feet. We always took a large C clamp and attatched to the wheel and used the overhead hoist to hold it steady when we pushed it out...a cherry picker will do just fine as well. Removed the stop blocks on the front(4 bolts) and u should be ready to pull, push, pry, hammer...and maybe a lil cussing to get the idler to come off the shaft. the back shaft and spring will fall a bit, might need a strap or somthing later to lift it back up to put them back together. I've used a long threaded rod to to remove the "plunger" or whatever its called. Wiper seal on the end needs to come out as well. One thing always do...clean every bit of grease out of the shaft..will make for easier install of your tracks again. If you can, i would make sure to order ALL of the parts new for the tension adjustment. Install everything as they came out, sliding it almost all the way in, re install on the shaft, put some grease to it before re mounting your track...make sure its taking. Then re install stop blocks, track and blade.

I'm sure i missed a few small steps but that is it in a nutshell. I'm not a mechanic but over the past 40 years the biz owned all 15's and I grew up working on the 15C's. Done this operation a number of times over the years.

Trbo

EZ TRBO, Thanks for that description. I was thinking that was what it would take but I was sure hoping it was something more simple. Let me ask you something. There is a thick square plate with 4 bolts just forward of the rear sprocket and directly under the tract tension grease plug and inside is a thick (about 1 inch) round plate with two bolts. I removed this plate and it looks like its purpose is to seal when you put grease in the tract tension grease fitting. I observed that when I did try to put grease into the tension grease fitting the grease would come out of a small hole in what looked like a seal that is around a large (4 inches) shaft that is under the round plate. Do you know the purpose of this engineering marvel.

The plate u are talking about is the pivot shaft cap, the round plate with 2 bolts holds the track frame to the pivot shaft and has nothing to do with the track adjuster, it does however have grease in it as there is a big bushing in there that the track frame rotates on to allow it to move up and down. All the track adjuster is just behind the front idler, there is a plate with 2 bolts just behind the idler and under it is a grease fitting to pump up the track and next to it is a 15/16 nut that is the release valve to slacken the track off. When we had track adjuster problems our guys in the shop used to have to make a new barrel for the adjuster as the it used to get a bit rusty and pitted and even a new seal etc would not seal on it, wasnt a big drama as they had all the gear in the shop to do it. Just back to the pivot shaft cap, there would shims in there that are used to space the track frame in or out to centre it with the sprocket, make sure u did those 2 bolts up tight coz if they come out ur track frame will start to wander in and out on the pivot shaft, half way along the track frame is a sliding guide that attaches the front of the frame to the chassis, on it is some wear strips that are replacable, if the wear strips get to worn it allows the front of the track frame to move in and out thereby putting a lot of tension on the pivot shaft and have seen a pivot shaft break because of that. Back in 70s I worked for a firm in NZ and operated 3x TD 15s from new and put over 20000hrs on them all up in total, good little machines in their day. Hope this is of some help, Cheers RDG.

Many thanks go to EZ TRBO and R.D. GO13 for your excellent description. I have removed the front idler and located the tensioning grease plug. Seal was busted but the rod looks in good shape. Did not have to remove blade but did a bad number removing main pin when breaking tract. Oh well, new pin will set me back $50 bucks. New seal and tract pin on order and then put it all back together in the 90 degree sun. Can't wait to get back in the seat. Thanks guys.

Glad it worked out well for you 44, grew up around the 15's and very good machines. My uncle had over 50 years running the 14A, the 15b's and C's...Dad had over 30 years running the C. Always treated us well, and pretty much have had everything tore apart to work on or rebuild at one time or three over the years. Helped too the our dealer had one of them mechanics that were "the guy" that everyone called for IH and Dresser issues. Good luck to you with your machine.
Trbo