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Dresser Td8g won’t grade to save my life

John C.

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Jun 11, 2007
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It does look like someone swapped a new set of chains onto the old rollers but you have a long way to go on the those rollers as well. There is plenty of space between the roller flanges and the track pin bosses. The chains that you have on there though will last a lot longer if you do install the new rollers. The rails will be riding on flat surfaces instead of in the grooves of the old one.

I've had to do rollers that way when I didn't have something to lift the track frames with. It's no fun. I don't recall if the frames have to come off to change the sprockets.
 

DMiller

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Feb 21, 2010
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Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Based on the photo I stand behind the Incorrect Idlers
Track should not go Uphill from sprockets to idlers idlers have always been smaller Diameter to sprockets even just glancing at a machine
 

johndeere2240

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Apr 20, 2015
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Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
Based on the photo I stand behind the Incorrect Idlers
Track should not go Uphill from sprockets to idlers idlers have always been smaller Diameter to sprockets even just glancing at a machine
The idlers are berco, I’m going to have my parts man cross the number on them today and see if I can find out if they are correct or not
 

Tinkerer

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The shore of the illinois river USA
It is interesting that the factory brochure advises purchasing the Long Track for grading.
Sadly, JohnDeere2240 you are fighting an uphill battle for finish grading.
I experienced the same problem with a short track dozer to. It was quite frustrating to run a dozer that was impossible to avoid that dreaded blade hop.
Dam, I hated that dozer !
trc.jpg
 

johndeere2240

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Apr 20, 2015
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Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
39AE0359-9887-461E-BF72-C0A2A2B4133E.jpeg Rollers came in today, going to try and get them on tomorrow, center the idler and top roller and shim the wear bars to book spec.
Was able to confirm that my front idlers are correct, they measure right at 23 1/2 inches flange to flange which is exactly what the book says they should.
Still have some other things to take care of while it’s in the shop, water pump is weeping, so going to replace that, and a oil cooler line is leaking at a fitting so that will be addressed, and before it leaves I’m going to try and get the pins out off the crossbar and see what they look like, I believe they will be worn, they will probably get built back up and ground down, and the holes they come through will probably get some welding and grinding work done so that the pin will go back through tight and take any slop out that there is there.
Blade is as tight as new, took care of that last year.
Then lastly I have 2 track adjuster seal kits coming, I have one that leaks down slowly so I will probably go ahead and re seal then while it’s in the shop, does anybody have any suggestions on how to split the track so that it is easiest to put back together? They are the split link type, (alligator link) I have only done one other and we did it just behind the front idler, is that the best location to have it split at?
 

johndeere2240

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Apr 20, 2015
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Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
Y
It is interesting that the factory brochure advises purchasing the Long Track for grading.
Sadly, JohnDeere2240 you are fighting an uphill battle for finish grading.
I experienced the same problem with a short track dozer to. It was quite frustrating to run a dozer that was impossible to avoid that dreaded blade hop.
Dam, I hated that dozer !
View attachment 238688
Yes I agree Tinkerer, it’s probably a up hill battle, and the reason I’m in this battle is probably a combination of being young, dumb, and stubborn.
The next dozer I buy will be a long track, I’m coming to the conclusion that the track on the ground always need to be longer than the blade is wide, I could be wrong but i thing that after the G series they went to 6 rollers on the bottom, probably just for the reason that they are so much better to run, I know that when they went to Komatsu the 37 and 39s are 6 roller tractors, I have probably already gone to far fighting this one, but I have to much money in it to sell and start over at the moment, so I’m hoping that with getting the undercarriage in good shape, taking the slop out of the blade handle and crossbar pins that maybe I can get enough performance out of it to be able to keep it a couple of years and work some of my money out of it then move this machine to a backup, but we shall see
The moral of the story is I should have been on the forum asking advice before I purchased it, I hope other people reading this will learn and not repeat my mistakes
 

Willie B

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Jan 2, 2016
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Mount Tabor VT
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Electrician
Clearly, you won't know until you make repairs. After that, I've found finish work I like to do backwards. It isn't good for the tracks, but it isn't heavy work, and I pull downhill whenever possible.

I spend time imagining the perfect drag to smooth out the surface lawnmower smooth. Harley Rakes seem out of my price range. I just bought a 10' York Rake with gauge wheels, haven't tried it yet.
 

Bls repair

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Ran into a similar problem with a 39 kamatsu ,the blade was so far out from the track so you could angle the blade without hitting the track .that the blade would jump up and down like running over boulders when just traveling.41A8FDD4-5327-45EA-ABBB-1A917AD44604.jpeg
 

johndeere2240

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Apr 20, 2015
Messages
37
Location
Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
Did y
Ran into a similar problem with a 39 kamatsu ,the blade was so far out from the track so you could angle the blade without hitting the track .that the blade would jump up and down like running over boulders when just traveling.View attachment 238784
Did you find any solution? Or just learn to deal with it?
 

Willie B

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Mount Tabor VT
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Have you considered removable shoes? Think of a wood plane. If you took a razor sharp plane iron, just pushed it straight into the wood, results would not be good. Mount that same plane iron in a flat sole, it works much better. In mortice & tennon joinery you use a chisel with one face flat. You lay the flat side on the surface you want to fine tune, it stops the blade from cutting too deep. I have toyed with the notion of a flat surface laying behind the cutting edge
 

cuttin edge

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Nov 9, 2014
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NB Canada
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Finish grader operator
Back dragging takes the marks out, and makes it look pretty, but an old tractor mane once told me that if a dozer was made to back drag, it would have a cutting edge on the back of the blade. I do it myself, but it does wear the bottom of the blade.
 

Willie B

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Cutting edges are cheap. Undercarriages are NOT. Lots of dynamics in backing up, chains & sprockets wear rapidly backing up. I'm not suggesting doing the job backward, only the last few passes.
 

cuttin edge

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NB Canada
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Finish grader operator
Cutting edges are cheap. Undercarriages are NOT. Lots of dynamics in backing up, chains & sprockets wear rapidly backing up. I'm not suggesting doing the job backward, only the last few passes.
Oh I back drag myself a lot. One company I worked for, and that's where the old fella told me not to do it, if you got caught back dragging with a U blade, you got your walkin papers. As a grader operator, I prefer using a tractor with an angle blade over a strait push. I notice a lot of dozer men, run the grader with the MB in a strait position.
 

johndeere2240

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Apr 20, 2015
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37
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Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
Cutting edges are cheap. Undercarriages are NOT. Lots of dynamics in backing up, chains & sprockets wear rapidly backing up. I'm not suggesting doing the job
Back dragging takes the marks out, and makes it look pretty, but an old tractor mane once told me that if a dozer was made to back drag, it would have a cutting edge on the back of the blade. I do it myself, but it does wear the bottom of the blade.

backward, only the last few passes.
I do back drag if for some reason I need to leave something perfectly smooth like dressing top soil in a yard, it works on loose material but what I have found that on something that is going to be compacted, like a building pad or a driveway, if you washboard it going forward, then backdrag it smooth when you pack it every ripple and bump you put in it going forward will show, in other words compacted material has to be cut smooth to be smooth
 

johndeere2240

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Gadsden AL
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Owner at New Hope Contracting
A252FD71-BDD8-4F59-9111-EF7F3F0EC7A0.jpeg C6264ACC-1B90-43C1-AD69-B05380E2839F.jpeg Made a little progress today, engine is serviced, got the water pump replaced, looks like last time it was done somebody attempted to put the pump back in without the gasket, in doing so they used a liberal amount of the red Silicone, pump was leaking around the bottom sealing surface, replaced with a new, not reman pump, I have had to many troubles out of reman parts in times past.
Then we got on to resealing track adjusters, the one on the right side has never worked, track tension has been close to where it needed to be, but when I had tried to tighten it up it would not take grease, replaced grease zerk, still no go, the left side has always leaked down slowly.
Both sides came apart easy, had track spilt and idler fork out in about 15 minutes per side, but that’s where the fun begin, right side piston was froze in the tube, tried break clean, then penetrating lube, then screwing in a slide hammer ( which the book does not tell you about, the back of the piston has a threaded hole, 9/16 I believe, all the book says is remove piston) but it was stuck hard, then tried heating the tube with the torch to melt the hardened grease then pulling with a nut screwed down the piece of all thread while hitting with the slide hammer, still no go, so as a last ditch effort we took the slide hammer off, cut the all thread, and put the impact wrench on the nut on the remaining all thread and hammered away trying to pull the piston out, and of course the all thread broke, so that was 2 hrs of the morning wasted.
So after throwing all that in the scrap pile and just being resolved to buying a new idler fork and piston we went to the other side, screwed the slide hammer into the back of the piston and a few bumps and out she came, a few minutes of cleaning and pressing a new seal on, and that side is sitting on the floor ready to go.
With the tracks broke, the out side crossbar pins are easy to get at, I had about decided to leave them alone but after seeing how much room there is to work around them now, and with having to wait on parts this week since we need a new idler fork and piston, we went ahead and removed one of the pins, the out side collar that the pins go through had approximately 1/8 to 1/4” of slop, I have already found a piece of heavy wall pipe, I’m going to cut the collars off and make new ones that will hold the pin tight, and order new pins, and weld the new collars on, probably will take into next weekend to get this done but that should have everything as tight and as close to new as I can get.
 
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