How much leakage is acceptable?

[CM1995]

You do realize it only takes a few hundred pounds of grease pressure to adjust a track.
Bad Bob

It's your seals as well BAD Bob - have it.

 

[Tinkerer]

I ran a service truck for seven years and adjusted tracks on a lot of different types of machines.
Dirty tracks will take more pressure to stretch than clean ones. Especially dirty ones, in the winter in Illinois.
More than once I would be pumping on the tensioner and getting very little movement then all at once the stupid thing would pop ahead. Usually when that happened, I had to bleed excessive grease out to get the proper amount of sag in the track.
I used both a Graco air powered gun and a handgun. Never ever blew a seal out.
Using an air powered gun should only be used by someone with a h##ofa lot of experience adjusting tracks.

 

[Bluox]

It's your seals as well BAD Bob - have it.

So how much surface area do a seal have?
Bad Bob

 

[John C.]

A manual grease gun in good condition can pump to 10K PSI. Air or electric is not any better. The recoil spring in a dozer is loaded to the weight of the machine. A dozer weighing 80K can throw that much force just bumping into a fair size rock. I’ve never seen a pressure relief on an adjuster. Adjuster seals fail because of dirt or damage to the rod. The other failure mode is improper installation.

 

[oarwhat]

So since 1693TA is a newbie I think you guys should talk about how tight the tracks should be. To tight is not a good thing.

 

[1693TA]

Thanks for the help and advice guys. Someplace I read to drive the tractor straight forward, then straight back 20 feet letting the machine come to a stop on flat ground without brakes. It then mentions to walk on the track to bring the slack between the front idler, and foremost track support roller. You then place a straightedge between these two members and slack is measured between these two using the high points of the grouser bar at each end, and lowest center point. You then use a grease gun to bring the sag up to where it needs to be which is probably 1 - 1-1/2 inches.

Here is a snip of the track adjuster for the machine. Part #4 in the diagram shows to be a valve of some sort. I assumed this to be a pressure relief, but maybe it's a check valve?:



Keep in mind I've not physically seen any of this myself. I do however plan to get these adjusted up shortly before a friend brings the tractor home. They may be fine now but the machine has not moved since December, and hasn't performed or pushed, anything in 20+ years.

As always, any help or advice appreciated.

 

[John C.]

I've gone back through this thread and don't see anywhere that you identify what machine you are working on. The drawing above is reminiscent of a Deere dozer but I'm not sure.

Item 3 in the drawing is just a grease zerk. Item 4 is a fitting with a cone at the bottom and a check valve inside. The cone allows controlled release of pressure in the cylinder. The valve and fitting are one piece for most other manufactures.

Adjusting the tracks requires moving the dozer forward so all the slack ends up on top of the track frame. I've always driven forward and then steered to the side and then adjusted the loose side. Excavator tracks are adjusted by lifting one side and then measuring the distance between the track and the bottom of the track frame. In this case I've always lifted the side to adjust and moved the track in reverse to get the slack into the bottom.

 

[Nige]

This one by any chance..?
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/what-year-is-my-machine-for-sure.92177/

 

[1693TA]

I like this video a lot as it emulates pretty closely why my tractor was purchased. I am reclaiming just short of 13 acres for a homesite, and hayfield as my grand daughters are coming to horse tending age. Theses animals are great family endeavors. As the gent mentions in the video he is not going for clear cutting out of respect for wildlife. I am doing much the same as there 30 acres there to work with and it's all woods. I forgot to mention the machine is an Allis-Chalmers HD11 Series B design. I have purged from memory any reference to "Fiat-Allis", but the tractor is a 1975 build.

Watching Youtube videos I've seen several parties block the front idler at the grouser with a timber and attempt to climb this to put slack in the track. They always use their weight to bounce on the track between the front idler and support roller to get the most slack then adjust to tension. Most then operate the machine and check it again.

Thanks for addressing the valve. I made a career out of reading, interpreting, streamlining, modifying, and writing tech manuals, so until I garner a bit of experience by reality, I have to rely upon, and solicit input from others.

 

[1693TA]

This one by any chance..?
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/what-year-is-my-machine-for-sure.92177/

That is it Nige. Thanks for bringing it back to the forefront.

 

[John C.]

To release the track adjuster the first item is to clean out the dirt and debris in the track frame as much as possible before opening the adjuster fitting. Once you release the fitting you can put the blade on the ground and then put the machine in reverse and steer to pull the track and idler back. There are also plenty of times I've had to pick up the blade and pack chunks of wood between the idler and the blade linkages and then force the blade down get the idler to come all the way back.

 

[1693TA]

Thanks, it really doesn't seem a difficult task at all. Given these shouldn't leak down at all but seemingly do, is this something needing checked routinely, and how much slack should be allowed before addressing?

I would assume that valve does function much like a rupture valve in other equipment but doesn't require replacement from actuation. This would be from overpressurization of the protected circuit from impact of the front idler with an immovable object.....

 

[Bluox]

Don't assume ,that valve is a check valve keeps grease pressure off the grease fitting.
You back it out to release the grease to loosen the tracks.
Bad Bob

 

[1693TA]

Thanks Bob; thinking I have a pretty good grasp of the concept now. Was talking with the seller this morning and he reminded me of a "weeping" bottom roller on the opposite side of the tractor. he said the now defunct servicing company always topped it off with the annual service routines but it's not been touched in over 20 years. I didn't notice anything abnormal when under it last fall where it had sat all those years, so can't can't be anything major, or it could be dry. Regardless I want to address this also as they appear to be a serviceable unit:

 

[1693TA]

The suspect "weeping" roller is a replacement with a filler plug installed and matches item #10 shown in the illustration above in the "bushing type" roller. This is a metal plug that kind of looks as if a special coupler would be required rather than a conventional grease coupler. The other rollers appear to be the roller bearing type as the through shaft ends are round where the bushing type has flats. These are easily seen from the underside of the tractor. I don't see evidence of leakage myself but may pull that plug to ensure there is oil contained within. The bushing type rollers were service replacement parts.

The track release spring and apparatus are contained within an oil reservoir on this tractor. Each spring compartment has two gallons of oil contained within. The push rod penetrates the gland of this reservoir and bears against the release spring. These are clean and dry and both reservoirs are equal in content level.

 

[1693TA]

Citing my limited dozer experience is limited to International Harvester, I remembered the track release being different on these than me Allis-Chalmers. I went looking for reference and found this video: