HD4 thrown track

Ugh! It's only been a couple days since I finally fixed my coolant issue that put my machine out of commission for a couple months, and now this!

I was making a hard turn in place (one clutch pulled and brake applied) and about halfway through the turn I hear a loud clunk and stop turning. A quick look over the side and sure enough, the left side track popped off!!



I tried for a good couple hours, pushing and pulling, using a long pry bar, looking up videos on YouTube, trying to use a chain on the boom of the hoe to pull the track up and over... Nothing doing. I cannot for the life of me get any of the teeth into any part of the track with enough purchase to try to just drive it back on.

I'm feeling very discouraged. I could use some advice on the best way to go about getting this thing back on. Thankfully since I have the backhoe on it, I have the boom as well as the side stabilizers at my disposal for lifting.

Track is on (positioned) backwards, btw. Not sure what the strategy is in doing that, but have seen it done a few times...

If it were me, I'd remove the track from the machine and as mentioned, back the track adjuster off all the way. Use a bar, come a long, or another tractor and chain to pull the track adjuster or idler assy. towards the back of the tractor. If this doesn't move back easily I'd make the needed repair while it was apart. Get the track chain back around the drive sprocket, then the idler, and finally bring the tension back up on the track.

Ok thanks for the advice all. I'm going to be heading down soon to try again.

I'm wondering about the tracks being backwards though. Obviously the machine would've come with the tracks on "proper", so what would the reason be for someone to take them off and put them on backwards? What potential benefit would that have given? Or is it more likely that they were taken off for some other reason and they didn't notice they put them back on backwards?

I should note that the area where I'm doing all my work is a part of my property that I call "down below"... My house and outbuildings are up on an old creek bank, and to get "down below" I have to go down a fairly steep hill. The backhoe on my machine makes the entire unit so back-heavy that when I'm finished and want to go back up to park it in the shed, I can't get up the hill going forward... I have to back it up the hill (so all the weight of the backhoe is forward going up the hill, instead of behind).

So with that in mind maybe it would be for the best to keep the tracks on backwards? Thoughts?

We had a guy around here with a dozer set up like yours and his tracks were purposely mounted backwards as yours are from normal convention. He did a lot of septic fields, tiling, and basement excavations before excavators took most of that type work. I was line boring his backhoe portion, (John Deere 450) and asked about the tracks and I remember him telling me it made no difference in using the loader bucket, but a lot of difference when backing up an incline. I never equated that to anything in particular but probably because of the weight hanging out back, but it is what I was told.  

First you need to get the lock plate bolts out. 

One guy, one torch, one set of hands won't get you very far on this type of job. 

Looks to me like the shaft hole is threaded just about half way through.

Fires thing is that collar with bolts through it needs to be loosened . Take both bolts out of it and turn it separate from the yoke - then work on getting shaft to turn in yoke . 
 Heat and a lot of it might be needed - in like almost red hot .
Have seen tracks ran backwards to get other side of bushing in contact with sprocket teeth on worn tracks - it also puts pin wear on opposite side from normal wearing . 
 HD4 with a hoe mounted is putting all the weight on the rear sprocket and not much on track rollers - in fact I ended up breaking axles on the one i had - also had to have both rear cases worked on as outboard bearing for axle wore into case and had to have it machined and cup welded into case to hold new bearing cup
 Leaking rear seals was another problem so went to speedy sleve on axle and different rear seal to accommodate it . 

Remove the cap screws from the adjuster.  Get a fire going in your wood stove or firepit and make sure you get a nice bed of hot coals.  Put the threaded portion  on the coals and heat till dull red.   Proceed quickly to a vat of waste oil and immerse past the threads.   Make sure you use protection to avoid spattering of oil near your face and body.   This method will cause a violent reaction but will free the adjuster for repair.  

SUCCESS!

A buddy came over to give me a hand again, and with his help we were able to jury-rig a "vise" of sorts to hold the yoke on the floor of my shop (just built up a frame of 2x4s around it screwed down into the floor joists for strength). With the yoke 100% immobilized, we were able to use penetrating oil and heat from a tiger torch, and broke the rust-weld of the locking plate by tapping it slowly with a hammer. Once that was free to move, we were able to use a pipe wrench with a long pipe extension over the handle for leverage, and we were able to break the main shaft screw's rust-weld as well. We worked it all up and down with copious amounts of oil to get things mobile again, then took it down to where the HD4 was stuck.

With the shaft fully retracted, getting the track back on was a piece of cake! She's back in action. As always, thanks again for all the tips and advice.

DiyDave wrote: Now that you have it freed up, make sure to coat the threads with never sieze!

Definitely part of the plan!