HD 11 series B tracks

Well if your afraid they will not loosen up their is the big hammer way of beating on each pad and link to work them loose.

Both your replies is exactly what I am afraid of, a track guy said by putting power to them they may start to go , but I am thinking my life doesnt usually work that well.

KC, unfortunately pouring a petroleum product on something that has rusted tight is a waste of time and product, believe it or not, Water is the best thing to break rust, Now I know that I am leaving myself wide open for ridicule!!!. ( for example, a rusted tight roller chain, put in in water for a bit and start it moving it will come free, usually right away,then oil it, put it in oil first, it may never free up.  I have thought a lot about a situation such as yours, several things come to mind, maybe dig a pit deep enough to cover the rails, fill it with water, drag the tractor into it and let it soak and see what happens,( or build a berm around it) if you can get them to turn a bit, then eventually they might come free. Another thing that comes to mind is maybe, pull the master pin or sacrifice a link, if you have something to handle the tracks with and let them soak for a bit in a tank of H2O, maybe it will do some good. The obvious problem, is how to get it to turn when it won't, so how to you get to the top part of the track???????? I said I thought about it a bunch, I didn't say I knew the answer( insert smiley face here) That is the best that I can come up with.
 Food for thought, A friend of mine was an Operating Engineers in the Los Angles area, He told the story, while removing tracts from a Cat, they picked up the tracks in some strange manner such that it caused a piece of the rail to break away and that piece of shrapnel hit an onlooker (The boss's son) right in the heart and killed him right there , like a bullet?? Sobering thought??



Who has more fun than people on tractors?? preferably ones where the tracks turn. Tad


Edited by Tad Wicks - 10 Oct 2011 at 9:55pm

How much slop do the trcks have as far as wear , how badly worn are the bushings at the sprocket contact area. If worn you could have pins and bushings turned , this requires removing one set of track bolts on one side of pads then having pins and bushings pressed out and turned 180 to bring in new wear pattern.

Take the track to a shop that turns pins and bushings if water doesn't get them to free up.Buff the rust off the pin and then make sure you have time to run it so they don't rust up right away again.Will not be cheap but cheaper than buying other tracks.
Ray

KC, I pondered the use of high pressure water, on most tracks, there are conical washers (belleville washers) between the end of the bushing and outside link and the bushing protrudes into the outside link as well (interlocking link) to try to prevent the entrance of foreign matter, so a direct approach with a jet of water won't get there,   BUTT  , the only way that I think that it would be effective is if you washed the at the pins daily or twice daily for a period of time and the moisture might work it's way in, hence soaking was the preference, but it is worth a try, or put a small sprinkler under it and leave it go    ?Quien sabe?  I would stay waaaaaayyyyyy away from the sand blaster.

BTW, I am aware of what it takes to drag something that heavy around that is why I suggested a levy. (insert smiley face here) all in fun, good luck. But you will have to drag it sometime to try and make the tracks turn, or did I miss the part where the engine now runs?? if I did miss that, like M Diesel said, proceed with caution, something has got to give. Tad



Who has more fun than people on tractors??


Edited by Tad Wicks - 12 Oct 2011 at 9:38pm

Tad we dragged the dozer up to the shop Sunday, and the new engine is sitting here waiting to be installed. I have had alot of different people here that have tried to move it, one was that 977, but it slid it about 15ft and that was all it could muster, had 2 different payloaders that said they could move it, they couldnt even lift one side of the machine up, finally when we were digging the footings for a expansion on our shop the guy with the excavator, could manage to slide it but he wasnt playing with it. I bought a 745B loader on ebay a couple of years ago, and that changed the equation greatly, the 745 has the ability to pick it up like a box of leaves, but when you go to back up the loader the wheels come up, so I turned the 745 around hooked it very short to the rear hitch, and could barely get enough traction to pull it, and couldnt manuver at all, so I loaded the 4 yd bucket with gravel, and now it goes, unwillingly where the 745 takes it.Im so glad we have the toys, woops the tools to do the job.

Tad the 745 was Allis Chalmers 2nd from the biggest payloader its big brother 945 was huge, but the 745 is no small loader, the joke about this one is I bought it on ebay came from the airforce had 1200hrs on it, talk about goverment waste. It had alot of issues maintance wise but we got that all ironed out (demilitarize the cobble) I dont know what they teach the mechanics in the armed services, but the work on this loader was just awful, and the dealer we buy parts from for it , located in Milwaukee, said there encounter with military stuff is about the same expeirence.It has the same engine the HD11 has, and it could easily flip the 11 on its side. I do not have alot of expeirence with tracks what will the master link look like is it easily found, for me to take the tracks off and manipulate them with the loader wouldnt be that hard.

KC, track/rails, are just a bunch of "half links", the same as you find in roller chain, except for the fact that I mentioned earlier, the bushings on most, extend into the outside link a bit, all except the masterlink, this makes it very difficult to break the track anywhere but where it is intended, it can be done, but the pad bolts have to be removed and the outside links have to be spread, usually by removing two pins, so a track press is required unless you have superman on the payroll.  I don't know if AC/FA ever used a bolt together master or not, all the older stuff (pre-1980) that I worked on did not, so look for a larger pin boss or a pin with a dimple in the end, I really don't remember what the 11 has, but be prepared  to do battle to get it out, the last one I did was an "11E" I think and I had to do it several times, for some reason it had front idler and bottom roller problems, they were "lifetime" bearings and they lasted just that, the lifetime of the bearing (insert smiley face here). If you are a lucky person, and sounds like you are, for the fact you have a boy who wants to participate, the master links will be on the top side of the track, you get the jist. It is going to be like hydraulic hoses, you have a 50% chance of getting them right and a 100% of getting them wrong (put a smiley face here). To remove the master pin, the easiest way I found, is to weld a pin a bit smaller in diameter  (with 7018 low hydrogen) not much longer than the master pin to the master pin, don't try to hold a driving pin with pliers or whatever it just does not transfer the energy well, with two rosebuds heat up the links (do not overheat) and use the biggest sledge you have, I mean a big one, if you don't go quick the pin heats also and then you are stuck, if you have access to a track press it is highly recommended or a local equipment company that will come and push them out, it will cost you some but it is probably worth it. I hate to say it, but if there is a track shop anywhere nearby, it might be advisable to torch cut the master  (outside links, that way you only have to remove two pins on each track to repair it) so you can get it apart and then let the track shop fix it, that way you don't have time and money invested in something that might be scrap iron, especially if the pins are on the bottom, the life you save might be your own or your son's.

Who has more fun than people on tractors??  as long as you don't have to work under them. Tad

Coke if my HD11 and 745 wanted to be married would that be a same sex marriage???