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Recently I was doing some work with the excavator which meant crossing a ditch. The ditch was just about running dry but had soft mud on its approaches and I had to dig a way out at a slight angle on the other side as it was definitely too steep to go straight up. Even then I didn’t have enough traction to get out so had to use the bucket to drag me up the other side. On the way back the crossing looked decidedly muddy, I guess from me churning it up when I crossed earlier. Anyway, I put quite a lot of stones into the mud in the hope this would prevent me sinking and getting stuck. Alas this did not go well as the digger slipped off the route I was trying to take and in doing so the left hand track came off the sprocket, right in the middle of the mud.
Trying to get the track back on in situ was not an option so I dug the bucket in and tried pulling myself out and in doing so the track came completely off both ends, however I managed eventually to get the digger on to dry land and left it there overnight.
The following day we were back with a grease gun, socket set, bits of wood, ratchet strap and a forestry felling bar, my preferred tool for levering tracks back on.
I lifted the undercarriage off the ground with the bucket and as the undercarriage was full of mud and the middle roller bearing was not turning, we spent a bit if time cleaned it out, including all the hard dry stuff that had probably been in there for years. I took out the idler wheel as any mud behind it would prevent it from retracting completely. You need to put the blade down fully to get it out.
The small bolt at the side of the grease nipple holds a retaining bracket which stops the grease nipple from unwinding and I took this off to allow the grease nipple to be loosened fully. I actually completely unscrewed the grease nipple and gave it a good clean but it then needs to be screwed back in fully (or left out until later), otherwise you will damage it when you slide the wheel carriage back in.
There was quite a bit of mud behind the idler wheel which needed removing before sliding it back in.
Once the idler wheel was back in, I lifted the blade up and got it on a level with the idler wheel. With the grease nipple slacked off again, I used a fence post and 2 blocks of wood to lever against the inside of the blade to push the wheel back and watched the grease slowly ooze out of the bleed port. It needed quite a lot of pressure for about a minute to get the piston fully retracted. Once this was done, I tighten up the grease nipple and put the retaining bracket back on.
So now for the track. I got it lined up with the drive sprocket with a 4ft plank of wood below it (this just gives the track a flat surface to sit on) and put a ratchet strap across from the opposite track and tensioned this up a little so that when I levered the base of the track it moved in the right direction. It’s like having an extra helper pulling the track towards the sprocket. Once on the sprocket I moved the ratchet to the other end and levered the track on as best I could. Getting it over the idler wheel is always the hardest bit but I like using the felling bar as it has a flat blade about 2” wide and is idea for levering on the idler wheel and doesn’t slip off.
You will probably have noticed I’m missing the lower side panel on the digger, so if anyone has one please get in touch. Yes and it was raining.
So once on, it was time to add grease and get it tensioned up. The Operator Manual says 10 to 15mm gap between the track and the middle bottom roller. Once all done and the track tested forward and backward it was lowered to the ground. I then lifted the other side and added a bit of grease to its track tensioner as the gap was a little too much. All done, out of the mud and back in the shed. Time for a cup of coffee, in the dry, with the fire on.
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