# Opening Up a Track



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Sure wish I was opening up a track to a Bob Sieger compact disk, instead I am opening up a track on my bulldozer.

I had a right front idler break so its off with the old and on with a different one. Pulling a front idler is not that bad, but opening the track sure is. We finally get some warm weather and I am pounding out a very dry pin out of an equally dry hole. I can see a very BIG and unweildly sledge hammer for most of my day today.


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## chazhk (Apr 17, 2016)

On the plus side, you'll sleep good tonight! Good luck with it.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

My arms are tired, just thinking about the swinging of the sledge hammer. But then again, my Dad use to tell me I was something like lighting, (not fast, just never striking the same place twice), so I would have a lot more swings.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

My fathers says, "You got it surrounded son, now go for the kill!"


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I finally got it after pounding all day. My dad says, "we are going to have to give this up and put the heat to it", but I hate how that weakens the links and hated too. Half a dozen sledge hammer blows though and the pin shots ahead 3 inches. After pounding on a pin for 4 hours and getting 3/8 of an inch of it out, THAT was encouraging.

I love tracks because you can make a machine float on water, but they suck when they are stuck or broken!!


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Well the 5 hour trip for parts was worth it. My inlaws were on the way and we were headed there anyway for the weekend, so an extra 1-1/2 hours for bulldozer parts was not bad.

The guy was a nice guy, quite the talker that is for sure, a great guy who loves to talk and showed me EVERY POSSIBLE issue I will ever have with my dozer. But while he told me my dozer part would be $400, he sold it to me for $200! So dumb as I am, we drive off, are at McDonald's having lunch and my father-in-law says, "well its good you won't have to be here for years", and then I realize, my left side track is not much better then my right! So we go back and buy the other idler too. I mean I was expecting to pay $400, and since I am right there, why not spend $400 for 2 parts that I will need! We quickly drove back, and he was happy to sell another part! He did chide me on one thing: since he is 5 hours inland, and I am 20 minutes, next time I had to bring lobster!!

Oh yeah, I am 20 minutes from the coast and snagged my share of Crustaceans from the sea floor.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Good thing I bought the second idler. I'll be opening up the left side track today. Another day of beating on a pin with a sledge hammer in 80 degree heat! If this keeps up, I think I will start drinking! (joking).


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

RuttedField said:


> If this keeps up, I think I will start drinking! (joking).


Make it water and you'll be fine, especially with the heat (sorry couldn't help myself, thinking you would dehydrated soon). :lol:


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Not bad to be the guy swinging the sledge, the guy holding the driver has the bad job.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I make a cradle for a lining bar out of 2x4's, that way it is at the right height and allows for a one man job. I pound the pin out from the outside, and pound the pin back from the inside. By doing that you can put a jack against the opposing lag and get the bounce out of the master pin with each whack, and use a come-a-long to hold it when the pins is reinserted. Copious amounts of grease, a 12 pound sledge hammer, and always keeping the grouser firmly bolted in place also helps.


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

What are you using the jack for? To back up the link?


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Yes, exactly!


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

Just a suggestion. I learned many years ago the futility of pounding against a jack(installing king pins). Using an appropriate length of steel stock in place of the jack will give surprising results.

Mike


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