I have a Caterpillar 268b with a bolt on Loegering VTS system. I replaced drive chains a year or so ago. Machine has done well. After putting on new rubber tracks I noticed some slop and pop in left hand side. Being Cautious...I decided to remove the VTS system from left side to check chains. Chains seem ok so far. They need adjusted. I can figure out how to tension the axle...in this case I am using a ***-a-long pulling from the rear against axle. and for front axle i will pull from bucket and rachet tension. i have a print out from Cat that says 10mm on top portion of chain with bottom chain taught with tool. It does not show tool??? The only CAT tool i see is a screw type pole that tensions between axles to tension. Well..thats not necessary for me or the average joe. I can make one or jerry rig something such as my ***-a-long. But.....how do i get the bottom chain taught and not the top?? I have the machine on blocks. what kind of deal are they saying as proper to do this? i can just pull the axle and get 10mm on top but how do i taught the bottom of chain? do i leave bottom bolts of axle tight and roll back the axle top bolt and tighten it down at an angle? any technical advise is appreciated!
i have an idea that of i roll the rear axle forward as if it has the tire on it and i turn it counter-clockwise until the bottom side is taught and the top is loose? maybe i can put a bar between wheel studs and roll it counter clockwise and measure? what do you think?
Well I'm probably attaching what you already have but just going to try. The picture shows not too clearly the tool used to push on the axle hubs. I could see making something up out of some water pipe or something similar with a piece of threaded rod stuck in the end with a nut you could turn to push the axle hub by turning thee nut down the threaded rod. The thing I would do to start is to jack up the machine and remove wheels or what ever is on the axles then you could just turn the axle which ever way you need to to get slack on the top to take your 10 mm measurement while using the home-made pusher tool to move the axle hub.