Hey everyone, I got another delima for you. The track on my D5G went limp on me the other day and I thought I had lost the grease seal on the track adjuster cylinder, but upon inspection I didnt find any grease coming out of the seal around the shaft but I found some that had came out of the bleeder valves weep hole. I tried to tighten it up but it still leaked, then I changed the valve out with a new one and still have the same problem, the track stays up tight when it is sitting still but move the machine around some and it starts to go limp again and the grease comes out of the weep hole. Anyone got any ideas?
The safety strap that goes over the valve has an o ring on it. I found a missing one myself one time.
IIRC that valve sits into a tapered seat at the bottom of the hole. Is the seat scratched or otherwise damaged enough so that the valve can't seat correctly..?
I found my problem today, I had a cracked weld between the cylinder and the bleeder valve block, it was right at the weep hole is what made me think it was coming from there. I am in the process of grinding out the crack and re-welding it, hopefully I can get it to seal up with the grease still in the cylinder, that can cause allot of porosity in a weld.
I had the same problem on the same machine. Pulled both track adjusters off, local cat dealer rebuilt them both, checked for cracks with dye penetrant. The replace both valves, idler shaft seals. $1600 and it didn't help at all. Gave up and ran it till it became obvious the tracks were stretched too far. Pulled one link off both sides, now they stay tight. Go figure
Watglen, you have pretty much just done away with the adjuster, right?
I don't think so. If you have so much wear in the track links the adjuster gets over-extended and often will not seal correctly so it fails to maintain track tension correctly. By removing a link from the tracks the adjuster moves back into its "comfort zone" and seals like it should, therefore tracks stay correctly tensioned.
Here is a link to an old thread regarding my machine. IIRC, I had a tough time understanding where the grease was going. Couldn't figure it out. We pumped in tubes and tubes, and it flat out disappeared. Cat didn't give me any clues either. Still don't know really. It might have been leaking either out the tensioner seal, out the adjuster valve, or out some hidden crack in the tensioner body. Cat rebuilt them both, new valves, seals, etc. Made them new again, but didn't solve the problem. Never did figure it out. Both sides were the same, wouldn't stay tight more than an hour. Eventually pulled a link or two from each side, and it stays tight now. Good luck Ken
That makes sense, I had the same problem with my excavator..
Were you able to weld up the crack with the grease still in there? My D5G did the exact same thing yesterday. Mine is the left track (while seated)