Hi, I just bought nice O&K RH City Cityline that I'll use on my farm but I have problems with both tracks that don't twist. This excavator was left by the ex owner on a quarry for maybe 6 mounths without using it and the track became locked. Do you have any solution to solve that without removing all track?
Find (or create) a big puddle/pool of water. Run the machine back and forth through it. Repeat until the pins loosen off.
As Nige mentioned, walking it through water should help. If it was in line or calcium, maybe not so much. What I have done in severe cases is apply waste oil at pin joints, raise the track and free run while applying more oil time to time. It sometimes helps to slack the track some to let the weight of the track do some of the work for you . You want to be careful with chain tension, you don't want undue stress on your travel box or idler. Take your time, work it slow, till it frees up little by little. It didn't bind up overnight, it wont free up overnight either. Best of luck to you.
thanks for your comment, I already apply some oil + diesel fuel in the pin joints and yesterday I worked some hours but they are still blocked. I'll try in this way in order to unlock. Unfortunately I don't know where the excavator was used in the last time. I'll try to contact through the dealer the ex owner to ask him more info about this machine.
Thanks Nige for the suggestion, we have also small river close to us, I can go there and go un and down.
Please can you translate "if it was in LINE.." I'm italian and I don't understand how translate "LINE" in that sentence.
My apologies, I didn't catch the misspelling. It meant to say in lime or calcium. Sand is pretty abrasive but not corrosive like lime or limestone
We have had better luck on dry pin rails with water freeing them as most likely is what set them up to begin with. Rust responds easier to the source(water) than to oils once heavily formed as here.
I will caution, once they do come loose they will wear as if made of Papier Mache
Good day I wish you luck freeing the links contrary to the previous comments we had a number of occasions that this was a issue, we found after extensive investigation's that a track chain supplier attempted to increase the life of the chains by assembling with a Moly base grease the result was negative, a hard substance formed and splitting the links was the only way to free off the chain but this proved more expensive than chain replacement. All attempts of running in water - soaking liniks in fuel and easing oil had no effect See attached Kind regards Uffex
Have not heard of this, thanks for sharing that bit of doom n gloom.
That's one of the reasons I started staying away from moly greases long time ago... if people didn't keep up on the greasing the stuff would turn into concrete!!!, it's all good as long as you keep fresh grease going in from time to time but once it goes dry too long all the pressure in the world don't help
You could try this
Ive always soaked them in diesel. Bad thing is it makes a hell of a mess and contaminates the ground.
But diesel came from the ground...
The definition of toxicity - basically too much of a good thing in one location! if you guys think that my comment is little out of place - yeah, I’m just being “smart ass”!
thanks, now I understood
Yes, I tried the same, with same results
Thanks Uffex, I don't think that the problem came from grease, the ex owner left the excavator in the quarry for long time with no use and then the problem come up, but thanks for your comment, looks very interesting
please clarify what "Papier Mache" is, I don't unterstand the means. We try first to run excavator on the river
It means it made of paper and dough, it’s actually French term, you should know it. They make dolls with that ancient technology.
Don’t know exactly why, but there’s a lot of camshafts ( especially Cummins ISX) killed by Schafer high molly oil!
So, you mean that will be fragile?
I'm sure you got dry steel pin n bushing. I think you'll be ok once the break free.
That was the inference, not so much fragile but as the rust breaks free and erodes the pin to bushing wear will first show then increase. Chains may initially get snake like then will inevitably side slip and roll off in a bind. Care when using and you will be fine, making sure you monitor the rails as they do wear may make you feel paranoid but should be able to manage use for quite awhile.
thanks DMiller for this advise, I'll keep it in my mind
These are my own Worn Beyond Limits Dry Pin Loader rails, only rolled a track off Twice, Painful but manageable.