My TL26 has an issue with the track drive control. I would expect, as with other machines I've run, when moving forward/reverse, it should be normal to go in a relatively straight line. Mine drifts to one side so you move the stick to compensate, then it flips past center and drifts the other side, and on and on. In other words, it seems to have a "knife edge" at center so it moves with adequate speed and direction, but it's really difficult to go straight. To be more specific, the stick motion seems to have a range toward center position where it has little/no effect. By the time you move the stick left/right to compensate because it's turning slightly, it wants to skip over the center and start turning slightly the other direction. It's just always turning slightly left or right and can't find center. What I wish I could find is a guide so I can systematically adjust, or at least test, pressures on the system. I am aware there are ports to connect a gauge and ways to adjust pressures to be within specified ranges and I suspect my machine is not adjusted properly. Yes it could maybe be something else, but seems like checking and maybe adjusting my pressures would be the best place to start troubleshooting. From what I've been able to find so far, my problem might not be so much in the pilot valve area (though possible), but more likely be in the directional control valves. If someone is willing to hold my hand through this, that would be cool. But if I could just be pointed toward a writeup or something where I could school myself on how this pilot control system is working, where I need to check pressure first, then move to the next step in the chain, etc., that would be very helpful as well. The manuals I have show pretty basic stuff and good info on parts, but I need something that dives deeper and shows me which ports are appropriate to check and in what order to check them. I would love to have one if it exists, but I don't have a full-blown service manual for this machine which shows the ports and pressures, etc. The somewhat sad thing is, I'm certain that if I knew what I was doing, I think it might only take an hour or two to set everything to be cherry, but my knowledge is lacking enough that I'm probably looking at several hours of study before I understand what I'm doing enough to solve this problem. I don't mind the learning of course, but I'm just stupid enough that I haven't even found a good place to start. Thanks for any assistance. Though deep understanding of the system would be great, I'm not married to the idea of total understanding of the system if I could just be shown what I need to do on my specific machine to get it operating correctly. But if one of you could point me the right direction either way, I would appreciate it.
Have you done some basic checking, like hyd filter, checking for debris. Does it make any difference to tracking if you run rpm at high. Have you tried running track controls with machine off the ground, listen for noises or signs of binding. Check rollers, check final drive oil. I would check everything you can think of to eliminate any mechanical faults in track system. Then move towards hydraulic testing.
I just bought a pair of much-needed tracks and sprockets so I'll be inspecting and rebuilding the undercarriage soon. I guess that will be a good time to check all the mechanical stuff out. BUT.... I still would like to find a systematic approach to testing pressures so I can verify that everything on this old machine is at least tuned to run as close as possible to how it was designed to run.