I have an New Holland e55bx with roughly 6k hours on it. I noticed the front idler assembly is jumping on the left hand side mainly when in reverse. its especially noticeable when floating the tracks and when on the ground gives off a clicking noise although it seems to me to just be the sound of the idler rising and then dropping in the frame Just yesterday i pulled off the tracks and gave everything a once over and service. some of the bottom rollers were a little bit hard to spin by hand but loosened up a bit after refilling them with oil, no issues with spinning when tracking The front idler itself seems to be in good condition no movement in the bearing and the wheel spins easily by hand. The idler assembly frame has 5mm of space in the undercarriage frame for moving up and down with a small amount of left to right movement. The idler assembly piston seemed a bit sus to me since I could extend it a fair amount (2-3 inches) under the weight of the idler when lifting but I'm not sure if that's normal The sprocket is in pretty good condition no skipping in track links. Any ideas as to what it could be?
The usual cause is dirt or stones in the tracks which the lift the track off the sprocket which then pulls the idler back then releases it, hence the thud you hear and feel. The part which usually fails is the bolt that goes through the tension spring. Loosen the the track tension a little helps .
So i played around with the track tension a bit if i go anywhere near the track tension spec it'll begin jumping the idler aggressively. i can confirm that it is purely vertical movement the idler is not being pulled back at all. I did this with the track lifted off the ground with no dirt or stones in the track. If i loosen the track off a fair amount the vertical movement in the idler seems to stop although its definitely not within spec while the other side being in spec doesn't have this issue. should i just run one side loose? it wont cause any extra wear to the track system will it?
In the short term run it loose, it'll cause less damage than running it like it is. Are these rubber or steel tracks? A tape measure could be the best tool in your box. Measure every tooth top on the sprocket on the problem side and some on the other to get a comparison. If it steel tracks measure the pin centres or were the sprocket engages if it's rubber. Something isn't meshing probably.
Good day Play in the idler guides is pretty normal from your post it does not seem so bad, have you checked the idler spring ? Kind regards Uffex