Can anybody shed some light on what im up against? I am gonna install a new undercarriage on my case455c. Idelers, sprockets and rollers and new chain, reusing the track pads. Never done anything like this before and would appreciate some insight on what kind of jacks to lift machine and how to block it up, Do i do one side at a time, or lift the whole machine up to do both sides, etc. Are the bolts super tight and any tricks to breaking them free. Thanks, joe in pa
I am not the best guy to give you help due to my lack of experience and knowledge but two years ago I was in your shoes and I know how it feels. My TD7G is 70 HP and 14,000 lbs or so which I think is about the same size as your 455C. I did sprockets, track chains with a pad swap, and a couple rollers. Rebuilt track adjusters too. I had never worked on heavy equipment before. Here is some of what I learned 1) It is very hard work physically and slow. It took me a long time. Weeks. But I had a minimum of tools. I used my tractor with a logging winch and loader to handle heavy parts. 2) Make sure you have a O/A torch and plenty of gas. Every bolt comes off hard, especially rock guards and rollers, Be patient. Breaking a bolt off in the track frame - well .... you just don't want to. This was the hardest and most time consuming for me. 3)you have to like lying on your back under the thing with a torch and a big impact wrench. Make sure you get it high enough to work under with your tools. Make sure it is safe and solid. Once it is up it will be there for a while probably. 4)Don't consider doing it w/o a service manual. 5)I had to cut the heads off the pad bolts because they were to worn for a wrench. Took a while and tedious being careful not to cut the pad. Tried cutting the nuts but that was worse because you had to beat each pad off with a heavy hammer to get the four bolts to pull through the chain. Probably there is a better way but I didn't know any. You get the picture by now probably. For blocking points I blocked under the blade C-frame at the pivot points under the machine, I put enough blocks under the front of the blade to keep the c-frame level. I also blocked the rear end. I jacked the front with the blade and jacked the rear with a 20 ton bottle jack under the hitch tongue. I stepped it up one 6X6 at a time. Try to plan ahead with the blocking underneath - they will/might be in the way. Think about a bridge arrangement with a heavy cross beam maybe. Good luck. For me it was tough but turned out worth it. And I learned a bunch. I am 65 years old so you know. Some of the reason it was tough.
nice pic g_man, my recommendation here is to go to "tom-v's" thread in shop talk "work pictures" spend a half hour looking at his pictures and reading his notes he has many pictures of undercarriage jobs he has done.........theironoracle