I (perhaps foolishly) bought a CT322 project that needs a right hand final drive. It came with the final drive cover removed and the sun gear and one planetary gear gone. I was just going to remove the drive and send it to be rebuilt. But I can't get the track to loosen enough to remove. The grease check valve is removed. I see the videos where someone just stands on the track and it retracts and I just laugh at myself. This can't be that hard. There must be something I am missing. I have tried lifting the track with my tractor front end loader. I have impacted the front of the track with my tractor hard enough to shift the skid steer, but no track movement. I have heated the moving parts. I have soaked the space between them with rust buster (Kroil). I have used a sledge hammer on the sides of the moving parts. I have used the front bucket on curl with some cribbing but the track will not move. I raised the machine off the ground a couple of inches and lowered the bucket. I put wood cribbing between the bucket and the front of the track and drove a wooden wedge between the cribbing. I let it sit overnight and it moved enough to displace about a 1 inch cube of grease and loosen the cribbing. I repeated this with a larger wedge and it sits today, two days later just as tight as a drum. Got any ideas? Ridicule me if you must, but I am frustrated. I have turned wrenches on my own stuff for 50 years but have no experience with skid steers. Thanks in advance. Kim
Make sure there is no contact with tracks and ground, block machine up, which it sounds like you did. You can try and put a piece of wood, maybe a 2x4, in between track and sprocket, and with a helper, reverse the track, slowly, this will put pressure on track and hopefully force the grease out.
Thanks for the reply, Arny. The final drive does not "work", so I can't use it to move the track. The sun gear is missing. I have considered buying a sun gear to try what you recommend.
Sorry, my brain skimmed over that part. What about a small hydraulic jack between bucket and track.
Is there the possibility that the recoil spring is extended because the bolt on end is stripped or fell off. Could try what Arny suggested here. If it won't back up something is broken or jammed inside. Simon C
Arny, My 8 ton jack didn't make a difference. Simon, if something is broken or jammed, how to I get to it? is there a way to disassemble the mechanism without removing the track first? I'd hate to sacrifice the track to get it apart.
Try wrapping 3 heavy duty 2 inch wide ratchet staps around the entire track syatem, one on each side and one just off of center. Tighten them over the back idler as tight as you can. Then jack from bucket like Arny said but don't go to hard or may damage the bucket coupler. When you have heavy tension on it find a 2 inch pin and hit the front idler on the side or at an angle to see if anything jumps backwards. Try that first as you are running out of options. Simon C
By the way that spring mechanism is very strong and have hurt or killed plenty a mechanic who wasn't careful. Just want you to beware. Simon C
Simon, thanks for the warning.