Hi guys, Assume I know nothing and then dumb it down some if you reply to this thread. I have an ancient JSW 12 ton digger (see my other thread for my other problem) and my right hand track popped off its front wheel yesterday. Can anyone tell me how to put it back on? It isn't completely off, and I can get my SUV to it easy enough. But I am a long way from any mechanic.... I can get the wholetrack in the air by jacking the side of the digger up with my bucket. I guess I need to bring the front wheel back somehow and then manhandle the track back on before re-tensioning. How do you untension (bring the front wheel back). Do I just undo that big nut around the grease nipple?
Not knowing your machine for certain, but I'm gonna guess you screw out the big hex fitting the grease fitting is screwed into. This will allow the grease in the adjuster to escape and you can push the front idler back in using the hoe bucket. You have to be very careful with a wide pad machine on very uneven terrain like in the pic. If the tracks are loose, and you twist and turn on uneven terrain, easy to slip a track off.
Not sure about how to let the pressure off.BUT you better make sure and do it right.The wrong thing done can get you hurt.Lots of pressure on that track ram.Can you call the Dealer service dept?They can tell you the safe way to relieve the pressure.If you have the operators manual it should tell you.
kiwiben, sorry for your luck. It definetly appears from you pic that loosening the "big nut" should relieve the tension on the track. My suggestion is to only loosen the plug several turns, if backed out to far, with grease pressure behind plug, the plug may shoot out of hole. Use the bucket to help push the idler back. This will hopefully allow enough slack to allow you to use bucket to help get track running back over idler.
It's Ok fellas, there's minimal pressure on it right now because the track is off, that takes the pressure off of the tensioner.
Thanks for the undercarriage lesson ATCO. Always a good habit to becareful around stored energy. Just because it looks like there is no stored energy doesn't mean it should not be treated as though stored energy is present. It also goes to safe work practices.
Absolutely. I really should have noted that in my first post for clarity. Just overlooked it because I knew the tension was relieved. Good to see others here caught it though.
Off Topic, but Nice background & picture. Good Luck!
Atco my dad told me when they first come out with track adjusters using grease Brown and Fogles' track shop roof was full of holes.Never heard him say that any body got hurt though.Now all machines have a bleed screw are nut for safety.
Yep. Even with the new bleed devices, one should turn bleeder gently and let grease escape if under pressure. I messed up by working on experience with track off, knowing pressure would then be relieved, but a poor assumption on my part thinking others would know this and not point out that bleeder should be removed with care. One must be mindful of ones words. :yup
Nice one guys, good to see you're looking out for my internal organs I will go and buy a set of big sockets and loosen that nut with extreme trepidation.
and by the way, thanks everyone, you have no idea how helpful it is to have your ideas and advice bouncing back from cyberspace.
Yeah... I noticed the background too... beautiful. I also noticed the green grass... grrrrr... lol OCR...
OCR I noticed the same and even thought the same. It seems winter comes sooner and stays longer every darn, year.
Just be glad you only came off the idler, and the track did not come off completely and roll down the hill and into a huge pile of thorn bushes --- Alfonso t. Murphy is an employee of mine Oh, and when you go to re-tension the idler, grab a couple of tubes of grease and a power gun if you have one. They take lot and lots of pumps and then you start to see them move...
That's very good advice, what about if the idler wheel is jammed or rusted in position, this may contribute to the track throwing? The other day I was watching a vid on you tube called wheeler dealers, where they buy a car, fix it up a little and try and sell it for a profit. Anyway in one episode, they had to remove the coil spring from a Mercedes-Benz and the mechanic proceeded to show the whole world the bad way of doing it. Using a trolley jack to support the wishbone and the lowering it until the spring was free. This is the sort of thing you can get away with if you are doing it in a workshop with good equipment but do it on a gravel driveway with an old dodgy jack and the results could be very bad. There is a proper tool (which I bought for AU$300) that compresses the spring, so you can remove the spring and then safely release the stored energy. 300 bucks for a tool that I use once in a blue moon is a pain but my health and life is worth more than 300 bucks.
victory is mine! Important news announcement, I got my track back on all by myself, and still have both testicles intact. you can see all the grease oozing out after I pushed it back with the bucket... I was flummoxed for a while by the fact I could either jack up the side with my bucket, or manipulate the track with it, but not both at once. In the end I had to use my car with a rope to pull the track tight and stick a big plank inside the track to stop it catching when let it down. Hard to explain, but once that plank was in there I could then pull the track back on with the bucket, even with the weight of the digger on it. Thanks for everyone's help. Now I am back to pondering my dodgy swing motor. It had another AWOL episode for about ten minutes yesterday after I got the track back on and did an hour of digging... but again, it somehow healed itself. (see my other thread.
Glad you are back on track, so to say. Looks like a tube and half of grease to replace, and you should be back making happy tracks.
Nice pics kiwiben. Although it was a bit of trouble, you're getting some good experience with that old digger.
Yep... so far i've reattached a muffler, replaced a main ram seal, replaced a clogged fuel filter, same with the air filter, put the track back on, fixed an electrical fault, searched (unsuccessfully) for a mythical inline screen filter in the fuel line... now i have to replace the alternator, fix/replace the swing motor, cut out and replace the rust, reattach the cab to the floor by more than the current single bolt so it doesn't rattle me senseless, dangle some fluffy dice and install a kick-ass stereo. I didn't realise I was getting an intensive digger maintenance training course thrown in for the same price as the digger. Lucky I have more time than money
Good job.But when I seen the grease I thought it was a big Black Water Snake.
Whatever happened to JSW. I used to see a lot of them around and I realize I haven't seen one for a few years at least. Are they still in business?
New to site I recently purchased a Drott yumbo excavator I know your pain excavator model # 30-yc ( serial # 429-D ) anyone have information on this excavator
i recently had a similar problem. what i did was the same exact thing... i pulled the track sideways with a tractor. i didn't however have to let all the grease out. i picked the weight of the machine up with the bucket and ran the track backwards, so the slack was draggin on the ground, and pulled slightly sideways on the slack side and it popped right back on... in about 1 min. that was after messing around with other ways for an hour first, i almost broke down and let the grease out of it.
I knew a guy that threw a track on similar terrain and ended up on the bottom of the hill on his side. Dont think the hiss were quite as steep as those. glad to hear you got it back together.