Two days ago when working a ditch sideslope with my Komatsu D31A, I heard a loud clicking coming from the left side of the undercarriage. Upon inspection, found that track was trying to run off the sprocket (misaligned). Took the cover off the track adjuster assy and found that the main tension spring on track adjuster had broke into 2 pieces (it was still in place). This effectively made spring 1/2 inch shorter. To get back to work while pieces arrive, has anyone thoughts about placing a 1/2 shim(s) at either end of spring to bring back to it's normal tension. Any thoughts are welcome.
malcom2 Dont tell anyone,but you can weld steel onto trackframes behind each side of idler to prevent idler retracting, as a temp fix. Hopefully by driveing forward you can get idler to tension track a LITTLE. Of course with fixed idlers it offers no protection againt sprockett packing etc,and should only be a temp fix. PS Take care when you do replace spring ,as they are dangerous things,being tensioned by a centre bolt. Assumming that Komatsu is same as Cat. Regards PS We have a old 18A D9 which went for many hundreds of hrs with fixed idlers.
Thanks for the info Motat. I took a closer look today with the help of a friend far more knowledgable than I. The broken spring has allowed the yoke rod and inner cylinder to go out of line. When working on the flat no big problem. When on sideslope, track moves to the outside. Because of this rear sprocket is wearing prematurely. Does anyone out there know where to get used parts for Komatsu dozers (US or Canada)?
you should be aball to get a spring made up locally have done so in my part of the world just needs DIA x length of the broken old spring ,