Doing some research on what the best way would be to remove an eqaulizer bar for D8L. I am trying to find out what the correct process would be to get the eqaulizer bar removed. Any suggestions?
one way would be to remove the blade from the machine, remove tracks, remove equalizer pins from track frames and then support equalizer bar on each side and remove the middle pin and lower bar to the floor. now if you run into problems getting pins out and such it may be necessary to remove one side of the track frame...if they are seized heating them up or air arcing them out may be required...
There isn't enough room to sneak the e-bar out so one of the side frames need to be removed. Drop the pans to access the center pin. The center pin should be tight and will need a pancake press and a pulling rod to pull it out. Why the need to remove it?
Do you have the tooling to pull the pins? If you do have the tooling then it usually is not to bad of a job. To start with remove the belly pans on each side of the center pin. Then you can use the blade to lift the machine up. Or a safer way to lift it is with a good set of bottle jacks. What you are trying to achieve here is to take the pressure off of the pins that hold the bar on to the roller frame's. Once you get the machine where you need it go ahead and block the machine up so that the machine can not come down on you or hurt you. Next you use a hyd puller cylinder and pulling rods to pull the side pins out. These pins can be removed with out the tooling but it is a rough job to do. Once you get this far into it I always place some smaller pins into the bores that you just removed the old pins from. The smaller pins are just there to keep the bar from moving around when you pull the center pin. Now comes the fun part of the job, trying to pull the center pin out. I usually jack the bar up with a floor or transmission jack and block it to where the bars weight is off of the center pin. Now you can use the hyd puller to pull the center pin out. Once again if you don't have the tooling for this part of the job then I hate to say it but you are fixing to really hate that center pin. The center pin is usually the worst one to get out. After you get it out then you should make sure the bars weight is on the blocks. If it is then you can remove the smaller pins that I mentioned earlier. Now you will need to raise the machine up away from the bar and roller frames. Don't get carried away with this part of the job because if you raise the machine up to far away from the roller frames you may tear the pivot shaft seals on each roller frame. And that repair is also a pain in the rear to do. Next you have to hook a chain or good lifting strap to one end of the equalizer bar. With the strap putting tension on one end of the bar you go ahead and jack the bar up off of the blocks and remove the blocks. Now all you have to do is let the jack under the bar down. After that part of the job is done usually all you have to do is pull the bar out the side of the roller frame. But sometimes you will have to let the bar down under the machine and drag it out with something if you can not get it to fit out the side of the machine. But none the less that is all there is to removing the bar. If this is not enough info to help you out with this job let me know. I you send me a message with your phone number in it I will get back to you asap and walk you through this job.
Pics! We need Pics!
I did one on a D8R two years ago. It was easy to get out cause it broke about 4 inches from the pin on the right side. GET THE SERVICE MANUAL FIRST. You're going to need about a 30T hollow cylinder to pull the center pin. I can't remember right off hand, but I think the center pin is threaded so you can screw in some grade 8 fine thread bolt that's real long so you can pull it with the hollow cylinder. You may have to put some heat around it to help get it broke loose. Mine popped like a shotgun when it broke loose. I didn't have any trouble getting the two outside pins out. I just drove a chisel into the relief cut that's made in the outer bore to spread it a little and drove the pin out. I had to take one track frame off but that's really simple if you've got a trackhoe or something to lift it out of the way. I had to build straps to hold the roller bogies in place according to the service manual, but it's simple. Going back in is the hard part. You gotta get the holes lined up just right and held in place cause you're gonna need a big *** hammer to get the pin in there as quickly as possible. Go to the nearest welder supply and get 5 gallons of nitrogen and get a styrofoam cooler when you get ready to stuff the center pin back in. You'll need a rosebud tip on your torch to heat up the bore where it goes. Freeze the pin and get the center hole red and shove that thing in there as quick as you can. You need one guy to hit it with a sledge till he gives out and then a fresh person to drive it the rest of the way in. It's really not too bad. Forgot to tell you to get plenty of cribbing to block the tractor up. About a pickup load of 3' long railroad ties would be enough. No use gettin hurt. Course you'll need chains and come alongs. Go ahead and slam your hand in the pickup door before you start, cause you'll be mad after a couple of hours anyway.
the guys were saying that the center pin would be the only big problem. We'll try some of these suggestions. I'll keep you posted!
Wow nice photo. It looks like that one would have benefited from a little lubrication at some point. I would really like to hear how someone managed to run it that far before it was noticed. On the topic of pulling the center pin. If you don't have the tooling to pull the center pin then I would really suggest borrowing it or getting someone else to at least pull it for you. If it wont come out with a hyd puller then you may wind up having to cut it out. I have had to cut out several of those pins that would not budge even with the puller on it and two rose buds heating it. And let me tell you it is not fun. I can tell you however that if you do have to cut the pin out be careful and keep a fire extinguisher close by or at least a water source to put a fire out. I have seen several machines caught on fire by a guy trying to cut one of those out. And another problem to consider if you have to cut it out is that you have a fairly large pin in there and it is real easy to cut into things that you don't want cut on when you try to cut it out. I have had to come in behind guys that thought they could cut one out without damaging anything else. And trust me it almost always cost more for me to fix someones mistakes then it would have been for them to get me to do it all in the first place. So please be careful and don't hesitate to ask if you need advice on getting it out. Also if you need info on how to reinstall the bar or tips to help with the install let me know. And keep us all posted on how this repair goes for you guys. And don't forget we all like photos so keep them coming.
a little off topic but curious Has anyone ever heard of a machine going over backwards when the equalizer bar broke? I was told of this happening years ago before hi drive came along. The machine "walked" the pinion around the final drive bull gear and flipped it over. Any of you older guys ever hear of this? No info on brand or whether it had a blade or was towing a scraper.
Great pic! As someone who has no experience with anything like this, how many hours does it take to ruin a cross member like that. It that called the equalizer bar? Ken
We rented the machine out, and this is the way it came back to us. I'll do my best getting more pictures.
We have had a few D6R and D8R's with broken center pins or E-bars and the machine will only tip back until the sprockets hit the sideframe. They had actually worn about a 1"deep groove into the sideframe.
One quick tip I can give you is to thouroghly clean around the pivot shaft seals and take the bolts out of them. Then they will stay still while you raise the front of the dozer and it will keep them from tearing. I have done it countless times and it works well for me. Bolt them back up when you are done. It seem like fifety percent of the time or more I end up using the Broco Gun on the center pin to get it out. Enjoy it!
Do not even bother with the tooling to pull the centre pin, i have done about 50 of these over the years and got one out with the tooling, sir lance a lot has to be brought in, be very careful of the engine sump and chassis saddles either side of it. Do not pull the blade or tracks off unless you want to spend lots of $$ doing the job. Remove the belly guards both sides first, then remove the end pins, undo al the bolts around the pivot shaft seals, lance the centre pin out, jack the machine up on the blade as high as you need and then manipulate the bar out, usually drop one end on the ground or what ever works, pretty much the reverse to put it back together, good luck.
I have done some D10's the same way.. just got alot more room than the D8 though just make sure you have a steel plate (as thick as possible) to protect the sump when ya get the oxy lance into the centre pin! assembly, liquid nitrogen, plenty of it spare