Hi Folks, I just purchased a Kamatsu 150LC. The only problem I see on the machine is some of the track links do not pivot to allow the track to lie flat. There was 3 on one side and two on the other. I sprayed the pins with penetrating oil several times and one on each side has starting pivoting when going around the drive sproket and iddler. Any suggestions on getting the others free. I am thinking of heating the part of the track that the pin goes thru and not the pin itself. Maybe that will expand enough to let the pin turn. Any suggestions are very appreceated. My first excavator so here I go. Any advice or video links on clearing timber also appreciated. In return for you help I am your man if you get to eastern Oklahoma and are a fisherman. I can probably put you on fish.
My dozer sits from November to May, and there is usually a link or two stuck. Usually with just little bit of movement from the machine, it usually free's itself up. Just how stuck are yours?
Some people use diesel fuel, just a light soaking. There is also the acetone and tranny fluid mixture that is used to loosen seized parts Clearing trees ... PUSH> PUSH> PUSH DO NOT PULL the trees towards you, If needed, dig around the roots, then push on the tree as high as possible to gain the most leverage. not as high as the hoe will reach, but about 10 feet
oil wont do much , track the machine forward and then backwards the same distance using to start one quarter ther length of the track do this 10 or so times increasing the length each timer until your travelling the full rotation of the track each direction, then after a couple of hours use the tracks will free up, but oil and diesel is just pouring hard earned bucks on the ground. normally when a used machine is parked for a few months the tracks will get stiff nothing to panic about its normal!
What you have is called bridging. Komatsu used chains at one time that had some type of grease in the pin and bushings which over time in certain environments would harden like cement. Basically the machine has sat somewhere for a long period of time and the hardening took place in the links over the front idler or the sprocket. There is nothing you can do that would actively free up the links. Heating the links or the pins would only ruin the fiber seals put at the ends of the bushings. The only fix I have seen that worked for sure was to dismantle the chains and clean up the parts and then reassemble them. Short of that just use the machine as the bridging does little if any damage to the components and really is only an aggravation. What Dash series is your machine?