Hello all. New to jd ct332. I recently purchased a used 2006. I have op, service, and parts manual. I have been trying to catch up on the maint on the machine lately before I put it to good use. My problem is that the other day I was working on one of the tracks that I wanted to loosen up and remove so that could get to the mud and debris that was caked behind the final drive and the idler wheel. According to the manual "to loosen the track you raise and support the side of the machine, remove cover plate, loosen track adjuster valve (not grease zerk), allow the track to sag, lay three pipe on top of the bottom part of track evenly, and then rotate track in reverse until the track is raised off of the front idler. I did exactly this with some 1'' pipe because 2'' pipe appears too big for the track teeth and maybe I should use 1 1/2''. Anyway even with the 1'' pipe the track did get real tight when it rolled to the front of the idler wheel but did not collapse the idler arm. anybody out there have any ideas on what I should do next?
To loosen the track pull the whole adjuster valve. Grease fitting and adjuster all as one. Pull it all the way out. To loosen it I push the bucket down to lift the front of the machine then track in reverse to pull the idler back in. 2" pipe is probably about the right size. Your problem is likely not pulling the adjuster all the way out
Have you tried pumping a small amount of grease into the zerk fitting to see if the adjuster moves out..? If it doesn't the adjuster itself could be seized internally. Solid bar works better than pipe to pull track adjusters back. Even thick-walled pipe tends to crush.
Thank you Nige & Belooky. These will be my next two steps. It did not bend the 1'' pipe Nige, but I have some 1 1/2 round that I picked up today that I will try. Belooky, while I had the track under tension with the 1'' pipe, I did pull the adjuster valve with the grease zerk completely out. I then tried to vibrate the idler arm with a sledge hammer. I think I will try the other track tomorrow, and if it loosens then I will suspect the adjuster inside the frame is seized as per Nige.