Went to look at a D6D for sale. Was underneath looking at the equalizer bar HeavyEquipmentForums when I saw this belly pan. Why do this?
Also why have the front idlers in High Set when you have a Straight Tilt blade fitted???? tctactors.
Please explain High Set and why it matters. PS: I'm amazed how folks like TC can see stuff like this. I wish I knew 10% of what he forgot about dozers...
That's what I was thinking . . .
That’s what legends do!
I'm probably speaking without raising my hand here, but I think I remember reading on here somewhere about "high set" with the idlers. I believe you want them in that position on a tractor without a blade being used to pull a scraper. The tractor will ride completely on the rollers, and will turn easier. This is why Tony asked why because you can obviously see the blade on the tractor in the picture.
It is so when you drop stuff into the pan you can easily retrieve it. Honestly I have no idea why you would do that other then makes it easier to clean out without removal, however they are easy to pull off and put on by yourself with a winch. As for the idler block position. Could be they snapped the bolts off the other way around and easy fix to spin it over. My D6D was like that. One up and one down with snapped bolts.
In my experience most people replacing undercarriages in the last fifteen years don't know the difference between high and low positions on the idlers. Belly pans on older machines are usually bent and bowed so that the bolt holes in the machine frame no longer match the holes in the pan. I've had to do all sorts of things to the pans to get them back up in place and bolted up hard again. The hole in the photo also looks like the cover for the engine oil pan drain plug. You wouldn't want to pull the pan just to change the engine oil. A lot of people also get in a hurry and forget to put the thing back on. Or the pan might be sprung enough that the bolt holes no longer match the holes in the plate.
I didn't think you had to pull a pan for engine oil replacement but who knows why the stitch job on this pan. I didn't look to see if the pan was bolted to the frame or if it was sprung and welded back or such. Maybe they tried to fit the pan back and realized it wasn't going to go back on without a fight. So they cut the access panels out and then welded the pan back on??? Current owner didn't even know the belly pan was cut up. He's had it for only a couple years and probably put 2-300 hours on it fixing stuff on his farm. Wonder if he ever even changed the oil?!?
If he had changed the oil wouldn't he know the pan was butchered ?
R-u-n the hell away from this hacked up machine. i guarantee he’s getting rid of it because something major is screwed up and he’s acting surprised to just get it sold.
Would be just fine if they would have used ABC’s instead
There is a good chance the seller is the butcher. Probably not just the belly pan.
Bbbut I don't know your abc's.
No issues with bolts snapping as the idler block has only clear holes, it's fixed with bolts into the wishbone and threaded blocks with bolts into the side plates, it's purely down to a lack of knowledge on the correct fit up of the parts, the Belly pan beggars belief and the E-Bar will have damage, putting the E-Bar mounting to the frame and the bar will be a 2 day affair tctractors.
High Set is the position the idler should be in if the tractor is towing something like a scraper or using a rear-mounted attachment all the time. Low Set is the position the idler should be in if the tractor is equipped with a blade. It's all about balance.
It is the threaded holes that hold the side collars that can snap off. Unless they changed the design at some point. Here are some photo's of me getting the snapped off bolts out of mine.
That happens when the up and down movement of the idler to the track frame gets way too far excessive. You can see the wear marks on the top of the idler support block from the side plate running loose. I've had to do that same job more than once.
Yes the retainers on the track frame and side collar were well worn. I had to rebuild it all. The other side was fine.
I’ve always had to do the drilling by hand.
That Idler looks like it's lived a few lives, we are fairly hard on kit in the U.K. but R.C. you beat us hands down, I cannot recall having to drill out any bolts on front idlers fitted to D6 up kit, when they start to dance about we seem to fix things, I might have had to get the welder out to do the washer and nut trick to remove a snapped off fastener I just cannot remember, with the wear you must have had the Button Bar must have fell out? great drill setup and love the Milling effort, we just weld and grind off a bit handy. tctractors
The old dozer was like this when I bought it. It has done a few hours or two hundred thousand. You will notice in that photo of the track frame one side of the first roller is worn more then the other. There is a nasty alignment problem there somewhere that I am yet to figure out what exactly is going on. I am pretty crappy at trying to drill straight and round holes by hand, so like using machines wherever possible.
You don't think the offset wear is from the front idler issues, the shimming out of the idler and all those Milled facings should work towards a lot better line through. tctractors