Skinner: Any chance you could bring your scraper and D4 to Tulare? We have plans for the dig area. I'd even buy your wife lunch and a beer! Thanks, JM

This one probably won’t make it. The pony motor is tired. I have a nice electric start pony motor to go in. I just don’t seem to ever have time to switch it out. You know the problem too many projects. Skinner

Hi Neil,
Thank you for sharing the photos and information. It's hard to tell, but from what I can see of the winch, it almost looks like the Hyster D98A Yarder winch? I believe this was a slightly later model winch perhaps. I've not seen one of those except for very limited pictures I've found on the internet. I look forward to seeing more pictures at some stage when the opportunity presents for you. When I get a chance to take some adequate photos of the winch I have, I will post them in a new thread.

I went to where I'm keeping, and hoping to use the dozer some day, and looked it over more closely. Now I don't have any other RD4, or later D4 to compare to but the front idler's look to be the biggest problem with the under carriage. They seem thin and kinda rolled under where the chain rides. They also are not round, which has to be a huge problem. One of them has had another spoke welded in. The area between the spokes should have the same round contour, but it is noticeably flattened. I figure pushing a blade is the reason.

It also looks like the adjustment has all been taken up on the nut that tightens the track. It looks to me like a spacer could be added in front of the arms that hold the idler in front of the spring to move the idler more forward. Is this done? I think with good idler wheels on it, then more adjustment would be achieved too.

What years have the same idler wheels? I should probably look for some used ones even tho I don't have it running yet.

I did some vacumming inside the cockpit looks much better in there now. Found a pony pull cord next to the seat cushion. Sprayed PB Blaster on everything that should move but everything except the throttle seems to move ok, and that seems to be stuck right at the pump. The pony flywheel seems to have about 1/16 to 1/8 end play. I'll measure that next time. The belt might tend to hold it in the right place when it's running. Sorry, I forgot to take any pictures, but I'll be there again soon as the weather will be improving.
Thanks

Hi, R2D2.
From your description of the front idlers. they sound like they are FUBB (consult WW2 slang dictionary - having to do with unbelievably kaput).
If you can measure the length of 4 links - center to center over 5 pins inna straight line, that will give the members on here with access to the 'tecker-nickel stuff' a clue to tell you the condition of the pins and bushes - I don't have that info to hand. Or you can try ti look it up in the tech library.

It is definitely possible - but not guaranteed - that better idlers might give you some more adjustment - sum 'foters' would help assess that condition too, especially if you can get a close-up of the of the wear faces of the bushes. A measurement of the rail height from underside of track plate to running surface of the rail would also be helpful. I think pretty much all of the relevant tech details are in the tech library, thanks to seiscat.

From your description of the throttle being stuck, it sounds as if the problem might be that the rack is stuck inside the pump. This can be freed up by removing the side plate from the pump and gently 'encouraging it to 'do itz thing'..

Hope this helps.

Just my 0.02.

its posible the front idler has jammed a t some point and then has worn flat spots on them it may be possible to rebuild them by welding and grinding back smooth. there was some reclamation info published back in the day that spoke of rebuilding them and the track carrier rollers.

the rack can be persuaded with a liberal spray of penertrant oil such as bolt off, yield etc even diesel will work and some gentle taps and a bit of wiggling.

I don't have intentions to use the dozer very much, but if I am able to get it running, I need the tracks to stay on. All the rollers look very worn, but the rear sprockets don't look bad. The chain has NMDR stamped on every link. I don't remember feeling a flat spot on the pins. I didn't look close at those idlers when I was loading it or I may have had pause about buying it. It won't be an easy job for me to change them considering I can find a set. The reason I asked about shimming the Idler forward is that the adjustment nut is only half on the screw as it is now, and there is a lot of room to slide the idlers forward.

Next time I'm there I'll take a picture of the idlers. If the idlers jammed that would seem like continuing to operate the dozer would be difficult. The idlers struck me as being thin as I was looking at them, and I thought the flat areas between the spokes might have been caused by the lack of support in those areas when pushing heavy loads. Where the spoke supports the rim there is a preceptable bump there. I thought I saw a crack on one spoke and one was welded heavily that must have broke.

Hi, R2D2.
I guessed from your earlier description of the idlers that they had been worn VERY thin on the running surfaces and had squished flat between the spokes.- which pretty much makes them unsalvageable - and would negative trainzkid88's idea of building up the flat spots. Dozer work would not have helped those idlers but it sounds like they were just plain, ol'-fashioned 'worn to destruction'.

I don't know how the options stack up for your machine but later machines had an option of what are called 'disc' front idlers which had circular plates welded to the outer faces of the idler between the bearing in the center and the rim and covering the spokes within. These idlers had a slightly larger outer diameter especially for dozer work. This larger diameter would help to take up some of the slack in your tracks - which seems to be a LOTTT of slack if you only have 1/2 a nut of thread in the adjusting nut.

But you also mentioned that there still seems to be some track frame rail left for the idlers to move forward - which raises some 'kwestyuns' about the condition of the recoil springs.

Please 'key'wrecked' me if I have misunderstood any of your description.

Just my 0.02.