Replace Skid Steer Tracks WITHOUT Using Other Heavy Equipment - Track Replacement In The Field

hi my name's Keith and I'm going to show you how to replace the track on a Kubota svl 95 it's very similar on all skid steers so you can use this for any maker model [Music] this is an all-purpose track works in gravel it works in snow works in rock mud dirt everything this particular model of track is a snow track the pattern on is a zigzag pattern and the cross hatches go all the way from one side to the other works great in snow because there's not as many pieces of rubber on the ground and it keeps your traction up with higher ground pressure so the first thing you have to do is we're gonna have to get this machine up in the air usually I like to use a couple of blocks on the back end I'll show you how to put those in you can use a bottle jack but you can damage the bottle Jack doing it that's why I like to use a couple of wooden blocks I just put two wooden blocks underneath the back end of the unit closer to the side that you're gonna be replacing the track so it lifts that track up in the air now that the blocks are underneath the back what we do is we flip the bucket up front we fire the machine up we flip the bucket down and as you push the bucket into the ground it's gonna lift the front end of the machine up the back end to land on the blocks and it'll lift the whole track up in the air as you push down to boom you have to tilt the bucket forwards a little bit or you'll slide off the blocks in the back so now with the track in the air we can release the tension on the track to do so you have this grease valve right here when you apply grease into it with a grease gun it tightens the track to loosen the track you start to back this grease valve off to release the pressure this particular machine takes a 19 millimeter wrench other brands like Bobcat will take a 9/16 or a 3/8 if the wrench doesn't work you can't get a good angle on it like I just had you can use a 19 millimeter deep socket as well as you start loosening it you'll see the track start to get looser sometimes to speed it up you can stand on the track like so it puts a little bit of pressure and it allows it to come out more what's happening is this idler here is pulling in grease is coming out and the track is getting looser depending on where you are you can't get this idle it'll pull in because the grease is just too cold so what you can do is you can put the bar in here like I'll show you you get your operator to fire the machine up and slowly back the track up I'm going to put the bar in here and it'll pull the track and it'll make the track tighter and turn pulling that idler in like we're gonna fire it up or we're gonna slowly turn this track backwards hold it lightly and have your operators slowly turn this track backwards that's good and what that'll do is it'll help bring that front idler in to make it looser next we have to get the track off of the machine the old track sometimes if you're in the field it'll be ripped or it'll already be partially off and you want to replace it you're still going to get the track in the air like so to be able to work on it and have it freely spinning you can do it multiple ways some people try and get it off the front idler some people try and get it off the rear idler some people try and get it off the sprocket in this case the first thing I'm gonna do is try and get it off the sprocket to have it work itself off so if you put the bar back in the sprocket like so and as the sprocket goes around you start to pull it you start to pry it so that the track will walk itself off the sprocket so Mike if you want to slowly put this track backwards as it gets contact I put a little bit of pressure like so a little bit more Mike okay stop and then you might have to go around once or twice to get it is partially off right now again Mike now it's basically off we're gonna do the same thing here in the bottom go ahead back up Mike you know right now we're too loose in this rock it just doesn't have enough traction so what we can do is put the bar in and just slowly work it off sometimes it'll take a little bit of play and you got to work a little bit here and a little bit there but the track does eventually pop off sometimes you'll have to get your operator to go forwards or backwards make you want to back it up a bit more you just probably back and forth a little bit top and bottom and the track pops off there's multiple probably bars you can use the first borrows using as a generic long chisel bar you can buy this at any generic hardware store or anything like that the next bar I'm going to use has an adjustable handle also has an adjustable end on it makes it easier for doing this sort of job just like that the track pops off and if you have another man with you makes it a lot easier to pull and push these tracks around the old one usually rolls a little bit roll the old track out of your way if you got a machine handy you can use it to lift it up and move it the next thing that we're gonna do now that we have the old track off is we're gonna pull this new track into place it's a heavy track if you have a piece of equipment to do it that works if you have two guys that also works by yourself like me I'd be out of breath moving by myself but we got to get it into place once we get it close like this what I like to do is lower the machine back onto the ground and then we're gonna lift the track up and get it partially on the sprocket so when we lift the machine back up in the air it lifts the track with this the track with it it's not so hard on you now that we have the machine lowered to the ground we need to lift this track up so it's on top of the idler this is tough right now it's a little bit cold out this track is really stiff because it's new sometimes you might need to use a machine if you don't have access to another machine brute force is the only way to go so we're gonna give it a shot here with brute force and get it up on top of here now that we're up on top of the sprocket when we lift the Machine up it's gonna lift the track up with us and then we can start working it on now that we're high enough you can see the machine helped us lift the track up it's not as heavy we have to get the bottom a little bit further down a little bit on sometimes you can do it by just giving it a kick or two there's a bolt there so sometimes that bolt gets anyway use a pry bar pry it away from that bolt give it a kick just like that and it'll slowly pop down for you just like that now the next step is we have to get the track all the way onto the sprocket we don't get it all the way out of the sprocket we can never get this track on you can use a pry bar you can use another machine in this case we're gonna do with a pry bar to show you that if you don't have a machine you can do it by hand trucks don't like to bend sideways so sometimes you have to work the front on a little bit more like so and sometimes the back as well just like that now we're on the sprocket now we can start working or knocking two different wheels I like to try and get it on the front wheel first you can get it on the back wheel first there is different ways to do it but this just works the easiest for me now that we're on the sprocket and we are on the front wheel and if you're trying to work on the back wheel it looks like in this case I need the operator to lift the machine up a little bit higher give us a little bit more room under the machine to be able to get that room to get that track down far enough we have a lot of slack right here right now I'm gonna try and get the slack and move back there so you get my operate or start the machine you travel this track backwards it'll pull some of the slack this way for me just like that you have a little bit more slack sometimes you have to play with it a little bit and just like that the track pops on once we reinstall the grease valve we can adjust the track tension this is the grease felt that we pulled out earlier make sure you clean it up you don't want any debris or dirt or gravel or anything on it reinsert it back into the hole that it came out of it should thread in almost all the way by hand if it stops right away that means your cross-threaded do not cross thread this or it will damage the track adjuster whip any excess grease out of the hole and now we can use a truck a grease gun I use an electric you can use a hand grease gun and you pump grease into those grease nipple I'm gonna make sure the end of your grease gun is clean so we're not introducing any gravel or dirt into the track adjuster system this particular machine the track adjuster grease valve is right here in this access hole some Bobcats is shaped a little bit different it's in the backside right here some cat skid steers don't use a grease fitting at all they actually use a threaded rod but that's a different conversation for a different day this particular machine takes a fair amount of grease to address the track that's why I like to use an electric one on this machine when you're pumping grease into this grease valve there's a cylinder inside of here that's pushing the end out that cylinder pushes against your front idler bogie here that pushes it out which makes the triangle between these three bigger and tightens the track up sometimes when you adjust the track on any skid steer in general this one's a Kubota svl 95 or when you replace the track and you're trying to tension it up when you put your grease gun fitting on the end of your grease gun onto the grease nipple which is the track adjuster grease valve as the track starts tightening up it takes more pressure sometimes you can't get any grease into the valve and it just leaks out in between the grease valve and your grease gun this could mean two things one the end of your grease gun is worn out and it's not sealing on your grease nipple or to the grease nipple has had some damage done to it whether it be from corrosion and rust or damage caused by foreign debris or a tool being on it and I can't seal and it's easier for the grease to come out the side and then go into the track adjuster and adjust the track in that case you can either change the end of your grease gun or you have to replace the grease nipple in your track adjuster grease valve as you can see the track is no more slack down on the bottom the top doesn't have very much sag anymore what I like to do now you get the operator to start the Machine and if you travel this track backwards or forwards let it kind of work itself in for a couple of seconds we can double check our tension and then we can finish this off now as you can see we ran it forwards backwards it's looking pretty stiff here every manufacturer has a different spec on how tight to make the track please consult your manufacturer or your OEM supplier sometimes it says in the operator's manual how tight these tracks are supposed to be and the measurement on how much sag there is supposed to be top or bottom now that we're done adjusting the tracks we put this cover plate back on stop any debris any dirt or moisture getting into the track adjuster area and that's how you replace the tracks on a Kubota svl 95 that also works for other manufacturers [Music]

Channel: Tekamo HD

Views: 41,057

Rating: 4.8348083 out of 5

Keywords: Heavy Equipment, Tutorial, Maintenance, Skid Steer, Track Loader, Kubota, Deere, CAT, Mechanic, How-to, Rubber Track Installation

Id: jmmAnPF_3SY

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019