Bound up track

[CELSESSER]

Last week I was out on my 440 stripping topsoil and leveling subsoil then replacing the topsoil for a large greenhouse. The subsoil is coarse gravel and I was picking up stones in the track as usual. About 4 hours into the project my left track started squawking louder than the usual trapped rock and when I hit the main clutch that track would stop immediatly. I got out of the hole and parked it up next to the fence with the offending side out expecting a lot of work. At that point if I gently went forward it squawked and if I went backward it would go a foot and stop dead. I got off and pried on the sprocket, sero movement. I felt the final drive around the the flanged axel which was cool and then I felt it at the pinion quill and it was quite hot. the other side was just warm ??? bearing going out?? I took the quill off(east since the bolts were loose even though I had put keepers on them) and the outer pinion bearing looked fine. I pulled on the left clutch handle and the whole assembly moved out a little without any binding. The pinion looked great. I closed it back up and took the access cover off the clutch housings. I loosened the break band a turn since that side was adjusted too tight(was hitting break before clutch fully engaged) Nothing sinister yet. At that point I had it jacked up, the fender, seat off and had found and gotten the master pin started out when I thought that it wouldnt be a bad idea to drop the bull gear pan to see what was in it. Drained the oil( or should I say grease. It looked like some shiny fleck in it. Dropped the pan and really expected to see some bits of bearing but found absolutely nothing. at this point I began to wonder if the break band being set too tight had heated up the drum to the point that the break was binding things up. Today I put oil back into the final and tried spinning the track in the air gently. It would go forward about 1/2 revolution and bind. I would reverse it and it would go about the same distance and bind. I did it one more time while I was watching the axel turn and I saw a rock ride the rail back to the sprocket and stop the track. This rock was about 4"x5"x3" and had deep groves matching the rail on one side and grooves where the idler or rollers were running on it. The rock guards were keeping it in(how it got in I dont know) even with the track hanging I couldnt get it out under the rock guards and had to run it all the way foreward and pull it out (barely) throught the hole by the adjuster yoke. ran it forward and backward with no hesitations. tomorrow I will take it off the jacks and put the seat back on and run it carefully to try it out.
Glad I kept looking before I tore the final off!!

Chuck

[Lavoy]

You take all the fun out of it. Normally, I would have pulled the finals, the engine and most of the sheetmetal first, then found the rock.
Lavoy

[roadbuilder]

Hi Chuck,
Good story. Shows the importance of knowing when something doesn’t sound or feel right and stopping to check it out rather than forcing it or “going ahead on it hard”. Hoping to hear everything checks out ok.
Dale