question on D5 tensioner removal

[catfixer]

I went to a customer's site to remove a broken track tensioner on his 60's model d5 (serial number96j1374). I began the removal process and am starting to wonder if the guides for the front of the spring are supposed to be welded on or just bolted. I removed the 2 bolts and tried to remove, however after scraping the rest of the dirt away, they have been welded on. I don't see how I could remove the tensioner otherwise.

link to a picture of the part in question: http://imgur.com/P1gdwd6

 

[Nige]

They are not supposed to be welded. A dowel plus the 2 bolts is what's supposed to hold each one of them in place.

 

[catfixer]

thanks! I checked sis and that's how it looked but I figured I would check with this wise group of fellows first.

 

[Bob/Ont]

You do need them off and the spring compressed to assembly length.
Later Bob

 

[Nige]

If it's anything like a few we've been looking at here recently you have to put a piece of about 2" round bar (the towbar pin works well if it has one) in the sprocket and back up a hair until you get the weight off the big nut at the other end of the recoil mechanism. You run the nut in about 1/8" approximately and that takes the weight of the recoil mechanism. At that point it's safe to start removing the mechanism complete. You need to do this BEFORE you start unbolting the front stops. Fortunately for you they were welded as well as bolted on this particualr tractor. This probably saved you from a nasty incident.

 

[catfixer]

Before I unbolted them, I was sure to whittle what was left of the broken spring down with Mr. Gas axe. I'm very cautious around tensioners after hearing horror stories.

 

[AllDodge]

No expert here but looking at his pic, it appears the tension has been removed. The face has been backed away from the end.


Here is mine before anything has been done (different machine type)