Caterpillar RD-4 Dealing With Stuck Tracks

In this video we free the stuck tracks on this 1936 Caterpillar RD-4. With the machine sitting for 50 years, the track chains have become stiff and rigid, those need to be freed up to ease in taking them off. After that we move on to draining the oil/tar left in the rear end and transmission. Thanks for watching and following along

[darploin]

What about a few space heaters in the shop to help warm the bulldozer and the oil

[clydebalcom]

What a beautiful sight. Two tracks rolling.

[nedfoley]

Nice artistic (maybe ironic) juxtaposition camera work with the old steel undercarriage passing before the new and modern material (i.e plastic and rubber) undercarriage on the skid steer. Keep up the great work Kyle.

[neilshep]

Now, that was easy! Good to see.
What I'd do with the goo in the gearbox would be put the drain plug back in, add a litre of diesel, then use a paint brush to wash the goo off the gears, mix it all up and then drain it out.

[dans_Learning_Curve]

Kyle, nice to see another video upload! This project is advancing nicely!

[acewrench]

Ha! You just need a block heater. There is something oddly satisfying about watching that drain. Good to see the tracks are loosened up.

[KennyKizzleRustyNutzRanch]

Always nice when stuff moves with minimal effort!

[chrishanes]

Looks like you were making peanut brittle. Great to you catch a break with the tracks. That should help.

[Bret]

Good job! My 7UD4 came down from Alaska and has a spare set of tracks with it to replace the worn out ones that are on it. Previous owner told be they came off a very low hour D4 that got stuck on the beach somehow and was swallowed by the ocean back int the 60's. They eventually pulled it out, my impression was some years later, and the guy bought the crawler for scrap price. He told me he hitched a D6 to it and dragged it up and down a rocky area until the the tracks eventually started to move. Amazing that anything would free up like that, but Cat makes GOOD stuff!

[colin]

Some nice future projects sitting outide by the door I see. Squatch would love to get his hands on those I'm sure lol

[NuffMan_]

Add some diesel to the sludge and it should thin it out enough for cleaning

[thecollectoronthecorner]

We managed to upload a short video of the TD 14- A dozers the NOS tracks that are likely 40 years old are pretty stiff.

[theshadow]

Slow But Steady, Slow But Steady, Progress Is Progress, even if it is slow progress. Thanks for the update.

[paulhammond]

Nice to see the "Rolling Chassis". Needs a little work, but that's the point of this project :)

[scottgm]

I'll show my age here, look up: Heinz Ketchup "Anticipation " commercial 1978 here on youtube. lol that's the first thing that came to my mind when hat oil was draining. Maybe get a pail and put a firestarter log on it and put it under the chassis to warm things up.

[dougkubash]

It sure is good seeing the tracks moving!

[oldamericaniron]

Kyle, you could do a slump test on that oil like with concrete. Nice to see things moving. I noticed the 2 twenty’s have different style hoods, I wonder if it has to do with the model year or if different hoods were available by order. Wishing you luck with the steering clutch shaft removal.

[larrydavidson]

More progress with the tracks moving. I sure enjoy following along on this .

[jbfreeman]

Glad to see the tracks rolling again. Other then adding a little heat to the transmission case to get the oil moving maybe a little diesel fuel added would help thin it out.

[dougmaclean]

I always liked the black gear oil - would not mix well with water - if you let it sit awhile you could drain clear water off the bottom and put the plug back in - I could still get it from JD in the 70's but I don't think you can get it anymore - never knew if it had a name for that type of gear oil