Adjusting the rear track width on a 7510

[ossa]

Hi Folks,
New to the forum here. Have a log cabin in VT, 10 acres and 1,000 feet of driveway to maintain. Brand new to tractors and just got a used 2004 7510; 320 hours, FEL, snow blade mounted to FEL crudely, backhoe, grading blade. My driveway is very steep (15% grade) and very icy. I definitely needed chains; so begins my dipping in to heavy tractor work. Ordered and received the chains from tirechains.com (great service BTW). Heavy duty Vee- wow are they heavy!

Began the installation. It was too close to the frame rail for comfort. Maybe I needed an extender hub? I looked at the hub and saw a lock pin and a locking bolt along with other holes for the lock pin. Cool! Must be adjustable. I checked the manual and sure enough! Just take out the pin, loosen the bolt and slide that puppy out for more clearance.

I jacked up the tractor and took the wheels off. WOW - HEAVY! I asked the previous owner if they were fluid filled for ballast; he didn't know. Well they sure are! I loosened the hubs and GENTLY tapped with a hammer to see if they'd slide off. No dice. I jerry-rigged a puller, no dice. Go to NAPA and borrow and 8 ton, three jaw puller. I crank the daylights on the puller, tapping with a hammer, penetrating oil and heating along the way. No big BANGS as the rust let go; just a very painful mm by mm pull with a 2 ft. breaker bar on the puller to turn the bolt. Now I'm praying another locking hole appear, before the hub comes off the axle. If it comes off, there's no way to get it back on- this is like an interference, press fit deal. I know better than to whale on it with a sledge hammer to get it back on and wreck the transmission. Luckily, I see another lock hole appearing as I slide it off; Eureka! Left side done!

Right side, same process, but involved breaking a fork on the puller and bending a stud tab on the hub. I reverse the arm on the puller and tried again. I bent the stud tab back with a hug pipe wrench. I'm glad that hub was mild steel and not a very brittle casting!

I thought I came up with an inventive way to remount the wheels, which must weigh 300 lbs. I got out my motorcycle/ATV lift which allows you to lift and roll around a motorcycle on the garage floor. I rolled the wheel onto the lift and guided it towards the hub, making fine height adjustments with the lift. Worked great! If I had tried to horse that wheel on there with a pry bar under the tire, I likely would have buggered the threads on the studs to a fairthewell.

With a slightly tweaked hub on the right, I figure I might get some vibration over 60 mph, so I'll keep the speeds down

I thought I'd share this story as I did a lot of searching on this process of adjusting the wheel track and only found "just loosen the bolt, remove the pin and slide 'er out!" Not. This was a big and rather stressful job. If I had known what I was getting myself into, I may have brought it to the dealer.

 

[edwardsonmark]

Not sure if there's room but I have used a bottle jack inside right above the axle on older tractors. Like I said not sure if that would have worked here or not. Way to use what you have available to you to get the job done!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[kubotasam]

The problem you had must have is the wedges that the locking bolts tighten to pinch the axle shaft were rusted in. I ran into this on a tractor I bought last year. This is how I solved the problem.
Remove locking pin and locking bolt.
Soak everything with PB Blaster.
It seems like you should be able to take a punch or chisel and push the wedges out but there is no lip to catch.
Get a tap that will grab into the hole in one locking wedge. (I think it was a 3/4 fine thread tap but it was a year ago). Start the tap into the hole until it grabs good. Now take a large punch and put it in locking bolt hole from the other side so it hits the end of the tap. Take a big hammer and drive the wedge out. Once you have one wedge out with the tap the you can take the punch and drive the other one out.
Now the hub should come off easily.
Clean everything with a wire brush, apply grease to the outside of the wedges and reinstall. You should never have a problem adjusting the hubs again.

 

[ossa]

Not sure if there's room but I have used a bottle jack inside right above the axle on older tractors. Like I said not sure if that would have worked here or not. Way to use what you have available to you to get the job done!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thanks for the idea. I'm wondering if the transmission would take that stress of trying to pull the axle shaft out with several tons of force? But you've done it, so some tractors must be tough!

 

[ossa]

.... Start the tap into the hole until it grabs good. Now take a large punch and put it in locking bolt hole from the other side so it hits the end of the tap. Take a big hammer and drive the wedge out. Once you have one wedge out with the tap the you can take the punch and drive the other one out.
Now the hub should come off easily.
Clean everything with a wire brush, apply grease to the outside of the wedges and reinstall. You should never have a problem adjusting the hubs again.

Wow, that only comes with experience! Frankly I had no idea what the clamping mechanism was - there's no exploded diagram in the service manual to see. One thing I need to get a feel of is how tough these tractors are. I tend to be very conservative banging on transmission/axle shafts with big hammers in any direction. One thing with the puller approach is all stress was on the axle only. But with your experience you've had no trouble wish hammering the wedges out. Thanks for the GREAT advice and technique. I'll definitely remember that for next time. Would have been much less drama for sure. There was a moment there where I was thinking, "Time to throw in the towel and rent a trailer."