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Converting a Trackmaster Crawlers Front End Loader bucket from Pins to a standard Skid steer Quick attach Plate (QT plate Mount upgrade)

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Trackmaster Bucket mounted via Skid Steer QT plate onto modern Tractor

It was always planned to convert the Trackmaster dozer into a standard Skid Steer Quick Attach adapter plate. This would allow implements like foIt was always planned to convert the Trackmaster dozer into a standard Skid Steer Quick Attach adapter plate. This modification would make implements such as forks and buckets interchangeable between my tractor and the Tiny Dozer.

Wellding supports on the original mounts to keep them aligned. These will be cut off later after I weld on the mounting plate on the Trackmaster bulldozer’s Front End Loader arms

I opted for heavier supports than necessary, using scrap pieces of thicker steel I had on hand in my scrap bins. This approach will simplify the process when it’s time to weld the Trackmaster side mounting plates. I also took detailed measurements at this stage to ensure proper spacing and alignment.

Using my Milwaukee Sawsall to carefully cut the pin mounts off the bucket to be careful and minimize damage

I wanted to remove the brackets as cleanly as possible, so I decided to use a Sawzall for the cuts. Before cutting, I pre-ground the heavy weld fillets, which allowed me to get the saw blade very close to the plate steel reinforcing the bucket mounts. This made cleanup quicker and ensured I kept the maximum amount of metal on the brackets, which will be useful for machining and welding when I mount the dozer side plates on the Trackmaster in the future.

The cut off brackets are pretty clean, ready to use in a year or two when I finally get around to finishing Tiny Dozer. Life has my time to work on it down to nearly zero.
Reinforcing mounting plates cleaned up to bare metal after welding onto the bucket.

I use a flap wheel and nylon abrasive wheel to polish the metal, both where I plan to weld and underneath. After that, I apply Cold Galvanize spray, which also acts as a weld-through primer. The welding onto the bucket was fairly straightforward.

Plasma cut mounting holes for welding to the bucket reinforcement in the Skid Steer QT plate I bought.

I used the plasma cutter to create holes in the plates where I’ll be welding around this ring to attach the mounting plates. To square up the mounting plates, I set them with a bar clamp and used a piece of scrap angle welded to the lower part of the plate to keep everything aligned. Since the bucket itself isn’t perfectly flat, there’s a slight mismatch between the squared-up plate and the bucket. As the welded area will bear most of the load, so I’m making sure there’s plenty of metal at the welded joints between the QT plate and the bucket’s reinforcing steel plate, which is 5/16″ thick A36 steel plate.

welded cleaned up and hit with zinc rich coating (aka spray galv)

The bucket is fully welded above. I did multiple pass and turned the heat way up on the second. With the preheat from the first pass it really melted in a nice wide smooth bead all around. This was horribly stinky. I thought there was not enough paint left on the inside of the buckte to be an issue with the heat. I was very wrong. It’s cold up here in the woods of northern NH this time of year and I had to open the shop doors and get the big fans blowing and turned myself into a shivering Popsicle. I finished welding outside the next morning. The shop smelled something awful from the burning paint for a few days.

I may add a support at the bottom in the spring to help share the load of the bracket. I needed this setup to be mobile and functional in order to fix some erosion damage on my hiking/biking/tractor trail up the hill before winter set in. This bucket is about a foot shorter on each side of the tractor, so it makes it much easier to squeeze through the trees. I can use my OEM bucket, but I often end up hitting and damaging the sugar maples. By building this, I figured I could do better and support my future plans of tapping all the trees up the hill when I start sugaring commercially, all with a bit of effort now.

Mounted on the Tractor, ready for test scooping.

After some test scooping from the fill dirt pile, I’m happy with how solid this bucket is mounted. I have no worries about it bending nor any about it breaking off. I think I’ll not end up add the triangles gussets for support underneath the bottom of the mounting plate. It’s so solid I don’t think they are needed.

Dfab Engineering Trackmaster Dozer

You’ll notice I haven’t posted in a long time if you’ve stumbled across my page looking for information on these machines. Progress on my tiny Trackmaster dozer/crawler loader has been slow. A lot has been done; I’m just bad about sharing updates. I hope to post more during the winter.

The steering clutches are rebuilt, and I’ll share the CAD files and drawings for that. The transmission is complete, with a new sprocket on both the transmission and the rear cross shaft. I’ll also provide details on the new “heart transplant” for the machine. The Wisconsin THD engine is being replaced with a new belt-driven pump. Stay tuned!

As always if you have any information on these. I would love to see them. Share a link, or photos or pdfs if you have them. I’d love to compile more info here for others to find in the future to help keep these lil machines running happily.

Dfab Engineering Trackmaster Dozer Crawler Restoration

How to Pull the Tracks on a Trackmaster Crawler Dozer Loader

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I’m going to skip ahead, as I need to put all of the data in a single source. I’m hoping to buy replacement trackchain and tracks for this dozer, which will likely also mean a new drive sprocket. More about why in this post showing how to pull the tracks on my Trackmaster Bulldozer restoration project.

Quickly fabricated Track puller on the tracks to remove the master pin

I researched how to pull the tracks apart on different track based vehicle and they all use a track puller, a tool that squeezes the master pin tracks together and allows for careful release of the stored tensioning energy.

Front bulldozer track tensioning idler pulley – that spring is made from ~5/8″-3/4″ diameter wire.

The front of the dozer is a tensioning idler type pulley on a HUGE spring. I was quite concerned it would explode the tracks apart upon pulling the bolt. As seen above, the spring is massive, and likely has an enormous quantity of stored energy. If you’ve ever taken anything apart and had a spring shoot out to go flying somewhere you understand my concern. It turned out that the compression on the spring is very small, so my concerns were likely unfoundeed, but it required the track puller to allow removal of the master link pin.

I quickly fabricated a track puller with a single 3/4″ threaded rod.

I looked at commercially available track pullers, and they are clearly developed for bigger machines. I took some track measurements and quickly fabricated a puller sized for the Trackmaster Bulldozers small treads. There are nice mounting holes for rubber track shoes on the Trackmaster crawler. I took advantage of these and used some on hand 3/8″ bolts to mount the puller to the tracks. Larger track pullers almost always have two screws, this allows you to prevent caming when you are trying to remove the master link.

Master link removed with track puller in place

Wow, this is great and really easy was my thought pulling this first set of tracks. Boy oh boy do I regret thinkng that as I was cursed on side 2 with a friction welded master link. Now for some photos in Gallery form.

Bulldozer track removal on a small crawler loader dozer by Trackmaster Engineering

I pulled the tracks, and started inspecting the damage. I knew when I bought the dozer that I’d have to redo/repair the drive sprocket and drive sprocket shaft. Unfortunately, this shaft is a somewhat unused ANSI B91.1 1970 standard infolute spline as best I can determine at 1.5″ dia 23 splines and a 30 degree pressure angle. I figured this out from the large gear also splined in the torque hub, not the shaft. AS you will see, there’s not enough left on the shaft to be meaningful.

yes it’s that bad. Someone very pooorly tried to hack together a repair and made things significantly worse damage wise.
If you thought spline side was bad, this is worse (although easier to repair by welding a splined coupling onto.

Some details about the tracks. The tracks themselves are 3.5″x8″ and stamped from some steel that was likely 1/8″ thick originally. The track Chain pitch is 4″, with a pin diameter of 1 1/4″, and an inner width between sidewalls of 1 1/4″. There are 33 total links/tracks on each side of the dozer. I’m going to try to source some sort of replacement. Likely a metric replacement that is close enough. I’ll share what I go with in a later post, but it seems 101mm track chain is a current standard size for small machines.

Trackmaster bulldozer has 25 teeth for the 4 inch pitch track chain. This shows drive sprocket diameter

The drive sprocket has 25 teeth for the 4 inch pitch track chain on the Trackmaster Bulldozer. I’m going to have to do a complete repair of the hub, and I am debating replacing this with whatever track sprocket I can find for the 101mm pitch track chain I am currently trying to source.

yes, someone shoved some exhaust tubing in there and poorly welded it in place.

Yes, someone shoved some exhaust tubing in there and poorly welded it in place. Sigh. It’s hard to believe it drove around as much as it did before I took it apart. the bolts had jammed in enough that it didn’t slip too much. I’m going to bore this out and weld in a new splined repair coupling should I keep this track sprocket. Honestly think I’ll fabricate an entirely new assembly if I can buy a new sprocket or sprocket segments. I’ll still need 25 teeth when I replace it. Stay tuned for how I fix this one

Stay tuned for the removal of the torque hub, the internals inside, and the further surprises waiting for me.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of my Tiny Tank Restoration

RF45/ZAY7045 CNC Milling Machine, Tool builds improvements and repairs

ZAY7045FG Milling Drilling Machine operating Manual PDF download

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I couldn’t find this online, found close but not exact. After lots of looking I found the original paper manual which I scanned to make this file. Truth, I didn’t clean it up, but it’s all there. I’m hosting this primarily for my own personal future reference but I also hope it helps someone else out with one of these great machines. I have ~3000hrs on mine most since it’s CNC conversion many years ago (link to posts) and a bearing is finally going. It’s nice of them to list the bearings part numbers out in the manual. Time for a rebuild for my overused and highly abused mill.

Download link to the user manual for my RF7045 mill drill clone in pdf format below.

http://www.projectsbyzac.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/MODEL-ZAY7045FG-Milling-and-Drilling-Machine-Operation-Manual.pdf

Dfab Engineering Trackmaster Dozer Crawler Restoration, projects, restorations

Trackmaster bulldozer Transmission bottom half REassembly and painting

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After dissassembly of the Tiny Dozer’s 3 speed transmission I cleaned, polished, removed rust, and carefully filed (or ground) off any burrs on each component of the drivetrain. I have this great tool I build for the bridgeport restoration last winter, it’s a heavy belt driven bench mount wire wheel. I used this a lot again on this project. The fat welded wire wheel makes quick work of rust, paint, and any gunk left after solvent soaking parts.

Bench wire wheel polishing machine – Priceless for any type of restoration of old iron. Quickly removes dirt, rust, burrs, paint and caked on yuck from your steel parts. Operated with a momentary when pressed type foot switch. Complete with Formlabs Tough resin shield for the wheel, and a Fuse1 print (SLS Nylon) belt guard for safety.

I chose to laser cut new gaskets. Thankfully the ones I had were ok enough to scan. The process for making new ones is Scan, Clean up the file, turn to vector paths, make into PDF, import into Laser cutter software, cut from gasket material. I’m using Cometic Gasket Fiber Gasket Material (Part # C15385) that I picked up at my local Autozone.

New laser cut gaskets for the Trackmaster Bulldozer Transmission.

Here is the pdf of the Gasket cutting file for you to use if you would like to laser cut your own set of gaskets. You can also print this out and use as a template to cut by hand with a bit of care to get new gaskets for your transmission rebuild. <INSERT FILE HERE>

The cleaned up transmission internals ready for reassembly. The parts are layed out as they fit in the transmission.

The reassembly starts with laying everything out as it will go together and making sure you have all of the parts. It was at this point that I realized many of the stand off spacer washers were badly worn. They were stampings from 1/8″ steel. I decided to quickly cad up and water jet some new spacer washers before assembling everything.

Small OMAX water jet, priceless for cutting some new washers for the transmission (the square bits are for my track puller I fabricated and you’ll see these in a later post)

With new spacer washers made I was ready to figure out how to get it togethere. The spacer washers ensure the gears are not rubbing on the bearings/sidewalls of the housing body. I would like to say I nailed assembly after this dry fitup without bearings, but as you’ll see below, I did not get it on the first go.

Dfab Trackmaster bulldozer 3 speed transmission rebuild internals loose fit during reassembly.

After loose fitting everything, I took it all apart, and got ready for the final assembly. I started with the lower output shaft with the two large gears. I did replace the snap rings throughout. I happened to have a bag of the appropriate sized snap rings in stock. Most of them are for 3/4″ Shafts. The one on the main shaft is a 1.25″ shaft (a 32mm snap ring will work as well if you have one). I put replaced the 1/4″ npt drain plug with a SS hex plug. I really hate cast iron square plugs.

I’m using a cheap GL5 gear oil with lower viscosity. I plan to change this out multiple times post rebuild after very short operating period of an hour or two. This will help wash out any bits that I might have missed cleaning pre assembly. Be sure to lube everything up as you assemble it. I made care to get lots of the gear lube in the splined areas on the gears and the shafts. GL5 type oil is ok, as there is no copper, or copper alloys in this transmission anywhere. The EP additives in GL5 can corrode and destroy copper alloys quickly. If I end up making a cast barillyum copper shift arm (I can’t cast steel/iron but need the strength) I’ll switch to a GL 4 or standard motor oil lubricant.

One note on assembly, don’t think you will casually knock this together with a hammer and block of wood. The press fit clearances are pretty tight. I ended up using my big 20 ton hydraulic press to get most of this together (no photos of this as I didn’t have a tripod or photo taking helper available with Covid pandemic in full swing)

A quick note on the bearings. When I took the 3 speed transmission for the bulldozer apart, all of the bearings were open race with no shields or seals. I decided there was no reason the outer side should be open race. Also I could not find affordable good bearings that were not shielded. It’s pretty easy to pull a shield off of a bearing, and I did this on the internal side for each of the seven 6203 bearings as I assmebled them with a hook pick tool.

pulling one of the “Sealed” shields off on the inside of the bearing during assembly. This will allow oil lubrication, and flush out any contaminates should they end up in the transmission. I plan to change the fluid regularly and often in an effort to keep this 3 speed living a long happy life after the repairs are completed.

The first shaft assembly went together well. I thought I was home free. Things went ok, until I got to the last shaft, and then it didn’t work. I’m sure if there was a manual they would explain the proper assembly, but I have no information on this thing. In the end I had to press a bearing most of the way out to get the shafts and bearings all assembled. The photos below have me pointing at this bearing/shaft I had to shift with the hook pic tool.

In order to fit the upper middle shaft in place. I had to press the lower output shaft assembly forward until it almost was not in the machined opening. This provided enough room to get the middle upper shaft installed.

Other than the above, the assembly was straightforward. I’ll drop pics in the gallery below for your education and enjoyment. Drop a comment if you have any questions.

D-fab engineering Trackmaster Bulldozer restoration – Transmission assembly and painting

Painting in the winter is tricky, I often spray outside and then quickly bring the part in for heated curing. A big torpedo type heater 3 feet away goes a long way to cure and dry the paint quickly. I’m not sold on this safety yellow collor. I’ve left the botom end masked for now, as I suspect I’ll paint it with a different color yellow.

As always if someone stumbles across this page with any information about these Trackmaster d-Fab Engineering by Fruehauf Trackmaster Dozers Crawlers, I’d love to know more about them. I’d be happy to host manuals and or parts catalogs here on my blog if you have them and are willing to share them with me. Please leave me a comment or email me at my website name on Gmail (no dot com there). I don’t check often, but I eventually will get back to you to host the information. Thanks!