Aligning Centurion engine to gearbox

[Malcolm Towrie]

John,
The tracks came new with 108 links. The users manual says when you use up all the threads available on the tensioner trying to set the correct sag, you need to remove a link. When you are down to 102 links, get REME involved.
That's 6 links you can remove, which surprised me since that's about 2.5 feet of track!
We've got 102 links on one track and 103 links on the other, so we're still good, barely.

The problem is when I loosen the tensioner nut off to slacken the right hand track, which is way too tight, the tensioner doesn't back off, even when I drive the tank in reverse. So it's jammed. Looks like I'll need to get medieval.

Malcolm

[jdmcm]

Malcolm

could you push the track up against some other heavy object? (another tank comes to mind) and just give it a push and see if the idler will budge backwards?



John

[Mike Cecil]

John,

Depending on which type of idler is fitted (there were three designs), that method may risk breaking the idler.

Mike

[Malcolm Towrie]

We got medieval today. Heat, pounding and jacking were involved, but the key step was tightening the tensioning nut back up with a 3 ft pipe wrench and a 6 ft pipe extension. This actually cracked the tensioning screw loose from its spherical seat bushing and with some more heat and jacking the track off the top of a road wheel with a 20 ton jack, we got the tensioner loose enough in the seat that a quick application of right hand neutral steer would pull the tensioning screw back.

The pic below may make my description easier to understand.

Malcolm

Tracktensioner diagram.JPG