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SW48, Help! Removing rear wheel when tension bolt is missing and bearing exploded.

kiamori

New member
So long story short, I had this SW48 in the shop for some welding that I couldn't get at without a lift and they broke/lost the belt tension bolt for the tracks. I'm guessing the tension was too high and caused a gap for water entry into the back side and it rusted out the bearings. Need to get the wheel off to assess damage/replace bearing.

Here is how it sits:

Back wheel started to come off

1748638316756.png


it's in a bad spot in the woods, so a bit hard to work on but I've got it off the wheels with a farm jack for the moment.

Took my trusty old pipe wrench and took off the cap. Found the bearings apparently disintegrated/exploded inside. (notice tension bolt is missing)
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1748638727525.png


cleaned most of it out.
1748638182782.png

1748638702210.png

Now I've replaced bearings on one of the wheels for this old beast once before but luckily it was the middle one and was not hard using the tension bolt. However, I have no tension bolt and it's the back wheel, I'm afraid my only option to disassemble the track?

I'll take just about any ideas here that will save me from taking that track apart in the woods.

going to get some boards under it and get it jacked up and safe to work on, then my thought was to take the other two wheels off and hope it gives me enough slack to get the last wheel off but I figured someone else might have a better idea for me here?

side question, has anyone replaced the tension bolt on these before? size, tips, etc would be great.
 
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