550 track wont pull

[mross]

Just got a 550 straight guy said it needed a steering clutch but that doesn't make sense if that side want pull under a load. So can someone help it make sense. I bought the tech manual just waiting on it to get here.

[shinnery]

Basically a steering clutch assembly is a cage assy. with about a dozen metal plates and fiber disks and a pressure plate holding it all together. the fiber disks have teeth on the inside that mesh with splines on the input shaft and the metal plates have tabs on the outside that mesh with slots in the cage. When the pressure plate is not released this should transfer the rotational force from the input shaft to the outside of the cage which is attached to the track drive sprocket. The springs in the pressure plate could be bad, the disks and plates could be slipping against each other, the tabs could be sheared off the plates or the teeth sheared off the disks. Or it could be something else or a combination of any of the above and any of the above will cause the track not to drive. HTH
Bryce

[digitup2]

To the untrained eye that steering clutch could look good but it isn't if it is slipping .So open the clutch pack up and examine the friction plates and the steel surface plates .All it takes is something as small as a warped friction plate or surface plate..This can be tested by setting them across a flat edge .When a clutch pack heats up from slipping the heat warps the friction disks and or the steel disks surface area the inside expands It then stays that way and you have a poor contact area .As they get hotter they get worse and that clutch will gradually become a spinning heat source .As Shinnery mentioned check the inner spline on the one set of surfaces and the outer spline on the other set .That usually wasn't my problem with 550 steering clutches mine would heat up and slip rather quickly.Check the other side as well I find that they both got the same TLC and when one starts to slip it puts added labour to the other side so watch the other steering clutch .It has been years since I had a 550 but I put some good hours on it before I traded it.Digitup.

[mross]

Thanks for the good info..I've opened her up and out came the steering clutch to my eyes they didnt appear bad but that doesnt mean they arent. I looked for some mechanical means to keep pressure aplied to the clutches and I dont see anything. So does this mean that the pressure hose is pressure for the clutches and its pressure off for release. If this is the case could the pressure manifold just need to be replaced

[mini kahuna]

if the clutch has slipped for any amount of time,as stated above the clutch plates will be warped and they lose contact area and are wasted.

you have two issues to deal with,replacing damaged parts of the clutch itself,and finding the root cause of the slipping to begin with.

most 550 problems I have seen came from lack of oil/filter changes,they are a tough dozer able to take many hours of run time.