1010 trackframes

[Lavoy]

No way, I am leaving them up. It comforts me to know someone else has as much trouble as I do with computers.
Lavoy

[stmftr395]

Rob; I did not use hardsurfacing wire. I believe the only reason that there was wear on the cross bar and trackframe was that the crawler had been operated for sometime prior to ownership with the blocks that hold the rear crossbar in place missing. This let the undercarrage hinge on the front crossbar. Not good. Fortunately the blocks came with the crawler. Removing the broken bolts is another story. Mark

[robk]

First I want to thank our dictator El Exigente Wilcox for hanging out all my frustrating, embarrassing moments and stupidity for all to see. I'm going back and put x's all through them. X-rated. Just for this, I'm buying all my John Deere parts from the factory outlet store at the mall from now on.

Mark, I'm so sorry the struggle with your broken saddle mounting bolts is over. It was so easy with a stick welder. After I stuck the stinger in there and got enough weld (7018 rod reverse polarity) to connect the special nut I made to the remains of the bolt in the casting, it came out with my fingers. No kidding.

Doncha love the way these machines were treated by Neanderthal owners? If you look closely at my broken mounting bracket picture, you can see two old bolts in the top of the saddle. You may just be able to see the two bottom ones are missing.

[jdemaris]

In the case of the crossbar, I could clamp the part where the split clamp usually is (right at the end) and just cut the built up weld in the 6 or 8 inches next to the chuck.

We had to build up a lot of those crossbars, 1010s and 350s, especially the 350Cs. For any of the badly worn crawlers I've had to fix, I never found a mounting hole in the track frame that was round anymore - so building up the bar and turning in a lathe would not accomplish anything useful. If you have an sort of oval shaped hole in track frame, you need to create an oval shaped surface on the bar to match. The 350Cs were partricularly bad because they use floating track-frames (not bolted solid). So, they are designed to bounce around a bit, all the time at the front mounting - and that makes the rear crossbar and track-frame mounting hole wear. Same thing happens in the 1010s once the front support gets loose.

[stmftr395]

Rob; have used the welding trick many times succesfully, but not on the saddle bolts. They seamed to be very hard bolts and would crack at the weld area, leaving a crystalline looking surface. Used mild steel and nickel wire to no avail. jdemaris's point that the track frame hole will most likely not be round is taken. I have figured that when I reassemble I will add metal where required to provide a reasonably tight fit. I will TIG weld the build up, giving me greater control as to filler metal added.