430 undercarrage etc!!

[Bobmn]

Hello to all; Well, been putting up with bad tracks on my 430 long enough. We had built a new shop last yr, with heat in the floor....but don't have the ceiling insulated yet, ( this weekend) so I'll turn it on Fri. Hopefully, the real cold weather is going away. The pins came out without heating! The pads are14" and have the snow holes. The 4 rollers do not have any slop in them, but the chain has wear on the sides. Can the rollers and chain be built up some? The pins and bushings are really bad!! I count 32 pads....so this means I have a oversized frt idler. What is the deal with this? The springs and adjustment or tension bolts are in good shape. Also good frt bushings in the idlers. The rear sprockets look good also. Just using this on the farm and in the woods some. As always, grt site and people!! Bobmn

[JimAnderson]

Bob,
You can definitely build up your rollers with welding rod.I did this
to my 40c twenty years ago.At that time I didn't have any way to
machine the finished weldments so I ran them as welded.I used a
mild steel rod and they have held up well.This is on a dozer so they
don't carry as much weight as on a loader.I am getting ready to weld
up a set of rollers for a 430c with a hardface rod and will machine them
to new roller specs.The shells will be stripped bare of seals, bearings
and grease.
Building up the rails on your machine should be possible.I have been
toying with that idea for my loader.It will be time consuming and you
may want to find a better set of rails.As has been pointed out here
before 350 rails will work on your machine if you change the sprockets.
The 350 rails are four bolt so you will have to redrill your current pads
or find replacements.If you are not going to put tons of hours on your
machine you might build up your rollers,put new pins and bushings in
your current rails and run them to total failure.
Tracked machines eat up undercarriages with use and replacement
parts for 40 year old machines can be almost impossible to find.The
local Berco dealer quoted me a price of $1200 per side for new 350
rails with pins and bushings.If I had supply four bolt pads I
probably would have bought them.JimAnderson

[Bobmn]

Jim; Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I'll be talking with Lavoy about doing the pins and bushings. I do have a wire feed and a lathe to do this. But just running them smooth sounds good. The 430 has new clutch,rebuit reverser,new steering clutches, bearings,seals and finals. Also pto. It was painted yellow a long time ago. To bad,maybe later on the paint!! The 6 way manuel blade is outside the tracks, with a ft pump. Sooo, I guess a" few "more bucks...........! We have old tractors, and I think you could do 3 of those, to one old dozer!! Oh, well it's a grt retirement!! I'll try to post some pics. Thanks Bob