roller trouble

Johnneypopper · Post by **Johnneypopper** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:03 pm

hey all heres my trouble taking off my bottom rollers on my 420 the bolts that come out buggered the thread on the track frame and some twisted off they are pretty soft they are 9/16 bolts and the easiest fix would be to drill and retap to a 5/8 bolt im wondering iff it would weaken the roller to drill the bolt holes to 5/8 the 9/16 fits pretty loosely in there undoubtedly some of you ran into this trouble has anyone gone to yhat fix or any idaes would be great thanks

Gil · Post by **Gil** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:13 am

Of the 70 or 80 some JD440 rollers that I have, I don't remember any that are broken around the mounting hole. This is with the factory size bolts, but it leads me to believe that this is not a common area of weakness; and some of these rollers have been unmercifully abused.

Regardless of the direction of travel, half the bolts are still pushing against the body of the roller for lateral support. Hope this helps.

Post by **Lavoy** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:28 am

Factory rollers are 1/2", not 9/16", if you are already at 9/16", you do not have any more room to go up. Take the trackframe off if you have not already, turn it upside down and plug weld shut and re-tap all the bad holes.
Lavoy

Johnneypopper · Post by **Johnneypopper** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:35 pm

thanks guys what welding rod should i use to plug weld them holes theres not alot of meat there to hold the weld also might be more then i can handle but ill sure give it atry

Post by **Lavoy** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:07 am

I use a wire welder, but there is no reason stick should not work. 6011 or 6013 would be two choices.
Lavoy

Gil · Post by **Gil** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:46 pm

If your rollers look something like this, it is probably time to rebuild them.

Johnneypopper · Post by **Johnneypopper** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:20 pm

my rollers were even worse some flanges wre broke right off and my rails wrent far behind so i went down to lavoys and he set me up with rollers and sprockets and some other parts i needed it will end up being a track up restoration im sure this is the first time its been apart so i guess thats not bad for 50 years of service

digitup2 · Post by **digitup2** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:27 am

That one roller is just along for the ride!!.I would say it has been siezed for a while .Digitup.

NNAATZ · Post by **NNAATZ** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:45 am

more of a skidder than a crawler!

Gil · Post by **Gil** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:12 am

You mean they are supposed to turn? This is the other side.

lizrad999 · Post by **lizrad999** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:07 am

Hey guys, to get all of the rock guards and rollers off of the rail on my 440IC, I'd say about 50% of the bolts broke off in the rails. I started off with a small drill press on the floor with the rail flipped over and started trying to drill them out, (no magnetic base drill

) but this quickly got old. The fastest way I found to get the old bolts out is a torch. If you finesse it just right, you can blow most of the bolt out without damaging the rail threads. After it all cooled I went around with a little punch and knocked out any extra metal. I then took my 1/2" fine tap and ran all of the holes (even the good ones). Needless to say it worked like a charm and I was able to "finger" thread my new bolts into the frame rail.
BTW, I purchased 1/2" fine thread grade8 bolts and lock washers. Bet they don't break off again!
Now, as far as drilling out the castings on the rollers, I can't speak for them exactly, but I will tell you that the casting that holds the top idler is prone to breaking around the bolts. Same type material right? I would weld the holes like Lavoy said, or try and find another rail setup.

Lu47Dan · Post by **Lu47Dan** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:38 pm

Gil , how badly are the front idler guide flanges on your track frames . If they are thin then this would be the time to fix them also . That will be my next project on mine as both sides are getting bad . I will be posting pictures of the repair as it progresses . First thing to do is get figure out what is knocking in my 6.2L GM diesel in my one truck

. At least most of the rollers on my crawler still have their flanges intact .

Dan

Gil · Post by **Gil** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:25 am

Luckily these pictures are from a parts crawler that I just bought. Years of pushing out manure from the barn took their toll. I did get a good engine, transmission, and direction reverser in the deal, AND no need to rebuild the undercarriage!

digitup2 · Post by **digitup2** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:38 pm

That is good becouse the way those rollers are you don't need an emergency brake on a machine that bad even in hilly country you would be OK to jump off.After putin it in nuteral of corse We thought you were one of those guys that wanted to save every thing from the scrap !!Digitup .

Gil · Post by **Gil** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:36 am

I eventually got around to removing the rock guards and the rollers from the track rails that are in the pictures above. I have had problems in the past with breaking bolts when I tried to do this.

The reason for this update is to tell you how impressed I have been with a half inch drive Ingersoll Rand 2135Ti impact air wrench that I bought to disassemble this crawler. It removed ALL of the roller and guard bolts without breaking a single one. I did not even need to heat them with the torch. My air compressor is just a standard 1 1/2 hp Sears 30 gallon air compressor. Every once in a while I had to let the compressor pressure catch up, but I am now a definite supporter of this rather expensive Ingersoll Rand impact air gun.

The 15/16" bolt heads on the track frame cross member were a little bit more of a problem. I had to heat the mounting block with a rosebud on my torch. But again the 2135Ti got the job done. On one bolt I reverted to using a socket and breaker bar, and the bolt head snapped right off.

p.s. I am not a salesman for Ingersoll Rand, but now I will consider buying their stock.

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