1010 track carrier play

[SmallTime]

I was noticing I have some play in my track carrier and was wondering if there is an amount thats acceptable. I wouldnt think they should move, but Im not sure. The play is in both ends of the crossbar shafts. Judging from the book Im not sure there is anything I can do to tighten this play up. Any ideas?

[Jimmy in NC]

Smalltime-

I'm not crawler expert but my 420 had severe carriage.. well.. it was active suspension. You need to find out what is worn and get it fixed. Mine was a mount that was no longer mounted to the side frame. Everyone I talked to said that the carriages moving will cause very accelerated wear and a tendency to throw tracks. It can also cause skewed loading of parts like final drives. I think this looseness is what you are talking about.


I'd research it and find the slop before it gives you one of those 'expensive' sounds .. mine always occur a good ways from the truck and trailer.

A few images of loose track carriages and the damage they cause.

Cause - torch on mount rivets to cross shaft (poor field fix)



Result - cracked steering clutch housing



Jimmy in NC

[SmallTime]

Ouch That dont look good. Kinda looks like the final was cracking for a while and then just gave up all together? Thanks for the heads up, Ill have to go ahead and just take this apart and see whats missing or worn. Ive got some cracks in my final too, maybe related.

Jimmy, is it possible to tighten these crossbar shafts up without buying new ones? I see there are what looks like shims and brackets on the ends, if the shims were taken out would it tighten things? Would it be better to add some metal to the ends where it it is probably worn most? Trying to do this without spending the retirement fund

[Lavoy]

The shims are for tread width adjustment to make sure that your track frames are parallel. The 4 bolts that are around the plate that the shims are underneath should be tight, if not, that will help. Also check to make sure that the plate itself has not broken free of the crossbar.
Lavoy

[Jimmy in NC]

Small time-

There were several contributing factors to that housing failure. I will tell you to go ahead and tear it down and have those housing fixed by someone that is VERY confident in working with old castings. Clean them up thourghly and have the brazed back up or what ever it takes. Cracked and repaired is better than broken looking for a replacement.

The main problem I think was that the carriages could float and go skew to each other (non-parallel) and it just twisted the final drives. Luckily the steering clutch housing took it on the chin since it is lighter and easier to repair/replace. If you look real closely you can see what happens when someone that is incompetent tries to weld an old casting.. further contributing to it's failure. (I can get into that but it's probably a lil long winded for this thread topic.)

Jimmy in NC

[jd440]

Hello,

The steering clutch housing on my 440IC was repaired with a stainless steel weld. It hasn't given me any problem so far, and it does appear stronger and harder than brazing.

Derek

[SmallTime]

Lavoy, I see what your talking about. Ill keep the shims in. As it is right now everything looks like it should, no broken parts etc. Im pretty sure the play is from the end of the shaft wearing. The back one with the clamps seems loose and the front one loose also . The front one's play is all at the end of the shaft under the plate with the 4 bolts. From the parts book picts, maybe it will be possible to build up the worn areas with weld? Dont know really without looking at it but will know this weekend, have you ever heard of anyone doing this?

Jimmy and JD, I have a friend who is a welder that will take a look at it for me. Unfortunatly I dont have any experience with cast so Ill let him do it and watch for next time. I understand there is long heat cycles and lots of peening involved. Im planning on using rod made for cast steal, now Im curious if its really a variation of a stainless steel alloy, never really thought about it.

[Lavoy]

Cast steel requires nothing special as far as rods go, do you mean cast iron?
If you use stainless steel, plan on doing lots of peening to relieve stress cracking. I have abandoned stainless altoghether, to big a pain in the you know what.
Local machine shop that is probably the best in a large area as far as this type of repair will no longer use anything but bronze on cast iron.
I use a true cast iron wire, and have had pretty good results.
Lavoy

[SmallTime]

Lavoy, youre right, I ment cast iron. I will check on that cast iron wire, I never heard of it. I have access to both stick and wire feed welders, is there anything special I should be aware of to use the cast iron wire such as pre and post heating and will peening still be necessary? If it is, would a needle gun be fine for that? Co2 or argon? I think its set up with co2 right now. Sorry for the million questions .

[Lavoy]

I got mine from a place called USalloys/Weldtech, their phone number is 800-325-1568.
According to them preheat is beneficial, but not necessary, no post heat required, peening is beneficial They do not recommend CO2, but you can use C25, straight Argon is preferred. It machines very well. Comes in 5# and 25# spools, so you won't be able to use a spool gun. If you have a long stinger and a single drive roll, it can feed hard.
Lavoy

[Lavoy]

One thing just dawned on me, if you are talking about welding on the casting that the crossbar goes through, they are cast steel, not cast iron, you can build them up with standard rod or wire.
Lavoy

[SmallTime]

Thanks Lavoy, I will be looking at welding up about an 8'' crack from the bottom of one of the finals with the cast iron wire. Not a gun unit. Also, depending on how the crossbars look I may add metal to those too, probably 7018 for that.
Thanks for all the input, Im thinking the cast iron wire may be something handy to have on hand in the future.