Anyone Near Knoxville or Maryville, TN? 440 question

[brianacarey]

Hi,

This is my first post as my father and I are just entering the world of Crawlers. We have messed with a lot of old tractors and are not completely stupid, just sorta slow. We have wanted to get a crawler for quite a while but we are a little apprehensive about the whole undercarriage thing. I hear people say their undercarriage is 60% etc, but do not know what this means. We have located a 440 John Deere Diesel crawler in Maryville Tn, which is quite a ways away from us, but we enjoy traveling. I am told that the undercarriage, clutches, sprocket are "like new", and that it needs a little work, but pretty easy stuff. I am trying to find if there might be someone near that area that could take a semi-expert look at it and give me their feedback. We will pay a reasonable fee for this so that it will save us a trip there. If no one is available, can someone give us some things to check to determine what % the tracks and undercarriage are. I read that there are measurements that can be taken on the tracks that determine how worn they are. Does someone have the number for this and be able to walk me through that? Sorry for all the questions, just don't want to buy a money pit Thanks.
Jason
BrianacareyATmsn.com

[joeturner1977]

I think this will help you.

http://www.crawlerheaven.com/wearlimits.htm
http://www.crawlerheaven.com/tracklinks.htm

[KenP]

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[stmftr395]

Ken; Thanks for the great reading material! Should be a help to anyone,but especially to those of us with limited experience. Mark

[brianacarey]

Thanks guys for the help. I contacted a Kumatsu dealership and they said they could go take a look at it for us. I will forward the information here to them in case they don't have the specs. I will definately be studying this info as Crawlers have always been an interest, but have been a mystery to me. Thanks again for the help and I will update this thread with info when I get it.

Thanks
Jason

[KenP]

deleted

[Tigerhaze]

If you read the undercarriage guide, your 440 and other "early" JD crawlers will have the "dry" (unlubricated) tracks and bushings rather than the lubricated tracks and bushings. Both are described in the guide.