1970 350 crawer track adjusters

[gerald]

I need my crawer to do dirt work on my retirement property it needs track seals both sides .I have adjuster seals. I dont have alot of time to do the work on the crawer. I used 6 ton hyd jack to push the track out. I,m thinking of pushing the track out and cutting 1 inch round stock 17 1/2in for the inboard and out board side measureing from the front getting equal distance. It looks to me it will work. I don,t have the time to fix her up right. Any ideas would be a big help thank you Gerald.

[Lavoy]

Not sure where you want to put the rod, but if you put it in the wrong place, you will eliminate the springs function and this could lead to final drive damage. It is not really any more work to replace the seals than it is to put in the chunks of rod. I guess I would fix it correctly and not have to worry about it.
Lavoy

[MattE]

I would fix it right too.

In a pinch I have welded cheap bottle jacks in where the track adjusters go to get a crawler out of the woods after blowing adjuster seals.

Fix it right and spare the headache

[Lakeview]

I am fairly new to crawlers (couple of years), and I don't know if this really works or not. This was told to me by a man I was looking at his International 125 that needed an adjuster seal. He said an old IH mechanic told him this. So, judge for yourself. He said to clean out your grease gun and refill it with silicon. Jack your idler to where you want it and pump in the silicon. Let it sit a couple of days. If it needs adjusting later put in grease and it will push from behind the silicon and still seal. Just passing along what I had heard...........

[gerald]

Lakevies thats funny , would be cool if it worked, Im shure the the round stock will work in front of the spring that should not move. It will have to be welded some. I wished the 350 was in my garage I don,t have trailer biig enough to transport it

[Tigerhaze]

Hi Gerald- i am not sure on the 350s but it shouldn't be too big a deal to remove the hydraulic adjusters. If the adjusters are like my 2010, there should only be 4 bolts on each side holding it to the front idler. Of course tracks would have to be split first to remove it.

Once removed, the hydraulic adjusters can either be sent to a shop for new seals or you can buy new adjusters. It will cost a little more that way than repairing yourself, but will save a lot of time if you are not comfortable with the repair procedure. I can relate, as I am way more time-limited than fund-limited.

[jfischer]

I just finished servicing my adjusters...quickly split the tracks pulled it out...8000 psi, then cleaned and replaced all seals. Do it right the first time and you will be pleased.
Regards,
jmf.

[DBCSteve]

I just finished servicing my adjusters...quickly split the tracks pulled it out...8000 psi, then cleaned and replaced all seals. Do it right the first time and you will be pleased.
Regards,
jmf.

I replaced the adjusters on my 450C, but still have the old adjusters around. The pistons were badly rusted. If these can still be rebuilt, I'd be glad to give 'em to anyone if they can pick up in northern California. Otherwise they go in the trailer with my old tracks to the steel yard.

[Jack-the-Ripper]

I just replaced a tensioner on my 450B because the piston was severely pitted - it cost about $500 for the new one and I was warned that the new ones had a larger diameter than the old ones so I couldn't just replace the piston. Then I had to slap my forehead as I realized that, unlike a double-acting cylinder, these only have pressure on one end and therefore only the inner seal on the end of the piston holds pressure. The visible external seal is merely a dust cover and doesn't have to seal to hydraulic pressure levels for the track adjuster to function properly.

One should be able to use a cheap engine cylinder hone on a drill motor with an extension to clean up the old cylinder, if necessary (assuming its not deeply pitted), and install a new piston gasket.

I had to put a large come-a-long on a piece of chain welded to the front of the piston to pull it out of the spring socket and even then I had to "worry" the end with a large crowbar to remove it as the spring was not concentric with the frame hole and, over time and "lubricated" with lots of grit, had worn a groove in that end of the piston that interlocked with the spring.

[DBCSteve]

I had to put a large come-a-long on a piece of chain welded to the front of the piston to pull it out of the spring socket and even then I had to "worry" the end with a large crowbar to remove it as the spring was not concentric with the frame hole and, over time and "lubricated" with lots of grit, had worn a groove in that end of the piston that interlocked with the spring.

Jack -- hopefully this link will come through:

http://gallery.me.com/macaulay.steve#10 ... olor=black

This is a picture of me doing essentially the same thing! The full gallery of pics showing track replacement on my 450C is here:

http://gallery.me.com/macaulay.steve#10 ... &view=grid

Steve

[digitup2]

That is the way I like buying my tracks chain and grousers together and new at the same time .The only problem is if you get used to the shorter grousers the new ones tend to stir things up a bit but this sure makes a crawler able to go to work.I haven't bought any tracks lately but there is a new 550J on a job all three older 550Js are getting new undercarriage over several months so I am going to have to bite the bullet.The oldest one has 11000 hours on it now and it's 3rd set of tracks are getting around 30% life,good undercarriage isn't cheep but watch the imported stuff I saw some at the Deere dealer recently and it was seized in the pins and bushings new never installed just junk !!.While looking it over I noticed the chains weren't even built right .I know Deere chain is bigger bucks but I would buy the cheep Deere and probably the Berco stuff if you want but don't buy that junk that is imported unless you are parking the old Deere and looking at it!!.Digitup,

[Jack-the-Ripper]

Steve,

Nice set of pictures - they look all too familiar. I'm wondering if you had any trouble getting the new tensioner inserted into the spring socket? My spring or something is not concentric with the frame hole, and the new piston "pipe" has not readily seated all the way in. I'm assuming that it will pop in when I add the grease and increase the pressure on the track, or it will pop in while driving, leaving me with a slack track that needs to be "pumped" back to the proper tension.

Digitup,

I'm just curious: with all your equipment and time spent making money (I hope), do you or your company replace your own tracks or do you have an outside company or service do it for you?

[DBCSteve]

Steve,

Nice set of pictures - they look all too familiar. I'm wondering if you had any trouble getting the new tensioner inserted into the spring socket? My spring or something is not concentric with the frame hole, and the new piston "pipe" has not readily seated all the way in. I'm assuming that it will pop in when I add the grease and increase the pressure on the track, or it will pop in while driving, leaving me with a slack track that needs to be "pumped" back to the proper tension.

Jack -- no trouble, just stuck 'em in, bolted up, pumped grease until I got the tracks to the correct spec. I only have a few hours on the new tracks since I have other projects going, but I expect to have to re-tension the tracks as the new chain links loosen up.