mc tracks

[Andy Curdo]

HI guys, Finishing up 1952 dozer I picked up last fall,was told by seller that new pins & bushings were installed ,but he thought they were "tight" & didn't kwow why. I got it running ,tracks squeak,have no slack & can't loosen. Only has 27 pads , book says should have 28.Why did somebody do this.... I guess i'll be looking for 2 pads.

[JimAnderson]

Andy,
If the pins and bushings were fresh they will squeek some.
If you have 27 pads then the pins and bushings are shot.Removing
a link to gain adjustment is a bandaid fix.Take a look at the bushing
surface contacted by the sprocket.With fresh parts there will be
no noticable wear.Heavy wear means that soon there'll be holes in
the bushing so that the pins will be visible.If the seller said it had
new pins and bushings you may have some recourse .It is sad to
say this situation gets related on this board way to often. If
you have been short tracked then you need two pads and rails with
wear similar to the ones you have.Luck,JimAnderson

[Andy Curdo]

Thanks Jim, All pins & bushings look new,even sprockets look new. Maybe thats all he took to fellow to replace ???

[JimAnderson]

Andy,
That's probably what happened.Guy probably didn't know one
had been removed.I just wonder how he got them back on the
machine?Luck,JimAnderson

[JWB Contracting]

It is very easy to get worn tracks back on with a missing link.

When I look at a used crawler to puchase, the first think I look at is the undercarriage. Namely the position of the front idler. If the idler is extended you know the tracks are worn. Also, if the idler is back and the tracks show wear you know that a link has been removed.

I have seen this done before and sad to say that my dad has done on many of our resale machines. We don't advertise them as having good undercarriage and they are priced accordingly. It the undercarriage is 100% worn we will tell them that as well, usually we end up selling the customer a good used or a new set of rails installed. My dad has been selling older crawlers since the late 60's and have had very few complaints from customers if any. We are just honest and up front with them. Not all buyers are looking for a fortune for a machine with new undercarriage and are looking for something for occassional use.

With that said there are alot of sellers that advertise their equipment as just rebuilt, I take the stance of verifying for myself.

The other possibility is that if the pins and bushings were replaced, maybe they didn't put enought links in. This happened to me on my 2010.

[Tigerhaze]

Andy- I believe having a link removed changes the pitch of the track and can cause abnormally fast wear on your new sprockets. You may want to confirm that with Lavoy or others and may want to see about getting another link put in before there is too much wear.

[JWB Contracting]

Removing a link does not have an affect on the pitch of the track chain.

The pitch is the same no matter how many links there are. The pitch on the chains gets longer as the rails wear (Internal and external), so if you are running worn out rails with new sprokets the sprockets will wear very quickly. Which is why it is best practice to change out both the sprokets and rails at the same time.

This is the reason why undercarriage is so important on a crawler. I have two 450C dozers for sale, one for $12,500 and the other for $17,500. The more expensive one has almost brand new undercarriage all the way around (SALT rails) and is worth every penny of the difference in asking price.

One of these days I am going to have to get a book on undercarriage measurements so I can more accuratly judge the condition of undercarriage compoents. We also aquired 3 or 4 semi loads of good used rails from a track sales / repair shop that was moving and we don't know what the stuff fits. The good deere rails were easily identified and already sold and/or used.

[JimAnderson]

Andy,
The number of links has no effect on pitch nor does the condition
of the rails themselves.The condition of the pins and bushing do.
When the pins and bushings wear on each other the effective pitch
increases.For a given track group new rails with new pins and
bushings has the same pitch as a 100% worn rails with new pin
and bushings installed.That's the reason tracks are repinned and
bushed.I would be concerned about how tight the tracks are.If
too tight then damage can be done to the finals and front idlers.
With new pins and bushings installed in tracks with correct link
count the front idler would be moved forward to establish proper
track tension.Being one link short might require the front idler to
be forcefully drawn rearward to install the master pin.
Luck,JimAnderson

[Andy Curdo]

Guys , forgot to mention how hard it is to get off machine since geting it running!!! Been clearing area in woods behind barn. I'm impressed what in can do. Your right , I need to stop running it until I get tracks fixed. gota get some slack before i do some damage. Heading to New York next week to J.D. expo ,Hope to find 2 link's - pins -etc.
Thanks again ! Andy