350 straight broken crossbar

[brucek]

I have a 350 straight with a 4 in one drott bucket. The crawler loader had a regular bucket and I found a 4 in 1 for $300. A steal if you ask me. Anyway yesterday I was using the machine loading logs into my dump trailer. All of a sudden something didn't feel right. What I found was the rear cross bar sheared at the point where it connects to the crawler. I now also noticed this may have stressed the front crossbar as it has a crack where it bolts to the undercarriage track rails. The rear cross bar is solid round stock approx. 2.5" diameter. What could have made this snap? Would the 4 in 1 bucket and grabbing logs stress this bar?
I am also thinking about welding the crack on the front cross bar... Has anybody had any luck with welds holding with all the stress the cross bars receive at the attachment point to the track rails?
I see my parts machine has broken out holes on the front cross bar where the bolts hold it top the undercarriage so swapping front cross bars doesn't look like it gains me any ground with out welding anyway.
Thanks for any input. This site is full of experienced guys regarding these 50 plus year old machines.
Thanks

[Tigerhaze]

Hi Bruce-

Unfortunately those crossbars are a weak point of the 350s in general- if you search the archived threads on this board you will find a number of thread discussing potential repair approaches which also answer many of your questions.

[brucek]

Thanks for the response tigerhaze. Today I took the replacement crossbar off my parts machine. That already had the undercarriage removed. This is gonna be chore on a machine that still has the undercarriage attached.