Update:
After much deliberation I pulled the trigger, ordered the SALT chain, new track pads, lower rollers, upper carrier and front idler for both sides ($$ ouch! $$) buy once, cry once right? I'm having the pads sent separately and have a fab shop lined up to water jet clean-out holes in the middle (THANKS AL!). Got the battery box and Hyd box removed yesterday and popped the cover on the right steering clutch housing
, let's just say I'm very glad I had already intended to pull all the guts out and rebuild everything in there before I opened the compartment or I would have puked MY guys out.
Let me ask you all... when it comes to rebuilding the clutches, I'm looking at getting the kit that comes with all the disks, new throwout bearing, new pressure plate and new brake bands but I thought I remembered reading somewhere on here that they make a "better" disk now a days than the old fiberous ones that came stock on them that don't have the same swelling/corrosion issues that plague the dry clutch machines. How would I know I was getting the newer/better clutch plates? What are they made of? I basically need the whole skinny on these so I know I'm ordering the best clutch pack I can, lord knows I don't want to have to do this again, EVER, or at least not in the near future.
The next step is pulling the finals to rebuild them and in the process, pull the pinion shaft so I can rig the clutches out and begin rebuilding them. I'll have to do some digging researching the power steering on this machine because my 450 straight doesn't have this feature and I know very little about how it intertwines with the steering. Any insight from experience to this would be awesome!