Hey everyone, Great forum, very informative. I recently got a Cat 305, and the idler bearings are completely gone, not even a trace of them, the idlers were just laying on the pins. I feel pretty lucky the pins and holes are still in good shape, no wear at all really. Cat wants $550/side for the bearings and seals, a few other small bits. I have read about the 305 have problems with these bearings breaking down and my mechanic is recommending having some bronze bushings made up instead. Local machine shop quoted $7-800 to make and install the bushings in the idlers. What do you think? Is anyone familiar with replacing idler bearings with bronze bushings? How's the longevity? Thanks! Brent
If there is no sign of the bearings at all I seriously doubt that either the idlers themselves or the idler shafts are totally damage-free. I am looking at the price of a complete assembly (idler, bearings, seals, & shaft) and to me it is listed as US$475, you work that out in Canadian $ ...... So if the local machine shop quoted $7-800 (Canadian I assume) sight unseen to bush both idlers what plan did they have for the shafts..? and if they didn't you can bet on extra cost above that to either manufacture new shafts or refurbish the existing ones. Additionally, how do you plan on lubricating the bushings..? The OEM roller bearings are sealed and, initially anyway, are full of grease. If you go for bushes you'll have to figure out a way of getting grease in there and more importantly keeping it in there. If you want Cat spares at good prices try Offroad Equipment - www.offroadeq.com/ - they are usually very competitive.
Thanks Nige! I will have a closer inspection of the idler condition asap, they are at the machine shop for now. The shop did Inspect them and prescribed just the bronze bushings. $475us per new assembly, sounds to me like a better deal than replacing just the bearings. I was quoted 675cad ($510us) per new assembly, the bronze bushings route would be half that price, but without the new components of the idler assembly, so It's probably not much of a long term savings. I do live in a remote area, so shipping costs can cause me to get creative, and the machine is just for use on my homestead, non-commercial, so it doesn't see a ton of hours. I've read about people using oilite bronze for other bearing replacement projects, apparently it's somewhat self lubricating? Other than that I didn't hear any mention of a lubricating system, and it has me wondering about the longevity of such a system.
Oilite and other self lubricating bearing materials generally have a much lower tensile strength so they don't hold up well in undercarriage applications.
Save your self the hassle and bite the bullet get new idlers! its all be tried before with poor results!
Have you tried Pollard equipment http://www.pollardequip.com/Landing_page.html They have some decent pricing on cat parts In chilliwac
Thanks everyone, I went with new idler assemblies from Cat. I had a look at some Chinese aftermarket idler assemblies that were a couple hundred dollars less expensive, per side, but I didn't feel the build quality was of a high enough standard to warrant the savings.
Why didn't you just rebuild them. I had to rebuild them all on my kobelco as I couldn't afford to buy new bottom rollers. At almost 400 bucks each all of mine needed new bearings and seals. Needless to say it only cost me about 250 to rebuild all 8 bottom rollers and 2 top rollers and also the 2 front idlers. If you didn't toss out your old ones they press apart and if the shafts are not buggered up you should be able to get bearings and seals from a local B and T shop.