I've got a problem with the bushings turning in the rails where they are suposed to be pressed in solid and wondering if there is anything I can do about it. Its not just 1 or 2 its like 30-40% of them. I'm figuring that at this piont those links are ruined anyway so I was wondering about welding the bushings to the inner rail (couldn't hurt it any worse than it is already)? and its not an option to replace the rails, the ones that are not turnig measure out at about 90% life left and the running surface and sides are nice and crisp.
the rails are hardened and will probably not take the weld, the weld will crack just at the outside of the weld. i tried to weld the master pin in a track and it just kept breaking weld. i can['t hurt to try though. is it possibly under warranty? some manufactures have warranty that lasts to first turn. i am assuming it is a dry undercarriage or you will be burning seals when welding. good luck.
Got a picture for you guys to study, this is about the worst one I could find. I'm going to have to do something and its going to have to be a cheap fix, otherwise she's going to be headed to the scrap yard real soon. Those tracks wont last any time at all the way they are now and I don't figure the cat to be worth putting another new set of tracks under it. ointhead
They can be welded into place. It will not hurt anything and will hold up fine. Be sure to burn in a good weld.
Rotating bushings are the newest thing as in system 1 seriously speed kills your tracks, I'd just run em to destruction and try to keep it under 10 MPH next set
what kind of dozer is it and what part of the us are you located? alot of scrap and salvage yards around to find a set to replace them. seems a shame to retire an od working machine for a set of bum tracks. send a pic of the machine if you get time.
Yup I know about Cat's radical new design "so they claim" but its not new at all. Cleetrac was using that design back in the 40's and 50's, but according to Cat they're the ones who invented it:notworthy. This machine is a 1959 HD-16 so these track will probably be the last set it will ever see. Right now it has new rollers, the sprockets are good and the rails are new accept for the bushing problem and now there is now waranty, these track are probably 40 years old but they only have maybe 300 hrs. on them From southern oregon
Here ya go, its a 1959 HD16DC
Did you have trouble with tracks rusting in place ? ( not bending , or staying in a bent position) You said it sat a lot I am wondering if pins rusted to the bushings so hard that the bushings turned instead of breaking loose from pins. Put enough weld on to fill gap, a little tack will not take the strain
no, they always rolled nice and free but I know exactly what your saying. Wish I new what caused this. I won't be able to get a 100% weld on them but maybe 50-60%, hope thats enough
Is it aftermarket track? A lot of the old aftermarket stuff had poor or inconsistent heat treat. I tried to installed a set of pads with Pettibone bolts way back when and only about a quarter of them would tighten to torque. The rest just stretched and stretched. I finally pulled them all off and got The A C bolts.
They're Berco. I thaught they made pretty good stuff?
I think Berco is good today. We have some Berco track and it seems fine. Back in the old days their reputation was not that good, you bought it because it was cheap. It was just a thought that perhaps the rail was not as hard as it should be. I've never seen the bushing holes egged out even when track is run to absolute destruction.
If they are BERCO it will say so on the side of each link. More likely they were sold as BERCO . I have never had any problems with their stuff but I have had problems when supplier substitute other Brands that looked like BERCo If it fills in the gaps so bushing is in tight contact all the way around and a good weld that should work at 50 to 60%- but gaps must be filled or bushing will crack at the weld
rail repair Hi turbo8781,thats a nice looking hd 16 allis dozer.If the tractor is in pretty good shape and you still use it ,might try asking at a shop that has a track press .They could press out the pins that had trouble then weld up the bushings on both sides 100 percent while it is apart.May cost couple thousand bucks but new rails probably around 8 grand if you can find them.Just a thought
looks way too good to stop running. these old ones are too indestructable. try welding, what do you have to lose? pin must be frozen to bushing for this to happen. you may weld up track and then find out that pin is frozen and break welds immediately of tracks won't turn. try a few first, especially in a row and see how free pin is. good luck.
They have BERCO cast right into each link. Tough choice, if i do nothing it won't last very long if I weld'em up and they crack I'm screwd again ointhead. I can only reach about 50% of the way around the bushing and I counted the ones that are tuning and its about 75% of them that are FUBAR:Banghead and there's no way I can fill the gaps because they're to small to get it to burn in good enough
Thats why I'm going to just tack'em at first with the track laying flat on the ground , then I'll grab it with the excavator and toss it around a bit to see if the pins are free
I believe you could find a good set of used rails some where.Even the dry ones.Lots of salvage yards keep the good ones.That old beast looks like it has a lot of life left.
My experience has been that GOOD used rail is tough to come by and very pricey. There's a ton of good running old crawlers around that need track - everybody is looking. After all that's usually why they get parked. A proper track job on a 977 has to be 35 to 40 thousand these days. I have no knowledge on a 16 but I bet a dealer would want $20,000.00 for new track. You can weld all around the bushing easily, just get a big impact wrench and buzz off the pads. Even if you have to cut them off it's worth a shot, a set of bolts is going to be way cheaper than any usable tracks you find.
Yes turbo8781,that a nice HD16 spiecemen. We've welded the bushings up like that when we knew it was going to be a runout situation and got quite a bit more work done. We might have a set of used HD16 rails that are definitley better than those but they wouldn't have any pads on them.The cost of new bolts and time changing them might be more than you want to do.We collect AC crawlers for restoration so before you go calling the scrap god let us know cause we have a final resting home for it in our collection. We're not to far away, N.Ca.
Well it didn't work. Those bushings are so hard that the weld wouldn't even stick to them and yes the bushings are seazed to the pins, so the guy that we baught'em from (Randy Seely of SECO EQUIPMENT) must have known this when he sold them to us about 15 years ago because they have always been free as long as we have owened them. So I guess we'll just run'em. The one thing that bothers me more than the track wearing at an excelerated rate is that it will probably wear out the sprocket in double time as well, but what the hell do you do in a situation like this. Thanks for all the advice guys
Were these new chains, or some kind of seconds deal?- new would have that heavy, thick brown paint
big decision: run them to destruction and have to replace them and the sprockets, replace just the rails if sprockets are decent and spend less money now, run to destruction and sell with bad undercarriage. my vote is run them until destruction and see what happens. you may get more hours than you think before replacing. my $.02
They were second hand. The story that I was told was a guy put a new undercairage on his machine and then the cat burned up on the first job it went on and thats how I ended up with them. But I think that was a load of bull, sure the pin and bushing wear measures out good, but the pins seazed to the bushings when the track wer on the previous machine. They must have parked it in a pond for about a decade then fired it up and went full steem ahead.
When you say the Cat burned up, do you mean went on fire??? Cos this maybe have something to do with it! if the rails heated up and then cooled slowly it could cause a temper on the rails causing them to soften??!:beatsme Just thinking out loud, but intersted to hear other peoples thoughts on my thoughts??