Hey folks our D8n hardnose has got about 3/4 -1 inch of movement at the top. I am concerned that this may be getting to be too much. The play is in all four pins. It’s hard to measure the clearance between fan blades and rad when nose is pushed all the way back. Lots of garding on this crawler as it is bush equipped. Wondering if replacing pins and bushings should be considered now or if we can run for awhile yet. Don’t want to run like that and put fan into rad, but don’t want to repair prematurely. Thanks Scott
If you can fix it before it gets so bad that it needs line boring you'll be saving yourself a world of trouble.
Once they touch the fan guard you will see money flying away in the wind.
With 3/4-1" of movement I'd be bricking myself as to when the fan was going to hit the radiator. A Cmark pointed out if you can get by just replacing pins and bushes the job doesn't hit your pocket very hard. If the front end of the frame or the hardnose needs boring costs go up, that's the next step. If a fan/radiator interface takes place you'd better have VERY deep pockets. If it was mine I'd have stopped it months ago...........but that's just IMO
Thanks guys for your opinion. Doesn’t appear to be any frame or hardnose wear so just bushings and pins. Guess we will get started on it this week. Thanks again!
Take lots of photos. Enquiring minds want to see what you find.
Well got started on hardnose and it appears the front ones are where 90% of play is. We have new pins and bushings on order. Pins and bushings not wore much at all but left hand side was missing inner bushing and center one was all cracked up. I’m assuming the center one broke up due to inner one being gone. I am concerned about how I’m gonna get the center bushing in. I would assume Proper installation of center bushing would be prior to installing hardnose.
Really hoping I can build some tooling to press that center bushing in. I can move hardnose enough with bottle jack to align the holes so fingers crossed I can get it in. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
liquid nitrogen bushing will go in with your fingers
You're right. The bushing in the two eyes on the front of the machine frame (what you refer to as the centre ones) get installed before you install the hardnose. You do realize that to do this job the right way the hardnose should be completely removed, because the frame bushings are different to the ones that fit in the hardnose..? Can you get hold of dry ice..? That would shrink the bushings enough so that at worst it will only require a 2lb hammer to tap them in.
Well from what I can tell the center frame hole looks to be the same size. It’s possible it has been line bored before and perhaps they made them all the same diameter. We will find out this week cause parts should be here. I’ll try cooling off the bushings outside over night as it’s -15 to -20 Celsius at night here. Hopefully that helps get them in. No liquid N of dry ice round here.