Replacing both track frames on my late model 450c. The used ones i purchased have some wear on the rear brackets that the rear cross bar slides into. Maybe 3/16'' play around the bar. the bar has some wear on it too. my thoughts are to build the crass bar up with the welder and on the brackets. Is there supposed to be some play here or is it supposed to fit tight? I can replace the bar and brackets but i have to remove the recoil springs and I'm not to interested in doing that. Anyone ran into this before?
There should not be any play. I rebuilt the undercarriage on a straight 550 JD and it was snug. Why would you need to remove the recoil springs? Oh yeah, if you do, try and get the spring cups cleaned up and buy the tool from jd to do it right. We tried it with some all thread and we ended up setting the spring under the backhoe bucket and plugging in the air hose on the rattle gun. Long story short, the back tires of the hoe came off the ground a few inches. .. it was a 480c, but still!
I had a 450c, that developed some play where you are talking about. I bought some thick wall tubing with the same ID as the round cross bar OD. I then welded it in between the brackets giving it a lot more surface area to ride on. works best to slip the tubing in between brackets, assemble everything and then weld tubing to brackets, that way everything lines up good. End of play. good Luck....
Thanks vernier. I like that idea. I'll have to see what i can come up with.
The only reason i would remove the springs is if i was to cut the old brackets off and weld new ones on. the recoil springs mount up against the brackets. The brackets and cross bar are available aftermarket but they are in the ballpark of $1600 plus shipping. Believe I'll go with vernier's idea and see what i come up with.
Update. So I talked with a local guy that does machine work at his house. He decided to bore the holes out and just make a new cross bar to fit rather than make bushings.He did an excellent job and they turned out better than i ever thought they would. Very fortunate to have him so close. He also has a YouTube channel here’s th links to the videos of his progress Hoping to get this tractor done in the next week. When its all done I will do a post about all that has been done to what i call project Lazarus.