My trucker told me my track pads are too loose and refuses to tow my PC-120 untill I get them tighter. I went to tighten them this morning and the threads are gone from the pad moving back and forth on the bolt shank. Do I have to order track bolts from an undercarriage supplier or can I just get some grade eight bolts from the hardware store? I was hoping to get it done by monday so he could move it the first of the week. Sorry if this is a stupid question.
I don't think you need to go to an undercarriage supplier, just down to the Komatsu dealer and order new track pad bolts (and nuts). Good luck getting that done by Monday. You will have to tourqe every one to the specified tourqe. That takes a while. The dealer might not have all the bolts in stock, and since they are metric, the local hardware store might not have enough. Mabey the driver should tie off to something other than the pads as well. Isn't there a hole in the track frame, dead center front and rear to tie to?
There is a hole front and rear but the driver is not used to doing that and he wouldnt tie off to them. I might just need to find a new trucker because I really dont want to spend three hundred dollars on bolts right now. It needs to be done but I'm trying to buy my own truck and trailer so every extra dollar is going towards that right now. Pluss I counted 400 bolts and they all have to be torched off and replaced/torqued. I can imagine that will take an eternity to get done. Ill call the dealer and get some prices monday, I might call a few aftermarket places as well. I thought about just doing the two on each side that he will be chaining to. I could get a couple grade 8 bolts from the store and get it moved quicker that way. I just didnt know if they were strong enough.
I'd look for another transport, for sure! Its quite the process changing all those bolts. You might not have to do them all, but it sure will feel like it when you're done. I helped one of our mechanics last year change about half of the bolts on our 5110. Took us 3 days. But on that thing we are talking 1" air guns, torch's, and a multiplier to get the tourqe up. We could really only do one pad at a time on that monster because of needing a place to tie the multiplier off to. Funny part- the very last nut in the box, DIDN'T HAVE ANY THREADS ON IT! I pulled it out of the box, looked at it and was just floored! Stan (the mechanic) was laughing so hard he was crying. I thought, now whats the chances, out of a couple hundred bolts and nuts, the very last one wasn't threaded. Fortuneatley, we had plenty of the old ones that wern't to messed up to reuse, so thats what we did. I still have that nut down by the shift lever in my pickup. Makes a nice pen and chap stick holder!
Chances are that if all your bolts are that loose you need new rails too. I replaced my rails on a JD 120 a couple of years ago and all I had was a electric impact, a 3/4" one piece breaker bar and a 4' cheater bar. Let's just say it took a couple of days. Track bolts are totally different from regular bolts and I don't think that the head of a regular bolt will fit on your grouser if you have road pads. You are also supposed to toss these bolts when you take them off because they stretch when you tighten them and they won't stretch a second time.
My short quick answer is get another trucker, but, if you let this go, it will wallow out the holes and they will never stay tight. I know nothing about the undercarriage on a Kommie, but the proper torque on a Kitty w/ 5/8 track bolts is 130 ft/lbs, PLUS 120 degrees. It is very important to get them that tight, or they will come back loose quickly. I doubt hardware store bolts will stand that.
Wow I had no idea they had to be that tight. I guess I will find a new transport and plan on spending some serious time changing the bolts later on.
yeah sounds fun ive never seen them come loose but i could imagine the fun involved in removing and replacing them we tie off to the inside of the tracks on our hoes when we move them also id find another trucker shouldnt be a big deal to move
Once the hole in the pad is worn at all it will be very unlikely that even new bolts will stay tight, some might, some won't. It does no harm to put a small weld bead from pad to rail after torquing the new bolts. This will keep the pad from wiggling around and loosening the new bolts. We had a track loader that the DPO had run with loose bolts for some time and this was the final solution short of throwing everything away and everything was low hours so didn't want to do that. (DPO = Dreaded Previous Owner)
Are the pad bolts on a PC-120 larger than 7/16-1/2 range? Just curious 5/8 seems like alot of bolt for that size of rail, still don't understand while the driver would not haul it. TRUCK DRIVERS!!!!
I think the bolts are about 1/2 inch. Havnt really taken the time to measure yet. I think the reason they are so loose is the previous owner put a set of wide tracks on it and I guess he didnt torque them down good enough. Honestly untill you guys posted here I wouldnt have known to tighten them that much either. The tracks are in really good shape so I definatly dont want to get new rails. If I have to I will put a little bead on the bottom of the pads. Thanks for the advice.
Call Heavyquip and get a price on new track bolts from them. You're gonna need them sooner or later, might as well get a feel of what it's gonna cost you. http://www.heavyquip.com/
Is Heavyquips pricing pretty good never really know who to call when doing UC work. I've bought a few times from S.Cohn and Sons in Indianapolis but I always wonder if theres a better deal out there.
S. Cohn is another good aftermarket supplier to contact. Call both and get a quote.
ATCOEQUIP Call Heavyquip and get a price on new track bolts from them. You're gonna need them sooner or later, might as well get a feel of what it's gonna cost you. http://www.heavyquip.com/
Thanks guys Ill give them all a call and see who comes out best. Thanks for the advice youve been more than helpful
Hi. I know this is an old thread but I'm new to the industry and hoping you can help me with information on track bolts. You mentioned you go through quite a lot of them. Where do you buy them from and how many do you recommend buying at the time? I suspect I'll need to replace mine soon so how long can I expect to wait before they're delivered, or are they readily available? Thanks, any help would be very much appreciated.