Hello dozer guys: I have a 175 C trackloader with a newer set of berco rails on it. Do any of you "stock" a extra few links or pins for your crawlers? Are broken links common enough that you should keep one on hand? Particularly that a 175C isn't a current model and it might take some time to get a link. In my shop manual it shows a counter drilled "master link pin". My berco chains don't have a pin with a counter drill so which ones the master link? Does it even matter? Whats different about the master link VS the regular ones? Not talking about the alligator links here. can you really beat a track pin out with a sledge hammer and a heavy drift? B
Yair . . . Barky I'll jump in . . . other folks will have different views about track maintenance and of course the economics have changed since I last messed around with tractors. My general comments may be of interest to you and others. I have posted them before and of course they apply to standard track, I have had nothing to do with SALT. Cutting and shutting track is no big deal. There always was a lot of mystique about avoiding heating rails and so on . . . maybe right in theory but in the real world it made no neverminds as far as I could see. I refused to bust a gut flogging pins in or out and always used the gas axe. You won't beat a standard pin out with a drift and sometimes not a master-pin either . . . a master is a few thou smaller in diameter and they used to always have a much larger centre hole than a standard pin. A master bush is shorter than a standard bush and there are spacers to fit into the counter-bores On larger tractors you can drive a cold chisel between the links and get sufficient clearance to blow through the bush/spacer and pin with the oxy . . . it's not pretty and you need spare tips as you can get a bit of blow back but its not that hard. Once you get the track on the ground you can wash the ends of the bush off clean or tidy it up proper if you have access to a grinder. You can end-blow through the pieces of pin left in the links . . . just a thumb size hole through the guts and they'll tap out when they cool. When joining up I always pick the track up on the sprocket after blocking the other end up at about half idler height. On D8 size tractors you have to gut bust it up over the carriers with a crowbar through the links, guide it onto the idler and when it roughly lines up shove a socket handle or some such through and back the tractor up and do the stitch up on the sprocket. With a combination of blocking behind the idler and holding the slack(maybe with a comealong) you can get it lined op exactly . . . just heat the links cherry red and slip the new pin in. If the links are loose you won't need the heat of course and I just blow a "V"groove in the boss right down to the pin and fill it with the welder . . . make sure you weld on to the pin on the first pass and the subsequent welding will shrink the link onto the pin. In the early days Berco rails were prone to cracking. They can be welded and I have spent many a night doing just that. Back in those days, quite apart from turning pins and bushes you could also get rails built up with submerged arc . . . it was standard procedure. I once reconditioned the rails on a Fowler with a stick welder . . . almost anything is possible, it's just how much you value time. It certainly can't hurt to have a couple of spare master-pins I can't see they'd be a lot of dollars. Cheers.
Sorry Scrub Puller, I've done more than a few sets of tracks and I can't make heads nor tails of what you'r saying. Don't feel like I'm criticizing tho. I started trying to write an explnation of master link and regular link etc and how to get them apart within minutes of the question being posted but couldn't understand what I was explaining so I didn't post. Think maybe it needs a picture. Maybe a parts diagram would help explain it. d.d.
Well, I followed it near enough, it all sounded about right to me... but maybe I'm older than younger, lol.
Yair . . . lantraxco It must be that age thing I guess.(he grins) donkey doctor Where did I go wrong? It still reads about okay to me . . . as you say it's a bit hard to explain without pictures an' I didn't mention the Jelly guns we used to make up to blast the pins out, I thought that would really get confusing . . . they work good though and as I've said before they are also good on ducks. Cheers
Jelly Gun? LOL
Ill Bite, whats a jelly gun?
Yair . . . Jelly guns worked good for owners were anal about not applying heat to their precious track links . . . and there were a few around. There were various designs. Basically the gun was a piece of shafting with a hole up the middle to take a mandrel and a cross drilling for the detonator wires or cord. Size was anything to suit your fancy, bigger the better. For eights and nines I had one made out of about ten inch square solid steel and from memory about three feet long. They normally had a couple of handles for carrying . . . I had an Inter service truck with a jib. In use the pin to be removed or driven was positioned on the idler one link from the ground. With a shovel make a mound of sand and do a trial run set it up for line and height . . . then load it with about two inches of gelignite and see what happens. I used to prefer electric dets and just hunker down in front of the blade and flash them across one of those big square nine volt torch batteries. They mostly took pins out with one shot, I used about a one inch air gap between the mandrel and the pin and once you got the hang of it they were very effective. Driving was a bit trickier but we had one bloke who had it down pat. You had to start the pin with the hammer of course and make sure the links were aligned and the pin was straight. Cheers.
Hi Scrub Puller. Didn't mean to sound like what you were saying was wrong. Sorry if it sounded that way. I tried to write an explnation and procedure myself and couldn't understand what I was trying to say in answer to the difference between a master link and a regular link. Trying to describe how the sides of the link lap the protruding ends of bushing in the previous link so even if you drive the pin out you can't seperate the links without some cutting I got totally lost and gave up. Guess it's no wonder I couldn't follow what you were saying when I couldn't follow myself. Maybe some differences in termanology too. I worked in Oz for a while years ago in mining and steel fabrication and still keep pretty close track of whats happening down under. Never heard of a jelly gun tho. Explnation please d.d.
Re: Jelly gun. Dang! Sounds like fun, wish I'd been around to enjoy some of your "shots" lol. Not likely the safety lads would lets us do anything like that these days.
Hi Scrub Puller you won't get one of those past OHAS today can get a16lbs and they tunn green at a 28lbs hammer,last time sore one being used was at Texada salt in WA,had a old pommy excommarndo could remove any thing with aplug remove wheel nuts off salt haul trucks that a 1''rattal only stript othey were the day my friend