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Tucker rubber track carrier bushings?

Track Addict

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Noticed my carriers where they ride in the axle housings have some wear. Two grease fittings but if you don't keep up maybe or accelerates or or this is normal?

Probably be fine for quite awhile with my useage but eventually if they continue to wear the sprockets will start hitting the carrier on the inside.

Is there a repair solution offered for these? I am hoping the steel axle rides on some sacrificial bushing in the carrier that can be replaced or some other way to tighten the tolerance?
 

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Mill666er

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
I thought I had some better photos of my journals but these show what they look like. I do not think these are Tucker installed originals because they are not the correct differentials and appears that the axle tubes were cut off of the pumpkin and journals were welded and turned on a lathe. I thought I read somewhere here on the forums that Tucker had a kit to 'wrap' the journal but not sure how that would work since the journal and tube are no longer round from the wear. Mine have about 3/16" flat or gap on the inside top and outside bottom.

You can remove the large internal snap ring on the inboard side of the journal and with the weight off of the carrier use a large bar to check for wear like you would for ball joints. The journals are not thick enough to turn if you could and the carrier not thick enough to sleeve.

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These were definitely not taken care of so I added grease zerks at the 2 worst wear areas and used a grinder to recut the grease grooves. 1 or 2 of them also had water that froze and split them. Maybe that is the answer fill the space between the journal and axel tube and freeze them for a form fit to the carrier!

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Track Addict

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GOLD Site Supporter
Thanks for the info. Mine is a little different.

From what I can tell back when mine was made it was a conversion done at the factory or other site. Attached is the pdf manual. Look at page 3 and 4. A new 2" journal ring was supplied and then welded in place using a Tucker installation tool. It also appears that the outside journal bolts to the end of the axle and is also the retainer. Fixing these parts should be easy.

My concern and what I believe the issue will be is the carrier must also have some wear and may need line bore and bushing some how?

Will check with GetSno and Tucker see what they think. Can't be the first one to want to address this?
 

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Track Addict

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Spoke with Tucker. The journals are no longer available but I am sure I could fabricate something if need be. They weren't sure where the most wear would be could be just the journal, carrier or both.

One thing they said might work as mentioned above was bearing tape? Not very familiar but my research pointed to a product called Rulon: http://www.tstar.com/blog/bid/97408/Rulon-Bearing-Tape-500x-Industry-Standard-for-Wear-Resistance

Spoke with the engineers there and they said if I could get some more specific specs they could make a better determination on which tape could be a solution. It is used a lot in tool machining on the table slides which can see 400 feet per minute and very heavy loads compared to what a cat will have.

Anybody have any experience trying to take up some wear in applications like above without line boring and making new journal rings? The majority of the wear which ever side seems to be on the inboard side of the carrier.

At the end of the day it can stay like it is but things like this keep me up at night. I guess this is half the fun for me?
 

Track Addict

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This is the modern conversion which I think replaces what Rob may have above and is hopefully a solution I can implement. Spreading the wear over the whole length instead of 4" is a great idea which they probably learned over time.

Waiting to get some measurements and pricing from GetSno but replaceable plastic bushing.
 

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my tucker had the inward tip also----I have never taken one a part----can they be rotated on the housing----the wear should be on the bottom on the outside and on the top on the inside ?
 

Mill666er

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
Here is a picture showing wear and the cracks in mine. I ground out the cracks and TIG welded them back up. The journals are welded to a ring that has been welded around the axle tube. I suppose I could have cut the journals off and made new ones and just split them lengthwise with the seams at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions using the existing rings on the axle.

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Track Addict

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GOLD Site Supporter
Sounds like this upgrade kit would have worked great for you. Here is what the parts guy said: Hello Brian, I am not familiar with those early differentials, doesn't look like much support but just two collars. The 80's and up to mid 90's had a steel journal welded to the differential which pivoted inside the carrier, we call this a steel on steel journal assembly. Around 1996 Tucker started to use a journal liner that slid into the carrier and was the wear point over the weld on differential journal. You would have to talk with Paul, he is the service manager at Getsno about upgrading your journals. I will attach a picture of the new blue journal liner and a journal upgrade kit we offer which uses thick poly urethane bushings."
 

nelsoncat

Member
I just did this conversion on my 89 Tucker 2000. The parts for one axle are around $1400.
I can post some pictures if your interested
 

nelsoncat

Member
These are basically showing cutting off the old, test fitting the new and welding in. I don't have a picture of the poly bushing but it looks just like the one posted
 

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Track Addict

Bronze Member
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Thanks for the pics. Much better idea at what I am getting into. Looks like a great solution for a cat that gets worked. I might have to do a little yankee engineering to take up the slack a bit.
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
For 100 miles per year, give the bearing tape a try. I imagine it's considerably cheaper than the $1400 conversion :wink:, and if it doesn't work you've only lost some time & a little money.
 

Track Addict

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GOLD Site Supporter
You got that right. My axle housings are referred to by Tucker as the RA style. This upgrade is for a more modern. Think the housing on the newer ones is much bigger anyway.

Should have it apart in a few weeks and we will see what's in there?
 
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