I finally made some room in the shop to repair pontoons and tracks on my 1962 443.
Can someone post a picture showing a nice close-up of the track adjusters on a steel pontoon that are in good shape? Mine appear to be completely worn out and wanted to see something with fewer miles on them to possibly cut out new ones.
Here is what I got, previous owners just kept pushing the tensioner out and when it wasn't enough they made the slots bigger which left no support for the rollers at the lower front of the pontoons.
The rollers have tore into the sheet metal on all four pontoons and I have a big hole on the left rear. This wasn't a problem going forward but while going in reverse the rollers actually catch the bottom guide and have bent the grouser roller ears and flared them out.
Has anyone been successful in heating the grouser and bending the roller ear back into a vertical position?
I believe the correct fix is going to a half link as shown here but will require some work on the drivers since they are not setup for a half link. The cat did come with enough parts to run half links on two of the pontoons so I may need to figure out how to fab up some additional sprocket 'teeth'. Adjusters are about half way out with the half link installed, might have to see if I can just drop a link all together.
Can someone post a picture showing a nice close-up of the track adjusters on a steel pontoon that are in good shape? Mine appear to be completely worn out and wanted to see something with fewer miles on them to possibly cut out new ones.
Here is what I got, previous owners just kept pushing the tensioner out and when it wasn't enough they made the slots bigger which left no support for the rollers at the lower front of the pontoons.
The rollers have tore into the sheet metal on all four pontoons and I have a big hole on the left rear. This wasn't a problem going forward but while going in reverse the rollers actually catch the bottom guide and have bent the grouser roller ears and flared them out.
Has anyone been successful in heating the grouser and bending the roller ear back into a vertical position?
I believe the correct fix is going to a half link as shown here but will require some work on the drivers since they are not setup for a half link. The cat did come with enough parts to run half links on two of the pontoons so I may need to figure out how to fab up some additional sprocket 'teeth'. Adjusters are about half way out with the half link installed, might have to see if I can just drop a link all together.