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New grouser time?

John Two Horns

New Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
3
Location
Seattle, WA
Occupation
Engineer
Greetings

I have an older PC50UU-1 that runs well enough for personal use.

A track link broke after hitting a bump, and after taking the track off and laying it out, multiple points of impending failure can be seen, so I have it in mind to buy a new set of track links (amazingly cheap if one is not in a rush).

In a perfect world I'd replace the grousers as well, but I don't know how much I'd gain by that since I don't know the original spec.

I've attached a few pics, hopefully someone with more experience can advise me?

John
 

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Jonas302

Senior Member
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Jan 4, 2015
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Location
mn
I don't think you stand to gain much given that I would want to know how much it would cost for complete tracks compared to bare chains and switching pads before I decided
 

terex herder

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Joined
Nov 10, 2017
Messages
1,778
Location
Kansas
You might want to pull some of the grouser pads off the existing rails and see how much of a hassle you get. You may find buying rails with new grouser pads installed from the supplier will be less trouble than switching them yourself.
 

John Two Horns

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Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
3
Location
Seattle, WA
Occupation
Engineer
The cost factor is that new grousers, nuts and bolts doubles the cost. I'm thinking now only to replace the broken grousers and use old bolts and nuts.
Getting the old grousers off is a bit of a hassle. I have to heat each nut with a torch, so I'm thinking several hours to remove non-broken grousers.
 

Tinkerer

Senior Member
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
9,342
Location
The shore of the illinois river USA
They don't look too badly worn in the photos.
Reuse them, they can always be replaced at a later time.
Many times grouser bars can be worn down a lot and the plates are still fairly thick. Which equates to more service hours if you can put up with less traction because of that bar wear.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
If the grousers are still tight reuse them. Might be easiest to just torch the nuts off but a large impact might work too.
 

John C.

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Joined
Jun 11, 2007
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12,865
Location
Northwest
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Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Never ever reuse old pad bolts. They are pulled to their yield point and will nearly never stay tight for a second use. The other issue is the bolt heads are usually worn and sloppy and fit loose in the socket you are using to remove them. It many times ends up busting the socket after a few bolts. If you have a torch, then get what is known as a rivet busting tip or a tip with a bent end that will shoot across the pad without shooting into the pad itself. Flush off the bolt heads and use a big hammer to break the pad out of the cut off bolts. If you don't have that, then burning the nuts is the next best thing.

Those pads are just fine and replacing the broken pads is a normal maintenance function. That small of machine will never wear them out completely.
 
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