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Lubrication question about exposed track drive chains on old crane.

R

RCRV

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Apr 24, 2014
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Contractor
I'm looking at buying an old [ from the 50s] dragline and it has the exposed chain running down to the tracks drive sprockets.
Its been sitting outside its whole life and the chains look rusty. I don't yet know if the are frozen.
Should I spray something on them before attempting to move it? If so what?
Were these chains lubed when these old cranes were operating or where they designed to run dry?

And the rack chain itself, the chain the pads are attached to. I understand they are not normally lubed but since this was last moved 3 years ago should I spray diesel fuel or used lube oil or something before I attempt to move it?

Thanks!
 
H

highwayghost

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Lube them to get them free and start to remove rust that may increase wear. A good diesel flush and re-flush after some use to wash out anything. After reasonably clean, open gear/fifth wheel lube works well to not collect dirt. Or possibly dirt bike chain lube.
 
D

Delmer

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Usually old wore out chains don't get frozen up as bad as new barely used ones, and they didn't buy draglines in the 50's to let them sit, so you're probably fine that way.

I'd soak them all down with water, and keep rinsing with water occasionally for the first time you use it, then switch to diesel then your oil or grease of choice for the roller chain. the track chain, depends, are you working in sand, or on top of sod, or clay? is this going to work every day? or a couple weekends a summer? I'm guessing it's going to rust more than wear, so I'd be tempted to melt a little extra wax in some diesel fuel, and spray the tracks down with that, along with any rusty surface that isn't going to get painted.
 
John C.

John C.

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We used to save old engine oil and just drip in onto the side links. They aren't like crawler track chains, more like a huge motor cycle chain. First hard pull and they will likely straighten right out and you get to see how loose they are. Check the pin heads and keys in the ends of the pins. They like to pop off when rusted that bad and then the side links can split off what is left of the pin.
 
Tones

Tones

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Iv'e never known those chains to be lubed, same with elevator chains on a scraper. :D
 
Tugger2

Tugger2

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Honestly its a sawoff between lube or no lube. If you lube them they pickup up dirt and grind away ,when you run them dry they creak and groan sound bad. In the end the wear seems about equal. Ive got one ive been running for 25 years .Once in a while we feel sorry for it and drool some oil on the chains ,its still ok. The rest of it gets lots of grease though
 
John C.

John C.

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Lubing shovel travel chains was never a specified maintenance item from any manufacturer that I know of. It's just something I did because I had plenty of used engine oil and it seemed to keep the rust and noise down a bit. I wouldn't have done it if the oil wasn't already something we had just sitting in drums waiting to be disposed of. I didn't think of it as something that was entirely necessary. I knew it wouldn't hurt anything.
 
colson04

colson04

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What about a graphite based spray lubricant for these chains? For a lot John Deere farm equipment, JD recommends and sells an aerosol can graphite chain lubricant for applications where oil would collect a lot of dust on them. We spray down chains on a regular basis on items like forage harvester heads, certain baler chains, planter drive chains, etc where they are exposed to a very dusty environment. They are considered a consumable given their application environment, but even then, most of these chains last several years with regular lubing from the graphite spray.

I've never been around these large cranes with drive chains, so this might not even be a relevant option either.
 
W

Welder Dave

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I'm thinking the chains like on an old P&H excavator that drive the track sprocket. 1 can would probably do both of them because you wouldn't have 90% of it running off like used oil. The chain wax I posted goes on as a liquid to penetrate inside the rollers but turns into a waxy paste that doesn't attract dirt and stays put. Used oil wouldn't last long. Even on motorcycles a lot of people don't know how to properly lube the chain. They spray the lube down the center of the chain. It's better to point the extension tube at the side links from the inside so the lube can penetrate into the rollers and pins. You have to do both sides but it's much more effective than spraying down the middle. O-ring and X-ring chains are a big improvement as they stay lubed much longer. On something like a crane it wouldn't be a bad idea to warm the chains up a little so the lube can penetrate better. Motorcycles, the best time to lube the chain is after riding for awhile to warm the chain up.
 
W

Welder Dave

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Lubing with something that penetrates and prevents rust would be good for a machine that doesn't get used a lot.
 
colson04

colson04

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Tugger and Nige - I get what your sayin. I haven't been around that type of equipment and can only relate from what I have done. And nothing I've done really relates to a crawler drive chain. The chains I'm thinking about are like a #40 up to a #80 and they move at a fairly high velocity. Farm equipment stuff. Different application, different maintanence schedule.
 
Tugger2

Tugger2

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The same crane runs a 1" pitch chain on the power lowering . that one gets lube all the time. usually new engine oil.Makes dropping the hook much smoother.
 
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