1989 Deere 455GTC questions and opinions

[Welder Dave]

The sprockets are close to being ready to jump teeth. A previous pic. shows the bushing on the track pin completely worn out where there's nothing left. It's consistent with 4100 hours if the hour meter is accurate. The rest of the machine is a little rough for 4100 hours so it's hard to know if the hour meter should be trusted. You'd be looking at spending a big chunk of money right off the bat and also a bunch of time to replace the undercarriage. Who knows how bolts are going to be seized in place and what other problems you might run into?? The easiest way to do undercarriage is to take the track frames off so you can flip them upside down to do the bottom rollers. Do you have any other equipment or a neighbor with a loader or something that could help you pull the track frames and flip them? I'd guess you'd be looking at $25-$30K for the dozer with new undercarriage but you don't if anything else needs attention.

 

[sstocker31]

Yes pushing on both pedals at full engine rpm will bring it to a stop....change to reverse ease the pedals out and away you go in reverse.
Those drive sprockets don’t look healthy.....there’s some weird wear on the the sides and on the tip of the teeth....like the rails and drive sprockets weren’t changed at the same time.
When I ran mine to destruction, the valley of the sprocket tooth was very deep, and the tip of the tooth was sharp.
See if you can find a pic online of a new drive sprocket for reference of what they should look like.

 

[Welder Dave]

It can sometimes be hard to tell wear on different brands of sprockets. Some old style sprockets kind of come to a tapered point but it isn't sharp. I've seen some, I think Case, sprockets that have a wide flat between the valleys maybe 3/8". They wouldn't be sharp pointed when over 100% worn.

 

[sstocker31]

That’s good information there welderdave, but my comparison is with essentially the same equipment, it was a JD 555

 

[Welder Dave]

Even for the same machine different brands can have a little different tooth profile at the tips.