$15,000 JD MC track repair

Neighbor just bought a JD MC ( that had $15,000 worth of track repair done)and when I looked at it the first thing I noticed was the tracks were way too tight ,I mean no slack, tight as a piano string tight. Also noticed the master track pin was coming out on one side and the track pin next to it didn't look factory and it was sticking out as well. When I talked to him later that night I told him how to loosen the adjusters. He called me later and said he had loosened the adjusters and the track never loosened up at all. This is going to be a fairly long saga so here is the picture of the adjuster , see anything wrong as to why it wasn't working? The pictures are going to be of after he took it apart as I didn't get over until it was apart

Boy that's a lot of money in track repair for a smaller machine. Am I seeing the pic right with the adjuster sticking out past the idler ? Are you still in s. Wales, NY ? I live there also. This could possibly be my neighbor too ! Lol. Although I don't know of anyone who has bought a crawler recently.

Still in S.Wales, you are correct on the adjuster supposed to being inside of the casting. Neighbor just got it a week ago. Here's what he found so far on the professional $15K under carriage repairs. Track too tight, adjusters installed incorrectly so they do nothing, one track link removed from both tracks, adjuster nuts spring boss area built up wrong so springs wouldn't fit over them, master link pin falling out, one track link bushing pin replaced with a chunk of round stock (which also was falling out of the link), and no bushings in either front idler.

adjuster

This work was done prior to buying it or was it done locally near us ? No way was the work worth 15k. If that's what the seller told the buyer he was full of it. Seems like a hack job. I don't know much about the John Deere crawlers but I do know for that kind of money on other bigger machines you would have gotten chains with good pins and bushings and not a cobbled together mess. Whoever did the work had no idea what they were doing. Guessing it was probably the seller. Hope who bought it didn't get taken through the ringer on the price when bought ! Seems more like 150 dollars in repairs and that would be counting their labor.

work was done a few years ago in western ny for the family of the guy it was bought from. Neighbor got a good enough deal on it that what he has to spend on replacement parts he will still do ok.

For $15000 should have been complete new pin and bushing job to say the least, not to mention all the rest of the problems. Someone got taken badly at some time in the past by a real crook, that is a shame.
You are correct on the adjuster not being on the inside idler bracket. If it is short tracked, I am guessing the pins and bushings are shot. If they aren't, they will be really, really tight with one link missing. Master link is bad, the slot for the head is worn off. Regular bushing stock will not last, it needs to be an actual track bushing.
I should have at least some of the parts he needs on hand.
Lavoy
jdcrawlers.com

Lavoy, was hoping you would chime in thank you.

When I was still doing UC work, I did a few pin and bushing jobs on MC, 40 crawlers. The second to last one I did at that time, probably 10 years ago, I was told I was receiving the very last aftermarket P&B kit for those crawlers. It was pricey for the size of the parts, I think around $1500. The next one that came in, the fellow said he could not find any aftermarket P&B kits anywhere after searching for a long while, and neither could we, so maybe it was the truth when the one supplier told me I had received that last aftermarket kit for the previous job. Anyway, the pins and bushings were still available through JD at the time, sold in single pieces. Seems like the bushings were like $28 each and the pins were around $22 or $24 each. It got to be very pricey by the time we were done. He also bought the track bolts and nuts from JD. Those little short headed stubby 5/8" fine thread bolts with a shoulder, and the nuts to go along with them were ridiculously expensive for what would have been much cheaper at a good fastener dealer. The links that had wobbled out pin or bushing bosses we had to weld up and bore back out to the correct size, thankfully it seemed like it was only around 10 or so links. The person that performed that work on that machine was not only not qualified to do that work, but a sheister, if he charged 15 grand for his shoddy work. Charging for shoddy work at all is a sheister's way of operating.

Ross

thank you for your input. Bill