A track link is worn when there is so much play between the pin and the bushing that other undercarriage components start to wear. An increase in pitch creates more play between the pin and the bushing. This makes the inside of the bushing oval and the pin becomes thinner, because it rubs against the bushing wall. This makes the track link longer. You can recognise an increase in pitch by the following visible characteristics:

• The points of the sprockets or segments become sharp, this is a sign that the track link no longer runs in line with the sprocket hollow due to an increase in pitch.
• The front idler wheel and side arms become visible from the frame housing.
• The spaces between each track shoe open up.
• Measure the track pin centres over 4 x pitch over 5 Pins, give us a call, and we can advise on how much wear is remaining.
• If the bushes have worn through to the pins, this is an extreme case of wear and certainly time to replace.

Excavators these days are doing much more traveling than they were initially designed for causing higher wear on tracks.

I’m guessing something like this happened: You held out as long as you could until you had no other option but to replace them because by then they were totally flogged. As a result, you had to let go of some of your hard-earnt cash at the totally wrong time. The fact is next time you won’t need to so let me explain:

55% of chains that contractors come to us with still have plenty of life left in the rail itself. Often the seal will fail early allowing foreign materials into the grease cavity becoming a grinding paste. This wears the pin and bush internally allowing the chains to stretch therefore the pitch changes and will not sync with sprockets which will then cause external wear on bush and sprockets. Once this process starts happening, you won’t have much life in the chains even if the rails are in good condition.

 Our Superseal® chains meet this head-on. They have a special internal seal that can withstand 5000Kgf of pressure without losing its shape. That’s nearly 3 times more what a ‘normal’ excavator seal can handle. With Superseal® you can expect a chain that:

• Does not seize
• Will not Stretch
• Wears slowly and evenly at the same time as the externals
• Maximises your chain life to 100% wear instead of 45%

Seized chains are the most frustrating thing you can experience and can happen on a near new machine.

The main reason is water bypasses the seals into grease cavity and reacts with the grease, forming a black gunpowder material which locks the joints, sometimes called arthritis or bunching up.

There is very little you can do about this once it starts happening, the cost to fix can be enormous, and it is sometimes cheaper to put a new set on. In bad cases, if the operator continues to use without fixing, it will do damage to the drive motor.   

Will it happen again? Not with the new Superseal® chains we have developed to meet this head-on.

It has a special internal seal that can withstand 5000Kgf of pressure without losing its shape. That’s nearly 3 times more what a ‘normal’ excavator seal can handle. With Superseal® you can expect a chain that:

• Does not seize
• Will not Stretch
• Wears slowly and evenly at the same time as the externals
• Maximises your chain life to 100% wear instead of 45%

If your track isn’t installed around the right way, you’ll lose traction and wear the chains out significantly faster.

The open end of the chain or the tongue on the shoe that rolls down goes under the bottom rollers and over the sprocket.

Sitting on the machine looking at the top of the track the tongue of the shoe must be facing to the front of the machine. For excavator it’s the idler end.

1. Avoid Excessive speed, especially in reverse as this accelerates sprocket and bushing wear.
2. Avoid travelling long distances without stopping as oil temperature in Rollers can overheat which will cause failure.
3. Always dig over the idler where possible, digging over sprockets puts excessive pressure on the bush which can cause premature bush failure.
4. When traveling uphill the sprocket should be on the downhill side.
5. Maintain correct tension on tracks, refer to manual.

Stage 1 | Unroll the Chain

• First begin by unrolling the chain.
• Put the Master Pins aside.
• Once this has been done it may have kinks in it, if so, you will need to flatten it out. (The reason you have to flatten it out is because when you come to sit the shoes on the chain the bolt holes wont line up)

Stage 2 | Preparing the Chain

• The chain will be sitting with the bolt holes down after completing stage 1
• Turn the chain over and sand the surface on which the shoes will sit on with a sanding disc preferably around 36 grit. See picture below.

Stage 3 | Prepare the Shoes

• Begin by placing the shoes upside down on the chain.
• Sand off the paint, so that there is a clean metal strip where the chain will sit. (The objective of sanding, is to remove the paint so it is metal on metal)
• Once all shoes have been sanded, flip them over and line up the holes, be sure the shoes are on around the right way. The edge with 2 Lugs cut out go to the widest part of the chain link.

Stage 4 | Bolt up

• Start by oiling the bolts with lube spray, and put them through the holes
• Install the nuts the correct way, (rounded corners to chain face) Then tighten the nuts on low air pressure or with battery rattle gun.
• Check on the chart at the bottom to what torque it needs to be tightened to and set up the torque wrench to the right settings.
• Adjust air to the right pressure by doing up a few and checking it using the torque wrench.
• Once the air pressure is right, proceed in doing up the rest of the bolts. Never tighten up one side first, always tighten to the number sequence shown in the picture below.

• Once completed, mark every 10^th bolt, and check their torque.
• If you find some are lose, re-tighten them all. Once they are all tight you have finished.

Torque Settings: