John Deere 450 B

[duke7595]

I would say it's going to need chains and sprockets very soon, yo have a decent amount of track sag and you are almost out of adjustments, also your sprockets look pretty worn and pointed, and the grousers are worn down pretty well also. If you plan on keeping it and rebuilding the undercarriage i would look into a salt undercarriage. The reason I say this is that I have a jd 350b that I completely rebuilt, and I bought new track assemblies . After I rebuilt the UC I didn't use it enough and I had a bunch of the track pins seize up with rust from sitting and having tight tolerances. I ended up having to take the tracks of and send them out to have them pressed apart and blasted, that was thousand dollars to have done. Also you will want to check the crossbars for wear. I was told by the service manager the worst thing you can do with an old dozer is let it set , he told me to get it out about every month and use for a while even if I don't have any work for it. It keeps the steering clutches and tracks from siezing up.

Thanks for your response, I had a 350 that I bought with new chains and sprockets (I think it is listed on this site) anyway it too had seized chains from non-use
someone told me to let it stand in running water for awhile and move it around , I took his advice and after a couple days sitting in a small stream it began to loosen up,not completely but about 85 %. I guess he knew what he was talking about. I then worked the machine for a few hours and the kinks were gone, I got very
lucky.
Regarding this machine, I will repair my driveway again and do some other work around the farm and probably sell it after I repair and paint it
and than I will look for another deal and buy it, and the cycle will continue.

 

[andy1981]

I tried freeing them up by myself , I took them of and heated the links with a propane weed burner torch and an oxy acetlyene torch and lots of penetrating oil and rolling them up and unrolling , an then rolling them up backwards before I ended up taking to jd dealer to have pressed. They worked great for a year after that then i siezed them up again! I had gotten about 30 loads of fill from the town in the spring wich contained a lot of road sweepings wich was full of salt from the plowing season. I cleaed th UC out with a shovel but never powerwashed it and it sat for about a month and I drove it a mile across my property back to my shop and I couldn't even get it to move in high gear. When I got back to my sho the track links were almost to warm to touch! I had to send them out to get repressed and blasted , when they reassembled them they put in a rust inhibitor on the pins and bushings. Now I powerwash it after I'm done using it, and mi get it out every few weeks and let it run till its up to temp and drive it around to make sure the steering clutches and tracks don't sieze up. Once we get the heat wave next week it's coming out to push some snow banks back and open up some trails for getting some firewood out

 

[duke7595]

I tried freeing them up by myself , I took them of and heated the links with a propane weed burner torch and an oxy acetlyene torch and lots of penetrating oil and rolling them up and unrolling , an then rolling them up backwards before I ended up taking to jd dealer to have pressed. They worked great for a year after that then i siezed them up again! I had gotten about 30 loads of fill from the town in the spring wich contained a lot of road sweepings wich was full of salt from the plowing season. I cleaed th UC out with a shovel but never powerwashed it and it sat for about a month and I drove it a mile across my property back to my shop and I couldn't even get it to move in high gear. When I got back to my sho the track links were almost to warm to touch! I had to send them out to get repressed and blasted , when they reassembled them they put in a rust inhibitor on the pins and bushings. Now I powerwash it after I'm done using it, and mi get it out every few weeks and let it run till its up to temp and drive it around to make sure the steering clutches and tracks don't sieze up. Once we get the heat wave next week it's coming out to push some snow banks back and open up some trails for getting some firewood out

Wow you have had a time with the new tracks, twice removed and broke apart. The stream I have is about 3 feet deep so I parked the dozer in it every time I was done working it. Moving water has a why of getting into places like nothing else I know of. With this old/new one I won't have to worry about that problem.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Two stupid questions. Do you refer to the segmented track as "chains".

And, did no one ever offer a rubber track conversion for these or maybe the smaller 350? A friend has a small older Jap trim dozer, maybe a Komasu, with rubber tracks.

 

[duke7595]

Two stupid questions. Do you refer to the segmented track as "chains".

And, did no one ever offer a rubber track conversion for these or maybe the smaller 350? A friend has a small older Jap trim dozer, maybe a Komasu, with rubber tracks.

Yes segmented track are referred to as a chain, at least I refer to them as such. I believe rubber tracks are available but I have not checked in to them. No question asked is stupid, only the ones that are not.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I know these crawlers have no internal chains but things like skid steers mostly have, so I was just a bit confused. I never knew that tracks were such a problem. A guy has his old Liebherr 926 ? here doing some work for me. I noticed last time I watched him that the idlers are frozen solid (or is that the boggies?) and have been worn flat. Sad to see! He tells me the track comes off routinely but he is able to use the hoe to put it back on, while on the move! Same guy with the rubber tracked dozer and maybe forty other peices of various heavy iron. All this stuff is just way out of my league!

 

[duke7595]

Some guys will run their equipment into the ground as long as they can prolong repairing it, this fellow seems to that.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Some guys will run their equipment into the ground as long as they can prolong repairing it, this fellow seems to that.

True story!! Some guys just don't care...

I had a bad roller on my 450, I was going to rebuild it, but all the parts came to $80.00 and a complete NEW Berco roller was $95.00! Easy decision for me!

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

Truth is, I think he just has too much of it. To each his own I guess. But that is the beauty of heavy equipment. It can to a certain degree keep workin although it may be hurtin. Cheap consumer stuff just gives up without a fight!

 

[jenkinsph]

Tracks wear fast enough when all the rollers are functioning correctly. Having one frozen and adding the friction/wear is careless. The guy is probably overwhelmed and tired of making repairs, rather have the money in his pocket for life expenses.