PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-614
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 614
JANUARY 2004
Wheel Inspection
PS 614
5
2 13/16" - 2 7/8"
Sprocket window width:
2 13/16-in to 2 7/8-in.
Anything less than 2 13/16
inches is still usable.
Bushings:
Off-center pins indicate bushing
wear and should be closely
watched. If the pin touches the
inside surface of the bushing bore,
the shoe’s no good. Replace it.
Pin touching bushing
bore? Replace shoe
Large chunks of missing
rubber make vehicle NMC
Also, watch for pins that stick out more on one side of the shoe than the other.
One of the locking nuts could be loose or missing. The locking nuts are a one-time-
use item, so make sure your mechanic uses a new one if they are loose or damaged.
First,
check for loose hardware. Loose lug
nuts allow the roadwheels and support wheels to
wobble. That further strips the lug bolt threads
and eats away at the wheel’s mounting holes.
The more the wheels move, the greater the
chance that the center guides will hit and dam-
age the tread.
Second,
remove track debris whenever possi-
ble. Rocks thrown up by the track can lodge
between the roadwheel arms. That results in
gouging and deep cuts or grooves in the tread.
Roadwheels,
idler wheels and
support rollers
should be
inspected for
weather cracking,
chunking and
tread separation.
Here’s what to
look for…
Weather cracking:
If weather cracks extend completely across the tread surface
and are deeper than 1/4 inch, the wheel is unserviceable.
Tread separation:
Separation of the tread that is one inch or wider and goes around 75 percent of the
roadwheel makes your vehicle NMC. The same goes for support rollers, except the
separation only has to be 1/2 inch or wider.
Chunking:
For roadwheels, one miss-
ing chunk of rubber that
measures three by four
inches or larger is enough
to make your vehicle
NMC. Depth of the chunk-
ing doesn’t matter. Even
smaller chunks can make
the roadwheel unservice-
able if they cover more
than 20 percent of the
tread surface.
For support rollers, it
only takes a chunk
measuring one inch by
two inches to cause a
deadline. Again, the
depth of the chunking
doesn’t matter and a
collection of smaller
chunks that cover
more than 20 percent
of the tread surface
make the support
roller unserviceable.
There are
a couple of
things you
can do to
prevent some
of this tread
damage.
Small chunks OK if
they cover less than
20% of tread
Check for separation that extends
75% around roadwheel
Check support rollers for separation, too
614. 04-05 (C)
11/24/03
3:14 PM
Page 1
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