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1973 Tucker Sno Cat 1443 New to Me

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Had a great weekend until…

Been trying to figure out why the rear axle housing is leaking oil this season. Problem solved:(

Was lucky to creep down the mile after unloading the passengers. Can’t wait to see what’s inside this cracked bent housing.

If it’s coming apart it’s going together with a new housing, new journals, and UHMW sleeve upgrade. Might as well do the center chunk.

Now how quick?
 
Wonder if anybody ever did this service bulletin? Wasn’t until 3/73 they said to add internal tube. Mines a 73 and alleged to have been born as a 443 and early rubber conversion at factory.

Won’t know until Friday but I don’t recall seeing a sleeve inside….

UHMW upgrade not available for 8 3/4. Full width journals TBD.

Diff shop will be able to straighten and sleeve or re tube. Stay tuned!

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Track Addict,

Back in 2018, the owner of the 1642 we re-cabbed, better known as “The Vail Cat”, broke the rear Dana 60 axle housing. As we had sold that machine previously, we offered to repair the broken axle housing at no labor cost, the owner would be responsible for the cost of any parts. They took us up on that (and decided they wanted us to do a bunch of other stuff, which was not gratis). Scott welded the broken housing, and we found some other cracks that he welded as well.
At the time I made inquiries with Tucker, Inc and they said they would not repair the axle housing, but install a new one. This is from long term memory, so I may be wrong, but I seem to recall the estimated cost was in the vicinity of $15K.

As far as we know, the repair is still going strong as they have never called to say it failed.

That method may be an option for you to consider. I don’t have a clue how difficult it will be to source a replacement axle housing, or the necessary parts from Tucker, etc. You could potentially repair the broken housing as a temporary repair, and use the machine while you put together the replacement axle assembly.

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Not sure what the move is yet but the housing def bent in multiple directions. Cracked on one side bent on other. Pivot the third member down the carriers move in and out a lot.

The upgrade in 73 was to insert a 2 9/16 reinforcing tube. Not sure what the plan is now. This is more of an upgrade project looking at it so far :(
 
Here’s the full yard sale.

Badged as a 73 my guess is was prob built in 72. The service bulletin was 3/73 which is after a season of loading passengers and broken housings says my Time Machine.

Upgrade was to insert 2 9/16 reinforcing tube. This cat never was loaded like I load it. Could have been the light fright service life was irrelevant. 50 years later it’s busted.

Had to cut the housing to get the axle out. All looks good. Will re bearing and race the axles. Diff looks great but will have inspected.

Here is where the failure occurred. Pontoons carry weight much different that the cantilever rubber carriers. It’s adds offset torque requiring an improved design.

Going to take a trip to the shop tomorrow see what the options are. Like to add new journals to take advantage of the virgin carrier for a my lifetime of service! That and beefy DOM retube.


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Housing should be retubed and journaled mid week. Going to bring a carrier so they can machine and align correctly.

Got the parts cleaned up and axles stripped. Passenger side cage fell apart. You can see some wear started in the race at the new bent angle of attack.

New bearings and races were in the stash stock. Rest of housing parts on the way.

Going to do the idlers while it’s apart. Happy with upgrades and I wanted to get at the idlers so thanks for breaking!


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Dropped a carrier off at the diff shop so they could properly align the new journal as they retube the housing.

Got to work on the drivers side carrier. Stripped the idlers off.

One shaft seems to have taken a trip on a blown bearing. Had a new one on stock and swapped. Was amazed it tapped right out. Reinstalled with antisieze.

The rear track adjusters were on backwards. The turned side was pointed in and a bit was welded on the side pushing on the carrier slide. Not sure why this was done except to possible get more tension before it was retracked. What’s interesting is now it’s to tight backed off and this puts it back to proper adjustment. IDK?

Knocked all the bearings seals and races out. Weren’t bad but unknown age so replacing them all. 4 wheels are R&K or the Tucker R&K with bolt on ring. Races are much harder to knock out because they didn’t leave much lip to punch.

4 new cast idlers one day.
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Blasted the adjusters to take a look at prior repair. Touched up some welds. You can see some poor welding before me.

One of the carriers had this brace on it which was added to the front. These were added to the back as well.

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Degreased the drive shaft, carrier, and idler wheels.

Driveshaft and improved axle housing will get painted before install. Carriers need to come off again for some work. Not loving the repair work before me. It’s sound but not attractive.

Will swap in a new Tucker R&K style wheel I have so the rears match. Front and back are cast Tucker but the middle are all the other black steel with Tucker Branded bolt on rubber. Six new idlers one day would be nice but at least it’s all Tucker for now.

Got some new additional support stands.
 
Did a few lines of track tonight to keep the party going! We have all the parts and pieces to start assembly. Still waiting on the axle housing which should be ready soon. Until then plenty to do.

The rear tracks have 7 grousers that are bent and thinner than the rest. While the tracks were off it was time address. The side on the housing failure were easy to spot because they all bent as they hit the spring creeping home.

Here are some pics of the different styles. Tucker used 1/4” steel. The 7 in question are 3/16”. Had a bunch of good used Tucker spares including 3 brand newer style. Here you can see they extended the web and welded in the bolts. Rob Miller has a good thread on cutting tombstones to hold the bolt heads when welds let go. Luckily we don’t have that issue.

Someone has been in here before and welded up the cracks on the thin ones just to create new ones. Would have been more work than replacing seeing as there are a bunch of new and good used ones it came with. Weird?

New hardware on the way and rears tracks are good to go.


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Attachments

That thing is amazing! Where do you guys find these? I'd love to find one cheap. Like, really cheap. (Not that the machine wouldn't warrant any amount of money.)
 
Had one of the track head youth 2015 Model J Tucker on the crew tonight.

Four grousers swapped, new hardware, and torqued to 20 lbs on one track. Three more on the other left.

Had the epiphany for a paint tent. Great 40$ investment. Started painting for assembly.

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Squeezing what little winter we have left out. Can’t recall a time where there was no snow pack in March. Might be a wrap for human powered winter activities.

Finished the tracks. Welded up a few spots on the driver side carrier and fit the bearings to the shafts.

Going to convert this cat over to damper wheels next so carriers will remain unpainted for now.

Drivers side idlers have the new races installed. Paint continues
 
Track Addict said:
Can’t recall a time where there was no snow pack in March. Might be a wrap for human powered winter activities.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to find an IG post from Friday of someone up at Tuckerman. They never even went all of the way up because it was sketchy as feck with all of the ice and running water. And that was well before yesterdays fatality. Even Sherburne was almost bare.
 
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The new tubed axle housing will have extended carrier journals. Picked up weld in 1/8 npt bungs to add the additional fittings required.

Box of stuff from track Inc. These six backers are odd on the track using a flattened tube. They are alleged to be to early Tucker but don’t provide even backing. The flat stock backers are most common but can cookie cutter the tracks over time.

These are the latest versions for max support and minimal cutting from rotation. Might just make up some flat stock so they match because I like matching. Def improved design.
 
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Took a backer off to copy. Cut 1/8x1 1/4” stock and used the backer to locate the holes. Then everything was ground down to size, slight bevel on all edges, then wire wheeled smooth and painted.

Pictured are the crushed tube style backers that were replaced. New hardware installed and torqued to 20 ft/lb.

Drivers side carrier idlers installed and greased.
 
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I was wondering the same thing this morning but things have since changed!

Huge thanks to Mitchell Differential in Shrewsbury MA for this work of art! http://mitchelldifferential.com/

This repair was a blessing resulting in a new journal and 1/2 tubed housing. They were happy to tackle this project and not afraid to think something outside the box. Family of craftsmen!

Will post up some more detail later as we lay paint.

SV or Bust!

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