Hi GoCat,
Thanks for the info, I totally agree.

As far as the variety of undercarriage out there I like to quote "halftrac", lifetime track shop owner/operator from his "I B Dozing" website.

"Now days you don't know where undercarriage components are made and whether they are from China, Korea, Italy, or..... they are all OEM equipment for someone and even Cat undercarriage fails"

Also would like to ask your advice on the following.
I have a D4 that came with welded master pins (full circumference weld). The rails are in good shape but are due for a P & B turn. What technique would be best to remove the welded pins with minimum damage to the links? Thanks

Usually the tracks coming into the shop would be off the machine and the m/pins out Any pins that were welded in would not be used again or the link either To get them out the end would be torched off down to the link and the press would push them out we kept a pile of used links for the purpose of replacing any one we had to scrap A new link would be to high A new set of master pins would be supplied with each set of tracks going back to the customer You could try grinding the weld off as low as you can and it may brake away easy enough
GC