Armortek

Hi everyone,
I run my panther hard this winter,though the snow.There was salt in this snow and now the track is full of corrosion.And the track pins look rusty.
I started to clean up the track,by soaking in oil,and later washing it off in the parts cleaner tank at work.But now taking the dremel and with a wire brush,cleanning each track.After I plan on painting them.But I may have to disassemble the track.And clean up the pins,and grease them before reassembling the track.Also with the track apart I can clean the track links better.I'm doing all of this because the track set cost about $1,000.00 or 500 GB.
What do you guys think? Am I wasting my time by doing all of this?
Thanks from Dan

Dan as you said the tracks are expensive so i cant see why not to maintain it as your baby. Well worth the effort.

Diesel is a very good way of getting things cleaned up and it eats the corrosion up aswell. And you get some lubrication in there aswell. Let it soak for a day or so and then use the oil bath.
That should do the trick.

The rust i would actually leave for the real look of the tracks, don´t think the pins or the tracks will break as Mark have made them really heavyduty. Atleast on the Kt, havent seen the panthers though.

Saw that some of the guys changed the pins to stainless steel pins
wich could be a alternative. There is the issue of some metals reaction to eachother. Galvanic currents i think its called, we had a aluminium boat wich we applied a stainless steel ladder.
After 2 seasons the ladder ate the side board of the boat up

Hope this is of help Dan.
Fredrik

Hello Chaps

When i run my tanks and it muddy i take them off the tank and just power wash them.
If you grease or oil them up the dirt sticks to it and wears the track down prematurely. I have run several tanks and i have had no problem with them.
I would suggest that its best to keep them oil free. The standard of track links are very good now.

Lee

Thnx for the advice Lee.
I will have that in mind for the winterdrives with the KT.

Freddie

Thanks Fredilk and Lee for your thoughts on this.
I brought some diesel today,and I'm soaking a sample part of the track in it to see what will happen.The corrosion was heavy on the track.After I always wash it off in the parts cleaner tank.That's a solvent that cuts the oil.I let it drip dry for a week.
I have picures but I don't know how to show them here.
Thanks Again Lee and Fredilk.

Sorry Fredrilk for mis- speeling your name. Dan

Hi Fredrilk
I soaked a small piece of track in the diesel and not all of the corrosion is off,but the track looks better and is less dirty.So I brought 6 gals of diesel and I'm soaking all of the track now.I will leave it in for the weekend,and see how it is later.A man at work also said diesel is a good ligth oil,and cost less than WD40. Thanks from Dan

Dan,

I also remove my tracks, cean them with a power washer then soak in a bucket of diesel. Aluminium is very prone to attack from salt but the tracks are not too bad with mud. I don't know about plated track pins but the plian steel ones rust quite quickly and I don't think there is any way of preventing this.

dan williams wrote:Thanks Fredilk and Lee for your thoughts on this.
I brought some diesel today,and I'm soaking a sample part of the track in it to see what will happen.The corrosion was heavy on the track.After I always wash it off in the parts cleaner tank.That's a solvent that cuts the oil.I let it drip dry for a week.
I have picures but I don't know how to show them here.
Thanks Again Lee and Fredilk.

Dan

To put pictures here you need to have a place on the net first.
If you have, copy that link.In the message body you just need to click on the "Img" paste that link and click "Img" again.
That' it...

Sven

Hi All:

The best thing I have ever done is to have the - Track Pin & Axles nitro-carburized - They do no rust and are very hard and easy to clean - drill pins before carburizeing because you can't after! Lucien had mine done a couple of years ago - I think many of us had it done at that time. Well worth it.

Joe