Hi. I have got a new set of chains for my 135. I knew that I had a lot of up/down movement on my idlers (20mm) so when I removed both, I have both wear on the idler and also wear on the digger guide where the idler slides in. My idlers are fine other than the wear on the guide,
my question is if I replace both idlers, I will still have to build up the digger guide slot, which I don’t know how to go about ?
my question is could I weld plates on both idlers and digger guide.
I honestly don’t want to spend a lot more money on new idlers and welder etc.
We've done this on a few diggers now and some have been successful and others not so successful. The old EX's had a tendency to begin to spread the idler housing if left with a lot of play for a long time. The newer ZX's don't suffer as much as this part has been strengthened.
First thing is use a MIG welder, better longer lasting weld. Build up as much of the chassis guides as possible with hard wearing plates. As opposed to building up the idler which will wear chassis guides and get you in more bother further down the line. Don't make it too tight also by building it up too much as this will spread the chassis.
And lastly, you mention 20mm of play. I assume this is taken from under the idler to the chassis guides when all weight is on the digger. We have had them where it would be pushing 60mm (3 fingers ) of play in there so yours isn't bad.
I bought new idlers today, but I still need to build up the digger housing. I will just use the mig on it, but I don’t know what you me by using hard wearing plates, I won’t be adding any plate, just weld
