| TRACK FIXES |
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| The picture on the right is a new track carrier for a Studebaker Weasel. The track plate carriers are built the same way for the M7, but are shorter, only 33 plates. The guide and mould have been built by ingenious individuals in Europe. The spacing for the plate retainer clips would be critical but achievable with a CNC machine. The next critical part would be the length of the steel cable embedded in the rubber, or in this case what appears to be a poured in polyurethane. Stainless steel cable would slow the corrosion problem associated with the mild steel cable used in the originals. I hope to get pics of a cross section of the carrier when I replace my tracks with others I have obtained |
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| On the left is a NOS M7 track. You can see the rubber coating that the bogie wheels run on. Also you can see the rivets that hold the tracks plates to the carrier. Some fixes include drilling the outer rivets out and bolting in #60 roller chain or drilling new holes near the outer edge ( before the bend ) of the track plates and bolting #60 chain there. Another fix, you can see at the bottom of this page, inlvolves rivetting belting to the track but this again requires you to drill hardened steel plates and rivets. An interesting note about the track on the right is that is is painted all over in dark olive drab. |
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| Now, to the left is a broken Weasel track. Looks suspiciously like am M7 doesn't it. I don't know what width this one is , but the M7 is 18 inches wide and made up of 33 track plates. Russ Morgan supplies CNC drilled industrial belting that is to be rivetted on to the track plates that are drilled as well. In this picture you can see the track plates have been drilledin preparation for the belt. It is important that the spacing on the belt holes is accurate so that the track is not spread or squeezed between each plate or the track will not be straight. Equally important is the holes on the track plates must be precise. Due to the hardened steel track plates, it is impossible to hand drill accurately and a milling machine or computer controlled milling machine ( CNC ) must be used. |
| Right, is the completed repair to the Weasel track. I would imaginethat stainless steel rivets have been used. If the track is wider than the M7 track ( my understanding that 20" and 22" were used in later models only the first batch , of Weasels used narrower tracks ) then the belt would have to be narrower and shorter to accomodate an M7. I haven't fixed an M7 track using this technique, yet, but I hope to and will document the procedure when I do. |
| Here we see the only way to ship one of these continuous band tracks without using two pallets. I will post Russ Morgan's e-mail address for all those interested in repairing their tracks in this fashion. I would appreciate pictures and blow by blow , if anyone attempts this repair. Russ Morgan's e-mail address is : morganru@oneimage.com |