By Gordon on Unrecorded Date: Edit

We recently bought an older Argo IC8 with "those shear pins". Has anyone had any luck solving the problem of these things breaking? We have been driving all winter on Supertracks. Does this place any additional stress on the pins? We have tried stainless steel bolts so far. Any help would be appreciated.

By Attex Bob on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Gordon: Try a good grade 8 bolt. Stainless bolts are too brittle. Make sure the shank goes all the way through the axel. (You don't want any threads protruding in the axel.) I use a ni-lock nut on mine. As far as the tracks go; yes these put a ton more torque on the pins and axles.

By norm howard on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Gordon,I have a 1984 argo 8x8 I/C model. I run standard tracks in the winter,towing ice fishing huts on & off the lake(Lake Simcoe in Ontario,Canada). I have found that the pins will shear more often with the tracks on than off. Especially when working the machine hard in deep snow & towing huts. Supertracks would put even more stress on the pins & shear them quicker. I will be replacing bearings,chains & sprockets soon,I asked the local dealer about upgrading to the splined axles & sprockets that are on the newer machines. He said that he dosen't see any problems with that, but is going to get in contact with someone at Ontario Drive & Gear to make sure.Upgrading to the splined units would eliminate the pins altogether!. How have the stainless steel bolts worked for you? What grade of hardness are the s.s. bolts you are using? One thing that I know for sure is that you need to keep those springs on the chain tensioners, or you are just inviting trouble, more chain slack, the chains seem to start slapping (you can hear them when you apply the brake to turn). Also make sure that the plastic slider blocks on the tensioners are not worn out, as this will cause a little more chain slack than usual. I carry 20 spare pins with me when I go anywhere (moose hunting, Ice fishing) just in case. About $1 each. When you start to break pins on one axle,be aware that the other ones are taking more punishment because they are the only ones that are driving. I hope that this helps you out. P.S. make sure that your brake cooling fan is operating, it really helps get rid of brake fade when the unit is being worked hard. Any other people with comments about upgrading to splined axles out there?

By gordon on Unrecorded Date: Edit

thanks for the info guys.
i will be off to buy some grade 8 bolts on tuesday. the stainless bolts with nylock nuts seem to be working very well, but i believe grade 8 will have a greater shear strength. i will be keeping my stainless for spares.it takes a bit of work to get the bolts in, as some of the holes in the sprockets are so close to the sprockets that i have to grind a flat spot on the heads of the bolts to get them in, without to much bending. i then grab the heads of the bolts with vice grips, and tighten the nylock nuts with an open end wrench.(sometimes the threaded end of the bolts will have to be pried away from the sprocket to get the nuts on), by the time they are tight, some of the nuts have rounded off against the sprocket, but that cannot be helped. i am also thinking of installing stronger springs on my tensioners. my next step on the bolt front will be using AN hardware as found on airplanes.
norm, has your dealer given you a price on the spline upgrade???????
again, thanks for the info. this is a really good web site.