444 aluminum track sprockets

[devil dog]

I was looking at front sprockets I have that have chunks missing from hitting rocks,etc. and was going to see if rear ones could be machined to fit. As far as I can tell, other than having "front" and "rear" cast onto them, they are identical, interchangeable parts! I just always assumed because they said front and rear that they were different.

[Barrie2777]

The rear sprocket has two hubs for the bearings while the front sprocket has the inside hub machined off to acept the axel flange. Other than this difference, I don't believe there to be a difference.

[devil dog]

Hi Barrie, Sorry, What you said is true of the 200 and 400 sprockets ,but the topic is 444 sprockets.

[devil dog]

OK, Here we go, info with serial #'s from 444's I have or have parted out regarding the sprockets, for what it is worth! First off, all 444 sprockets front or rear, interchange with no modification ,period. There is a earlier style that is on serial # 650121 and # 650793 that has a small outer flange around hub area and has just a small "F" stamped on it for the front and a "R" for the rear and they are the same parts as the sprockets on a 600 serial # 61417. Then there is the later style found on serial # 651177 and # 651647 and two other 444's that were missing the serial #'s before I got them. They have raised, cast in words "front" and "rear" on them. Even though Bolens consistently put the front ones on the front and rear ones on the rear,they are really the same part. So, somewhere between #650793 and # 651177 they changed styles. My guess is they were using up old leftover 600 parts at first? Perhaps same goes for the tracks with the 600 type metal cleats on the early 444's? Unfortunatly, the tracks were rebuilt or missing on most of these machines and sometimes even had a mix of both style metal cleats.

[Barrie2777]

I checked my 444's today (at least the ones not buried behind Diablo parts) and found the same details correcponding to those serial numbers. It sure appears that 600 sprockets were used on the 444. Engineers at HUS-SKI were very confident for the success of the 600 and probably had based production numbers on the success of previous models. COKE also changed their formula and quickly returned to the original mix.