Advice on bent track rails

I have recovered some pretty mangled up early D4 rails by heating, pressing, welding and grinding. I do have an I-beam leveling table that I can anchor things to, as well as using the two frames back to back as bucking frames. Much like vehicle frame straightening only much heavier iron and forces required. The time consuming part is welding up worn surfaces and grinding them back to original, especially the ones inside the channel iron.

Ray--the track frame rail on one side of my D2 was cracked, spliced, and bent out so much they had used U bolts to hold down the idler assembly. I ground,heated, jacked ,twisted, welded and flitch plated it to be parallel and straight and true.(almost!) Just takes a lot of time and perseverance 😉.

PS---I also had a bent idler shaft that i had to replace---according to my Cat dealer I got the last one Cat had before they were to be destroyed--it was in Brazil!

Make new ones. I've made several including the center channel and diagonal braces. It's a waste of time trying to straighten ones that bent. Besides, the top flange is probably worn very badly too making the idler castings too sloppy where they slide.

Side seat is right just do it right and replace with new steel.
You can spend alot of time trying to get it just right with alot of working involved.
You have the bolt pattern off the old ones so to make a new one is no problem.

there should be a few being parted out with good track frames.

i side with side seat!
if you can work steel you would be a fool to try to straighten those. cut the two channels off where the damage starts and weld in new channel. vee the two pieces to be butted and fill with weld. if you want the strongest possible weld, do not cut 90 degrees accross the channel. cut at least 45 if not 30 degrees, you have a longer weld this way!

Just curious. Does the Model 22 swing frame use a standard profile channel or is the profile proprietary to CAT.

I made new track frames for my small 15 and Dad and I are in the process of changing a bent up channel on his 30, common 6 inch channel, Dad and friend got the holes drilled, I wouldent cut n splice, just make a new one. its not a big job, just be accurate on drilling the holes

Ray, the other thing I'd seriously contemplate is getting rid of the blade off the 22 (I'd assume it has a blade from that non-standard mount attached to the frames). They weren't designed for them, and looking at your particular application, the forces are applied through the undercarriage frames (my 22 has a cable lift blade running from the top of the radiator which is also not ideal). I could imagine that some of the issue you have is due to that blade arrangement. Still, if you fit new frame rails, and baby it, it should hold up ok.
Cheers,
Neil.