Replacing Argocat Conquest chains

I've just acquired a 1998 Argocat Conquest and I decided the best thing to do before using it was to give it a good service and fix any serious problems. One thing I noticed was that the chains were stretched and very slack. The tensioners were all fine but just unable to cope, with the result that the chains were cutting into the cross members. This was only going to get worse.


This is how I replaced the two rear chains this weekend.


I went to Aird Motors in Beauly and got them to cut two new chains to length. They just needed to know the Argo's serial number and their computer told them how many links were in the chain. They cost about £45 each inc vat. The guy couldn't be more helpful.







My old duplex chains (DID 50) had no master link and so I had to grind down the heads of one of the links with my angle grinder. I took off the chain tensioner spring and put a block of wood under the chain to lift it up as much as possible and then used the grinder. Sparks, oil and a petrol tank in the Argo called for a few precautions, so I covered the petrol tank with an old wool carpet, got a fire extinguisher and ground the rivets so sparks went to the rear of the Argo. All went well and I then prised the link plate off with a screw driver.

The next job was the clean up all the old grease and oil that was below the chain and around the sprockets. I softened this up with degreaser, scraped as much off as possible with a small paint scraper and then set to with a old tooth brush and more degreaser and plenty of rags. I found several lost items buried in the old grease including a couple of bullet casings and some clips. I'm not sure where the clips are from yet. Interestingly the old grease had done a good job in rust prevention as paintwork was virtually intact.




Fitting the new chain was a bit of a struggle as its much shorter and the ends don't want to meet easily. In order to bring them as close as possible I jacked up the rear of the Argo so that the rear wheel and sprocket moved freely. It was then possible to tension the lower part of the chain by turning the rear wheel and then jam a block of wood under it which stopped it revolving. I used plumber's pliers, opened as wide as possible, to pull the two ends together and slotted in the master link and clip.

Having done one, the other side was a lot easier. I greased up the inner bearings, all 8 of them, and whilst I was at it, I took off all the wheels and greased the the two nipples on each wheel.

I now think all the chains need replacing so I'm going to order more chains and carry on with the engine service.