Chain pulling to side

I have a Sonnys 115' conveyor and D88 chain, my chain is pulling to the inner side aggressively and I didn't notice until it has been too late, the rollers have been sliced on the link that connects them to the chain. And I have quite a few rollers to replace now, I installed chain guides, which has definitely stopped the rubbing but the chain still pulls aggressively to the inner side and is already wearing on the guides... anyone have any ideas of what could be causing this?

Same size conveyor with the same chain I replaced my rear end sproket and bearings and when I did this sonnys sells the one piece shaft and sproket. If you look at the way they have it it is not centered. I had the longer side shaft on the drivers side and had the same problem. you can take the sproket out and turn in around. For me this centerized the chain better and worked like a charm. The chain guides really for me don't work but the way I got it setup I don't need them anyway. You can also purchase the shaft and sproket in 2 seperate pieces from different carwashing part cpmpanies. By doing this you can float your sproket around on the thae shaft until you find tthe best place for it. The sproket locks down with 3 bolts clamping it down. I DID THIS ON MY FRONT END. With sonnys one piece items theres no play for a little wiggle room. I would reccomend buying the shaft and sproket in separate pieces for the front and back end. You will be able to achieve moving the chain eithier way very easily. Good luck!!!

I've had the same problem at one location. Good suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll get to work on that right away! Just wish I would have caught it earlier, now almost all of my rollers need to be replaced. :-(

I agree with Michael. In most cases a twisting chain can be attributed to misaligned sprockets. This also happens on conveyors where the boxes have had a lot of repairs made to them and are no longer square.

Danny
www.WASHWAYUSA.com

Wow I have just noticed the same thing about a week ago on my Sonny's conveyor. There is a lot of wear on our rollers too. Thanks for the advice!

Mine wore so bad, you couldn't get a wrench on the bolts, to replace the plastic. So we cut up some short pieces of flat bar (actually fence tension rods) and tack welded them to the remains of the bolt. The heat generated made the removale easy work after that. (Wish I had a pic)

No prob for the advice you each can send $19.95 to Manchester Auto Wash 47 Elm street, Manchester, NH (just a little humor--- off and on showers here today) But on a serious note my chain is now going on 400,000 cars and the rollers 200,000 cars. If I get motivated enough maybe I'll swap out the six wheels on each roller instead of the whole thing,I always say that becasuse I think I figured it would save around a $1000.00 but never have done it I'll probally swap roller and chain out for this coming winter probally could get by but I always do a fall checklist to get ready for winter. I'm glad I was at some help good luck and happy washing!!!!

See the damage it has done from rubbing on the top flighting (i guess you would call it) At least half of my rollers are now "cut" in that place completely :(

closer

My plastic rollers were like filed down, past the bolt to the axle. I had to replace the rear two p/s rollers on every pusher, from abrasion on the bottom or middle levels. Your's are cut on the carrier link, which had to have been done while on the middle level and not pushing a vehicle.

If you have a Lincoln welder, do you think you could run a bead down the cut and get more life out of the pushers? I don't think the heat from the welder would terribly melt the roller or you could remove that roller while you weld.

Yes that's exactly where it is wearing, my father and I were planning on running a bead on the worn links and then just replacing the rollers where it had worn completely through. I have seen other washes that wear like your's did.

I had the same issue with my sonny's conveyor. I had replace 3 HECO gear boxes (ran aqua blue... yes it had viton seals) and 2 sprockets. When replacing one of the sprockets I didn't center or tighten the collar correctly and it placed the cain off center. The result was just like what you guys discribed. Many of the bolt heads worn clear flat, the nylon rollers wore by 1/4 shorter and the carrage wore a grove in them (I think on the right hand side) where the dolly traveled down the conveyer when it was called up under the car tire and rubbed the the right steel surface of the conveyor. The guide weren't installed originally.... so I went back and installed them.... that didn't help much. I had to replace another HECO and torch off the freaking gear (because I installed it wrong and couldn't back the bolts off the collars)! Oh the fun of owning a tunnel!

I eventualy switched to a X458 dog bone with air take up.... much better wear, less tracking issues, less shorting and less time (about 10-15 min vs 30-45). The cost was more but I also went to 3'6" spacing to load faster.

Go with sprockets on both ends of the conveyor.