A few questions for the T16 experts out there.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

I'm confused. Are you running this forward in only one reverse gear?

[Jon Bradshaw]

This topic of my carrier is covered in more detail in another thread. I am running this carrier with the original diff but a newer engine and transmission. The diff is at the "front" (the old rear) and running in reverse but the drive train is running as normal in a 3 speed tranny. I set it up to spin the tranny in forward but the diff in reverse.... The Engine is in backwards with the tranny at the "back" and running through a transfer case and a long driveshaft past the engine. Pics in the other thread.
There is a possibility that the spinning of the shaft is pooling the oil against the seal but I think upon further thought and reading the comments that it was probably excess heat due to overly aggressive steering.
I will not make any mods to it except that it now has a better breather.
As suggested I simply cleaned up the oil and replaced the amount that was lost. As I said it was only about a cup or two.
I removed one track link from the left and will have it out tomorrow to see if it made a difference.

[Lynn Eades]

Jon, there is more to it than removing a link.
The idea of quartering the track is to get you two tracks the same length (which you may already have now) by mixing the less worn with the more worn to even things out.
You probably haven't gained anything in that the pitch of one track is still different from the other (they may be the same length but one has less links) Does that make sense?

[David Herbert]

I very much agree with Lynn.
Driving in a straight line the sprockets have the same number of teeth and are turning at the same speed. This means that the tracks are being pulled round the sprockets at the same number of links per minute. If one track is more worn/stretched than the other the pitch is longer and that track travels further so you slowly turn. If one track is more worn than the other it would often result in it having a link or two removed so that it can be tensioned but the cause of the drifting is the difference in pitch due to wear. Any difference in the number of links is incidental but indicates different pitch. As has been mentioned, if everything else is equal, different tension on each side will also cause drifting but simply because a tighter track has more drag so the vehicle will tend to drift towards that side.

David

[rob love]

I guess the best analogy would be having two different size tires on an axle. A 9.00-20 on the left and a 11.00x20 on the right just won't work well.

Regarding the differential moving to the front, the armoured snowmobile (and the later penguin variants) used a T-16 differential on the front, but the designers made the neccessary changes to flip the gearbox over, thus being able to run the engine and transmission directly into the diff.

[David Herbert]

As the pinion is at the same hight as the crown wheel it should be possible to flip the crown wheel, controlled differential and brake drums assembly within the housing to engage the other side of the pinion. It will need setting up for backlash but looking at the photos above and the manual I can't see why this can't be done. It would be dead easy and saves extra/special gearboxes.
David