Abstract: A wear guard which prevents debris from entering a final drive assembly of a waste handling machine. The wear guard allows for easy inspection and cleaning of debris from the final drive assembly via an inspection port without the need for removing the entire drive assembly and other components. The wear guard is also designed to be installed on different types of final drive assemblies thus providing great design flexibility. This is provided via the use of spacers. The wear guard has a readily accessible lifting point requiring no special tooling. The wear guard also eliminates many of the distortion problems caused by welding while also reducing machining, dimension control and providing improved appearance.