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Brakes: For the fun of it

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 4:02 pm
by Foxen
The brake actuators on my super major has, from what I remember now, three springs that pull it back inwards from the expanded state while what I can see from agriline's pictures the Ford 4000 variety has four springs... And this will lead to one of my usual questions; Could the Ford 4000 actuators be used on the super major and in that way improve the brakes somewhat or is there something making this totally impossible?

I suppose the 4000 brakes are less prone to "sticking" on than the super major's, am I right assuming this?

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 6:06 pm
by Ian
you sure you got your breaks setup right ?
After much fiddling i got the breaks working on our power major. First time its had any brakes for 15-20 years. I can get the tractor to skid when I put my foot on the brakes, and they are drum brakes !

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 6:26 pm
by Foxen
Nah, my brake setup is wrecked at the moment, my right brake had become a "wet" brake, nothing was stuck there tho and it didn't brake, the left one was an extremely "dry" and reddish brake where most things except the actuator had seized up... I've ordered a set of new brake linings, picked up a pair of less broken brake housings and new brake shaft seals, so hopefully there'll be brakes again on saturday evening or at least next week ;)

The question wasn't really about how good the brakes will brake the vehicle but rather getting them to stop braking once I let go of the pedals... ;)

Oh well, where art thou Brian? Master of wisdom and most knowledgeable of all :D (no pun intended!)

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:08 pm
by Foxen
While delving on the matter, how do I get the diff lock actuating rod out so I can replace the seal on it? I was told that I could simply pull the right brake shaft straight out, loosen the nut(after taking note about how far in it was screwed) and pull the rod out. I tried doing just that on the tractor wreck where I got the spare brake housings from but it just wouldn't budge, did I miss something?

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:48 am
by Dandy Dave
The Power Majors have shoe brakes. The Supers have disks. Apples to Oranges.... The older Ford tractors, and others that I have worked on, or driven with disk brakes, always seem to hang up in certain positions or not stop well because of glazing. The glazing problem I have fixed by putting the disks in my cabinet blaster and sand blasting them to cut the slickness off. It works well for a while, but eventually they will glaze again. Just the nature of this type of brake. Dandy Dave!

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:31 am
by Foxen
Ok, then I suppose that if I want mine to have exceptional brakes that don't stick I'll just have to come up with something of my own... That might take a while tho ;)

I was playing yesterday evening(or night?) with the thought of making a set of hydraulically operated actuators instead of the current mechanic-twist-and-expand type, still thinking how that would best be accomplished, replace the linkages from the brake pedals with two smaller hydraulic rams and then use two larger diameter rams to actuate the brakes... That would also mean that one could fix the pedal cross-shaft so it won't turn anymore, putting less stress on the seals... hmmm... Maybe someday :lol: