Brake cable question

[leeroy]

Trying to adjust brakes. I rotated adjuster wheel towards front of tractor and just started getting drag. I pushed brake pedal down but the spring broke, the cable pulled but did not retract.
I'm hopeful that I can take the cable off the pedal and hanger to see if it will retact after straightening and lubricating.
If not then I assume it's wheel removal and brake disassembly.
Any advice is sure welcome!

[Billy26F5]

Before you dismantle anything make sure the cables are well lubricated, as if not they will jam. I would get the pedal down again so the cable is straight and give it diesel, oil and grease through the nipple in the middle of the conduit (it should be greased every time you do a grease gun run). If the cable has jammed this should enable the internal springs to keep the cable under tension when you retract the pedal. if nothing happens try loosening the expander and applying the brake hard, the cable should start to move ok. If it doesn't keep lubricating it until it does. If none of this works then by all means have a look inside (don't forget the linings are probably asbestos, they certainly are when original).
Sandy

[leeroy]

Thanks Sandy.
After trying the above with no cable movement gained at all I knew I had to look in there.
I carefully removed the tire. Hyacinth is jacked and blocked. I purposely parked close to barn wall so I could lean ballasted tire against it. Once the drum cover and drum were removed you could see the cable had come right off of the cam lever. The end of the cable was jammed between the shoe and backing plate.
All springs look good and my plan is to reassemble this morning and do what the book calls a "major adjustment".
The cable was free after disassembly although my guess is that it was sticking some, and the combination of loosening the adjuster and the the pedal return spring breaking caused enough sudden movement to pull the cable off the cam lever?

[Billy26F5]

Sounds like a good plan, it's possible that the cable could have worked itself loose and managed to jump out of the cam lever, I would check the cam lever to see that the cable fits nicely and stays there. Make sure you get a new pedal spring soon as if not the pedal will wear the brakes away.
Sandy

[leeroy]

Hyacinth is stopping great now. I'm wondering if the adjuster was in upside down. I marked it with a crayon before I took it apart and made sure to put it back in the same way. When I tried adjusting it the shoes never got to the drums. What I thought was the feel of the spring was just the screwdriver slipping off. So I disassembled, found the adjuster at its shortest setting and tight.Freed it up, turned it the other way and seems fine. The other side adjusted fine and I did not have to remove wheel.

[Billy26F5]

Good stuff, you'll now be able to use steering brakes in the field!
Sandy

[leeroy]

I'm afraid I may have to revisit the brake issue. After fixing the control lever o-ring I wanted to take a quick firewood run but heard a "thump" and could feel it in the brake cover. Think I will have to take wheel off again and dig in.
If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears .

[Billy26F5]

You do sometimes get a bit of a thump (the backlash between the bull pinion and final reduction gear and the brake gripping to hold the wheel stationary are quite common when pulling away ploughing and using steering brakes), but it sounds like you do want to look at it if it doesn't fit either of those. Hopefully you won't have broken a brake cable, which won't be fun if it does happen (and I'm sure someone on the forum will have had it happen when the brakes were necessary). I would probably recommend reading the manual again just in case you have another idea too.
Sandy

[leeroy]

Maybe coincidence but had to mention I had just greased outer bearing of bull pinion before noticing this noise.
I had also moved a very short distance with the brake pedal latch engaged.

Edit: jacked wheel up and kept finding binding point. Definitely in brake/drum. Took wheel off (loaded=heavy!)
Cover off drum off , backed off adjustment now it's moving freely.
Thinking shoes aren't releasing, unless foreign object like dirt was binding that fell out.
Could the cam lever be binding? Should it be lightly greased on its anchor pin?

[Billy26F5]

The internal brake linkage does need a bit of high temperature grease. It sounds rather like there was dirt there, so you probably want to carefully clean the area before you put it together. Driving with the brakes on shouldn't cause that problem, nor should greasing the bull pinion.
Sandy

[leeroy]

I cleaned things up, polished and lightly greased moving parts. Seems to return better but I'm not 100% confident.
Maybe I need to get new brake parts. I wish I took some pictures but didn't want to bring ipad out in the rain.
Hope to get a test run in tomorrow.
[url=https://postimages.org/]

[Billy26F5]

I would try cycling the brakes a bit, as it could just be a tight spot. If that doesn't work give everything a good clean and inspect it before assembling it again. The bits in the pic look fine.
Sandy

[leeroy]

Could it be possible that the grease in the cable is too thick in colder temp causing slow retraction?
I ask due to the initial brake adjustments seemed to be doing fine until this colder weather.

[Billy26F5]

If it's very cold that is possible, try putting more grease in after having the grease gun in a relatively warm place and see what happens.
Sandy