Bill Radford
Member
Took some good advice(thanks Dean)...sent back the cast repro drum. We tried to grind the drum (right side) that had been on the tractor. Hard to get enough pedal height for the brake to work.
Did some looking around. Found a "salvage" yard about 20 miles from the house operated by a neat 80-some year old guy that loves to talk tractors as well as sell parts.(American Pickers would go nuts looking around his place) He had his guy pull a couple of drums from an 801 and let me take my pick, cheap. Found one that except for some rust on outside, cleaned up to look almost new. Got some good pointers on 601 series tractors (60 years of mechanic experience).He said she'll be running when I'm long gone...he said he enjoyed talking about old tractors, not many young people are interested in them any more.
I have the best right side brakes I have ever had on the old girl.Left side brakes will literally spin the tractor in her tracks.
I still don't have as much height off the right floorboard as I would like, but unless I take off the new shoes and weld a bead on the cam surfaces or heat and bend the brake pedal rod up, I think that its about as good as it will get.Someone on a past thread said that the shoes will wear in over time, time will tell.
Thanks for all the advice,guys. I may tinker with her some more after a while, but I now have a nice looking old tractor that runs good, doesn't leak anything and will stop.
I really enjoyed the thread about the lift cover overhaul. This winter I'm goin' to tear into the lift and put in lift cylinder rings, etc.
For now, I'm just going to enjoy her a while.
Got an old Harley over in the corner that needs some TLC and riding.This is a great forum!
Thanks again!
Bill
Did some looking around. Found a "salvage" yard about 20 miles from the house operated by a neat 80-some year old guy that loves to talk tractors as well as sell parts.(American Pickers would go nuts looking around his place) He had his guy pull a couple of drums from an 801 and let me take my pick, cheap. Found one that except for some rust on outside, cleaned up to look almost new. Got some good pointers on 601 series tractors (60 years of mechanic experience).He said she'll be running when I'm long gone...he said he enjoyed talking about old tractors, not many young people are interested in them any more.
I have the best right side brakes I have ever had on the old girl.Left side brakes will literally spin the tractor in her tracks.
I still don't have as much height off the right floorboard as I would like, but unless I take off the new shoes and weld a bead on the cam surfaces or heat and bend the brake pedal rod up, I think that its about as good as it will get.Someone on a past thread said that the shoes will wear in over time, time will tell.
Thanks for all the advice,guys. I may tinker with her some more after a while, but I now have a nice looking old tractor that runs good, doesn't leak anything and will stop.
I really enjoyed the thread about the lift cover overhaul. This winter I'm goin' to tear into the lift and put in lift cylinder rings, etc.
For now, I'm just going to enjoy her a while.
Got an old Harley over in the corner that needs some TLC and riding.This is a great forum!
Thanks again!
Bill
