New brakes on my 550 are locked up.. need some advise.

[Jpvano28]

Hey all, I installed new brake pads on my 550 yesterday, The old ones were pretty shot, They looked like paper plates lol, afterwards, I went to move it and it wouldn't budge.. I loosened the 3 big bolts on the housing and it still would not roll, forward, backwards, nothing. Did I miss a step? what gives? Thank you, Joey

 

[sonnythomas]

Hey all, I installed new brake pads on my 550 yesterday, The old ones were pretty shot, They looked like paper plates lol, afterwards, I went to move it and it wouldn't budge.. I loosened the 3 big bolts on the housing and it still would not roll, forward, backwards, nothing. Did I miss a step? what gives? Thank you, Joey

Pretty simple installation - brake pad, expanding discs, brake pad. Brakes adjusted too tight? Loosen jam nut, turn brake nut clockwise - tighten jam nut.
adjusted properly each pedal should have 2 1/2" of free travel.

For whatever reason, on my Oliver, the right brake would hang up (lock up forward and backwards), so I adjusted so each pedal has 3" of free travel. Still plenty of brakes - both wheels.

 

[Jpvano28]

Hey Sonny, thank you, I figured it out .. the person i bought the tractor from did a lot of Rube Goldberg things to it over the years I guess to save money. So what appears to have happened was, instead of replacing the pads, at some point in the past, they, for what ever reason, built up the actuators by welding a plates to them. So, the new pads had no room at all when I installed them. Of course no way to tell until i put them back on, fun, fun. I took them back off and dismantled the actuators, then grinded down the plates to the actuators original it's depth, and low and behold it works perfectly now. Crazy way to save money lol ..

 

[gary66]

Hey Sonny, thank you, I figured it out .. the person i bought the tractor from did a lot of Rube Goldberg things to it over the years I guess to save money. So what appears to have happened was, instead of replacing the pads, at some point in the past, they, for what ever reason, built up the actuators by welding a plates to them. So, the new pads had no room at all when I installed them. Of course no way to tell until i put them back on, fun, fun. I took them back off and dismantled the actuators, then grinded down the plates to the actuators original it's depth, and low and behold it works perfectly now. Crazy way to save money lol ..

with old tractors and the make it work spirit of old farmers because I don't have money to waste I always start at, I wonder what they did. Pretty clever fix. Even though I'm not an old farmer I do have that spirit... comes with no money to waste.

 

[sonnythomas]

with old tractors and the make it work spirit of old farmers because I don't have money to waste I always start at, I wonder what they did. Pretty clever fix. Even though I'm not an old farmer I do have that spirit... comes with no money to waste.

I grew up on a farm. Baling wire, a pair of pliers and a cresent wrench always on any of the tractors. Okay, jury rig until new can be had. But then restoring old tractors is different story. My 1964 Oliver 1650, first year they made. So far I've dropped close $800 in mine and still adding.

 

[rrlund]

There was a period after White collapsed that we figured these tractors were done for. There weren't all of the aftermarket parts that there are today. Some of us just figured we'd weld and cobble them to keep them functional until they got to where we couldn't make them go anymore. I know when I was restoring one of them, I said I'd sure like to get my hands on the guy who did some of this stuff because he sure wasn't thinking about the one who had to undo this mess.

 

[Jpvano28]

There was a period after White collapsed that we figured these tractors were done for. There weren't all of the aftermarket parts that there are today. Some of us just figured we'd weld and cobble them to keep them functional until they got to where we couldn't make them go anymore. I know when I was restoring one of them, I said I'd sure like to get my hands on the guy who did some of this stuff because he sure wasn't thinking about the one who had to undo this mess.

Yeah, the guy I bought mine from is long gone, it was just sitting in a field a couple of farms over from me, I spotted it buried in the weeds one morning on my walk. I kept going back every few days until I finally saw someone there. Of course they had no idea whom it belonged to. So, I gave them my number and said if you do find out please have them call me. About 2 months went by and the phone rings, it's the son of the original owner, He tells me, it hasn't run for years and if I want it, he'll take 2200$ for it, but he said he would get it running and drive it over. Long story short, he did just that and now I'm restoring it back to it's old glory. Nothing like good old American made products from back then, they are literally indestructible. The workmanship that went into these things was amazing. It's a 65 year old tractor that still performs like it just pulled off the assembly line. Truly incredible.

 

[TractorDad3]

Yeah, the guy I bought mine from is long gone, it was just sitting in a field a couple of farms over from me, I spotted it buried in the weeds one morning on my walk. I kept going back every few days until I finally saw someone there. Of course they had no idea whom it belonged to. So, I gave them my number and said if you do find out please have them call me. About 2 months went by and the phone rings, it's the son of the original owner, He tells me, it hasn't run for years and if I want it, he'll take 2200$ for it, but he said he would get it running and drive it over. Long story short, he did just that and now I'm restoring it back to it's old glory. Nothing like good old American made products from back then, they are literally indestructible. The workmanship that went into these things was amazing. It's a 65 year old tractor that still performs like it just pulled off the assembly line. Truly incredible.

Especially an Oliver 550!
I grew up on an 8N and I didn’t learn about these until 5 years ago. I am so impressed with its capabilities and how smooth it runs. Sunk some money into it for sure but it is so useful and an absolute joy to operate.
Cheers on finding one so close to home!

 

[Jpvano28]

Especially an Oliver 550!
I grew up on an 8N and I didn’t learn about these until 5 years ago. I am so impressed with its capabilities and how smooth it runs. Sunk some money into it for sure but it is so useful and an absolute joy to operate.
Cheers on finding one so close to home!

Thank you .. Yeah It's a pretty cool tractor, simple to operate and repair.. I'm sinking way to much in to it myself ..lol .. but when its finished, it should go another 65 years...