L185DT Sticking Brakes

Rosher18

Member

Equipment
L185DT (1977)
Aug 2, 2016
113
0
16
34
Salem, Oregon
So I'm new to the forum, and am excited to post my first service, repair & maintenence thread. The first of very many to come, I'm sure!

When we step on the brakes, the pedal moves about an inch to take the slop out of the linkages, then you have to press down pretty hard to get the linkage to pull the brake cam, at which point the tractor will stop pretty nicely.

When my wife and I nearly took out 2 of our green fence panels, I realized I needed to get to work fixing the problem. I sprayed most of the linkages and pedal pivots down with an orange degreaser and then pressure washed years of greasy dirt out of the area. After greasing the zerks until fresh grease came out around the spring clips at the ends of the pivots, I tested the system.

The pedals moved smoothly for the first inch, but were just as bound up as before, so it has to be in the final drive assembly.

I pulled up the condensed service manual I found online (I think here) but I'm not exactly comfortable taking the entire backside of the tractor apart to clean the brake cams. So my question is, so has run into a similar problem with the cam-and-ball wet brake disc system binding up, and how did you fix it?

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Daren Todd

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
Massey Ferguson 1825E, Kubota Z121S, Box blade, Rotary Cutter
May 18, 2014
10,199
6,707
113
Vilonia, Arkansas
Sent you a personal message with a link to the work shop manual. (Upper right corner under your name) should help considerably. :)
 

Daren Todd

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
Massey Ferguson 1825E, Kubota Z121S, Box blade, Rotary Cutter
May 18, 2014
10,199
6,707
113
Vilonia, Arkansas
Could you please send me the link to this service manual also? I'm having this exact same issue on my L185
I actually don't have access to that link anymore. Sorry :(

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In Utopia

Active member

Equipment
L175 FEL
Apr 21, 2013
617
123
43
Utopia,Tx/Pasadena,TX
Your problem sounds similar to the problem I had with my L175. Don't know if they have the same design or not.
The cure was to take the cover off the brake assembly. I found the pin that goes through the cover was seized up because the "0" ring that seals the shaft had failed. Cleaned everything up, installed a new ring and all was good.
 
Last edited:

vic gerbasi

Member

Equipment
M110 L3300
Feb 19, 2016
232
6
18
dugald mb canada
i dont believe that the brakes are designed to stop a tractor many guys use the pedals to assist in steering if you want to stop a tractor take it out of gear-- told to me by a wise old and still alive farmer[B[/B]
 

Mikew22

New member

Equipment
L185
Oct 11, 2019
22
3
3
44
El Dorado Arkansas
Got my sticky brakes fixed. I was working around my shop all day yesterday so I started yesterday morning putting a little kroil penitrating oil on the pedal shaft on each side of the tractor and worked the pedals back and forth by hand about every 45 min. By yesterday afternoon both breaks work flawlessly. I've owned this tractor for 10 years and the brakes have been sticky since I first bought it. Wish I had done this years ago. Thanks for the help guys