D69u brake questions

Can be stripped at any time, especially when it bottoms out.
Not a good sign when the brake pedal pulses. Minor amount might be normal wear but excess means final drive pinion bearings are going out, pinion flange splines are bad or brake drum bolts are loose.

update on the brakes. some how the nut seperated. it basically broke at the threads. the fork is fine and bands look useable. so new nut and back together. thanks

got brakes adjusted today. however i got a question. with correct brake pedal feel and free play should the brake bands still be alittle loose while resting on the brake drum. if so mine are not, them seem to be pulled up pretty tight and thats with the set screw on the bottom still backed off. the bands looked like they had some life left in them but ive been wrong before. what is the thickness spec on a new set of brake bands?

Adjust the support screw to spec. It helps keep the band from sagging into a slight oval so it drags on the top side. If the tractor drives and turns properly, run it!

Tighten the nut (screw toward centerline of tractor) to reduce free travel. Loosen nut toward brake band to increase free travel.

One thing to watch is the condition of the bumpers the levers rest against in the floor of the tractor. If these are crushed you get travel that doesn't translate to the clutch pack instead it just opens up space between the pushrod and the plunger in the booster unit. That slack should be minimal, 1/16" between plunger face and pushrod, though I don't know how you would ever measure it since its up in the front of the booster! I take that to mean that there is some slack there before the booster plunger starts to move and check it by feel.

Conversely you can have sticks etc trapped in front of the levers that prevent them from returning forward all the way and adjusting to the 3" spec at the bottom of the grips will leave you with clutches that do not disengage completely.

Sounds like you will be dozing soon!

Hope you had a good Christmas day too.

My next project involving yellow iron is installing a replacement engine in a D69U we sold to a neighbor a couple years ago. He didn't catch the fuel had diluted the oil and it started knocking before he shut it down. I went and checked the crankshaft for him and it was past turning undersize even with aftermarket bearings 0.050 undersize, so we knew it had to come out. He put it back together to load it and bring it to me and it threw the rod into the side cover before they unloaded. At least it missed the injection pump housing and governor that we may need before this is all over.

As I am sure you have seen if you read this board much, the usual culprit that puts the fuel in the crankcase is the o-ring between the fuel injection pump housing and the fuel filter tower. On older tractors there is a second one on the rear end of the fuel passage on the governor end of the housing.