installing bevel gear, steering clutchs D-4

If you want better friction just sand blast the outer surface of the drums. That will not make them smaller in diameter and will give you max friction.
Be sure to get the bevel gear back on the side it came out of.
Later Bob

I got rubber seals from Cat when I installed the crossshaft. seal better than the cork ones.

sidehill6600 - Any work done to roughen up drum surfaces will soon see them rapidly get shiny again. The braided semi-metallic linings do give better grip, but they are more abrasive on the drums.

If the current linings have good lining material thickness (more than 60% of new) .. and are not oil/grease impregnated .. and they have been performing O.K., then stick with them. It's nice to have all new components when compartments are being re-assembled, but it's your call on how much you spend, and how much work you plan on doing.

As a former contractor, I would never hesitate to install new linings of superior quality .. because my tractors worked hard, and the payoff returned quickly. However, for a low-hour-farm-use, or hobby tractor, those linings will likely do you just fine for years to come.

One of the important things to practise amongst your operating skills, is to ensure that you never rest feet on brake pedals, under any circumstances, and use the brakes sparingly.
Constant, repeated, and unnecessarily heavy use of brakes is a guaranteed way of ensuring you'll be back into those brakes again, very soon.

It wasn't long after I relinded my brakes that the right brake band was quickly out of adjustment and about worn out. What had happened a couple of times is that my dog on the parking brake accidentally got engaged while I was using my D4 7U. With my new right brake band about all used up, I dissconnected my parking brake so that wouldn't happen again. When I want a parking brake now, I just drop the blade into the dirt. Am I the only one that has had their parking brake about ruin their right brake band by being accidentally enganged? I use stock Cat brake lining from Caterpillar and they work fine. When I use my winch, with both brake pedals applied, the locked up tracks can be skidded across the ground without using much brake pedal pressure at all. Excellent brakes!

Had that problem too. But it was a case of 2 operators, I applied the brake and the other guy never did, so he never thought to take it off and never noticed it was on????? until I noticed the smoke coming out of the compartment and stopped him to check.

Brake drums are supposed to be smooth. I would think turning them was only for trueing up an out of round or scored drum.

Sidehill, I put new bearings and cork seals in the mighty D4 several years ago and still no leaks or problems. Simply lay the cork down first and set the bevel gear assembly in place. Then wrap the cork around the bearing cage and trim the excess off. Use the Cat gasket cement to hold the cork in place because it wants to slip out when you tighten the cover down. Good luck.

thanks for all the help...got them put in this afternoon...

Congratulations, did you take any pics along the way?