76 case 580c. Was reading another tread about climbing steep grades. My driveway is around 1000 feet, uphill the whole way. The bottom is concrete at 24% grade for about 250 feet. Then its dirt the rest of the way at about 14%. And it has no brakes! I been messing with the brakes where its at now. Right master fluid full, left dry and rusty inside. The right side housing looks wet, so probably oil soaked. The right brake pedal (center) applies pressure but nothing on the housing is moving. Thinking slave is froze. Left housing is dry. I was trying to crack bleeder and or brake line free but need flare wrenches and called it quits for the day. Id hoped to drive it home but obviously, not without brakes. And so I found a guy to haul it home, I have lots of tools here and it would be a lot easier working on it here. But now I'm concerned trying to get it up here without any brakes. Thoughts??
Anybody?
If you're going uphill, have at it, just keep it in a low enough gear to make it up said hill and don't stall it. And don't forget that big yellow emergency brake on the front.
Just to remind anyone, 25% on concrete is fairly steep. I don't think the front bucket will hold it back much if it starts rolling backwards.
I live on a mt. and had a 580C 2wd I wouldn't hesitate to drive it up in first gear. If your nervous keep your stabilizers low so you can use them in an emergency.
Not so much nervous as just don't need anymore crap going the wrong way lol. Got enough problems as it is. And just in the last couple hours ive thought about using the stabilizers. At the top of the concrete its really narrow, there's a big tree (30 inch red oak) that was next to the cement. It went down across the drive, so theres a big stump rootball on the left, rest of trunk on the right. Not going through there with the stabs down. I never thought of it much until last night, and I really didn't think it was any big deal, until I really started thinking. I know very little about this machine except that it has absolutely zero brakes. Even the parking brake was removed, gone. If it quits I'll have a runaway. I don't have any reason to believe it will quit, except old murpheys law. And we all know that guy. Everything is yelling to fix the brakes first.
Yes, fix the brakes but get it up the hill to work on it. You could always back up it, this one time and be ready with the front bucket.
I'm going to fix it where its sitting. Already ordered the parts.
Got the brake housings off. Brakes are barely worn, but everything's frozen. Been like that a long time. Might go back in the morning to pull the masters. The clutch switch on the floor is stuck. Need to replace it. But was looking underneath to see what it connects to. If I could test it, bypass it. No lights or flashers either. Grrrr
Oh, and the right side leaked oil, looks like the lock shaft. Hopefully can pick it out
I know this thread is old but I'll reply anyway since it sounds like my place. My Case 580C has no brakes and my 1000' driveway is also steep in places, the elevation change is 100' higher where the house is compared to the street(I wanted the view when I built the house). When I go down the driveway I can use 1st gear and it works out. Once I tried going down in 2nd gear and it was a wild ride, lucky the big yellow emergency brake in the front stopped me when I crashed into a pile of rocks and logs. I need to fix my brakes.