Looking for manual n parts breakdown for this unit. Anyone know how big of a job it is todo, or any info on doing a brake job for this unit? Thanks
Hi, I use Hal, you can see his ebay shop here , if the book you want isn't there, they will get in in stock for you asap. You can get a basic idea from the parts lookup site here . What year is your machine? If its like the one below then the brakes are inboard and will require a transaxle removal to repair them. What are they doing? Not working much or fading? If they are for later machines, make sure no one has put DOT4 brake fluid in the master as it should only be CASE TCH or HyTRANS, --NO BRAKE FLUID-- if you think it is in this model, pump it through as soon as possible, flush with several litres to be sure. There is some more stuff here on brakes. Good luck!
A friend just did a brake job on one side of his late K. The ears had sheared off the piston. Never had one apart myself, but he sent a few pictures. He said the transaxle does not have to come out, just drop it down a bit as I recall. He also mentioned about testing each master cylinder first to make sure it held pressure, and referred to a valve(?). Likely the service manual would have some info on that. Maybe these pictures will help. Phil
Hi Phil, Those are great images, hope I don't have to do that one myself! Are the 'ears' the stops on the piston shown in the middle image, must take some pretty big brake hits to break them off?
I'm guessing they are but not sure. My friend said the dealer told him that it would take a sudden shock to do that like slidding on ice and then hitting pavement. A rare breakage apparently. Phil
Kid: The brakes on this unit are definitely a transaxle out job. Hopefully it's just bad orings on you piston. Thsi is fairly common when someone puts brake fluid in instead of TCH. That said the ears breaking off the Super K series was a serious problem. This was such a common problem on the early models that there was a bulletin issued for immediate replacement. The piston ears were improved, the actuator plate was updated with thicker ears. The pistons were available in over size indicated by a 2 grooves on the inner bore. Even after the update we had some break ears off. The ears broke off is bad enough but if the piston spun in the bore you had to have them machined out. That mean a totally stripped transaxle. There were so many updated to these units, all you have to do is look at the online parts catalogue to see that A list of updated parts is The Diff lock yoke and finger updated Mismatched axle bearing caused early failure eg Timken cups with Koyo cones The washers behind the side gears and spider gears in the diff were breaking up.( Mandatory Update) The bolts in the diff were replaced. (Mandatory update) The bolt on the end of the pinion was changed to one with a hole drilled in the end to lube the 4WD bearing. ( Update if bearing fails) Shields on planetary gears cracking and causing contamination The lube welch plug with the orifice in the valve would break loose and cause lube pressure to drop and it would completely ruin the pinion shaft.(Mandatory Update) The parking brake housing would crack around the anchor pins. The first shift rods had a nylon bushing that would break apart and the shift rod would fall off. The transaxle mounting bolts were sheering off and the transaxle would shift and break the drive shaft. (Mandatory update.)
A good write-up gggraham. I always save your text. Maybe some day I will have to work on one of these transaxles. Sounds like my friend got the wrong info on his problem. I just bought an SK, fortunately everything works good. Phil
Phil, Your friend will have (or did have) quite a challenge to get that axle housing back on with it hanging down like that - have to hold the brake disc & backing plate in place somehow... they will just want to keep falling out. I agree with gggraham about pulling transaxle out for that job - for about another 1 hour work your friend could have transaxle out & working in comfort with it on a bench.
Not sure how he did it, but his e-mail said that he didn't have to remove the transaxle, like the service manual said. I have an early 580K transaxle to take apart this winter. It has a terrible whine inside, we are afraid to drive it more than a short distance around the yard. We keep taking parts off the machine, so I have to do something soon. Phil
Phil: WE had so many SK transaxles out I could do them with my eyes closed. I have all the set up specs and all the tricks of the trade too. Some of the set up instructions for the diff and the brake pins would drive you crazy. After you do 10 or 15 you find all the short cuts and tricks.
Alrman has it right. We tried to do an axle in place....makes no sense. Take the trans axle right out and you'll save time assembling. Plus while it is out you can check for the other problems. Back cover comes off real easy to look inside and I have yet to see a machine that didn't have a leak around the park brake housing. That's a 1/2 job to clean and reseal with transaxle out, about an 1 1/2 job in place and you have to tip machine way back and drain a bit of fluid so it doesn't contaminate the 515 loctite sealant.
gggraham, Our manual has me confused on brake pin setup. It makes it look like they should be .079 past the housing but all of our pins look to be about that thickness to the inside. Which way is correct? Any tips would be appreciated
Welcome to HEF @Swamp86 @gggraham is a not as regular a visitor here as he used to be, maybe I can help. Those pins are adjustable. Turn them around so the plunger is inside the mounting hole & tap them with a hammer to move the plunger through the circlips. Then withdraw them, refit & recheck the adjustment. Set them as per the service manual states. They will self adjust when the axle housing is refitted. **TIP - a couple of guide bolts are very useful when refitting the axle housings I hope you realise one of the axle retraining bolts is shorter than all the others & it should go back in the same hole that it came from.
Thanks a lot. Wasn't sure if they'd self adjust or not