My 2001 Cat 246 A5SZ04xxx has about 5K hours and the brakes don't hold on hills. I suppose the discs are worn out, maybe springs too. Has anyone here replaced brakes on these? Do you have to disassemble the drive motor? I have a parts manual for this but it doesn't show a breakdown of the drive motor or brakes.
Looks like they load opposite the planetaries. Do the brakes hold with the machine off?
No, they don't hold on hills when engine is off. Looks from the pics that I might be able to loosen the end bolts evenly to release the springs. I wonder if the springs would stay in position while horizontal going back together.
Even better to replace maybe 4 out of the 12 botls with lengths of threaded rod, spacers, and nuts/washers. That way you could remove all the remaining bolts and then slowly retract the cover on the studs until the spring pressure is completely released. Before doing any of that I suggest that you on check parts availability. According to what I see the brake parts (discs/plates/spring) are not available separately, at least not via the Cat parts system anyway. I may be wrong but I think these are Rexroth (A6?) motors. There may be a plate somewhere on the motors with more detail.