[AT] Ramble: I broke a MF 255 into 2 pieces

[CBear81438 at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/8/2005 2:12:48 AM Central Standard Time,  
drupert at premier1.net writes:

My SIL  has a MF 245 w/o Multi-power.  I think it is a mid to late 70's  model
which, for a tractor, is almost like brand new to me.  Anyway I  was
surprised when I first drove it a couple of months ago to learn that  its'
emergency brake system appeared to be no better than that of the  1940/1950's
tractors that I have.  If the emergency brake on the 255  is similar - and it
has Multi-power - that sounds to me like an accident  waiting to happen.



They are the same, and as in the 70's when I worked on them,almost  worthless 
.  They had drum brakes, the brake shoes would wear into the  pads on the 
backing plate and then it would take extra power to move the shoe  out to the 
drum.   We ground the backing plates smooth to eliminate  this grouve.  We tried 
metallic linings and it helped.   One time  we had a set of Bendis 
cerametallix linings installed and that helped a  lot.  Turning the drum with a coarse 
feed to leave a rough finish also  helped.  
 
Sometimes I wonder why I liked MF tractors so much.....
 
Cecil in OKla