Replacing the brake cable in a AMT 626

[lamboom]

Has anyone ever removed a brake cable from the caliper? .. successfully? ... :-)

Regards, Michael

[glennj3]

I have removed and re connected the parking brake cable. I need to check the caliper, don't think I have any shoe left!

[brettyrae]

I HAVE, and just recently, too!:Kaffee:

[Mr. Moose]

I removed and fixed up the parking brake cable, what a pain the neck.
I also put new pads in the rear brakes and that really was a pain in the neck and I never got the one right so it dragged awhile, got real hot and now doesn't work anymore. I keep meaning to pull it off and apart to see if I can get it fixed but it's such a pain. To get he cable itself I'm pretty sure I had to remove the caliper and take the side off it, not one hundred percent as it was awhile ago.

[philwarner]

I removed and fixed up the parking brake cable, what a pain the neck.
I also put new pads in the rear brakes and that really was a pain in the neck and I never got the one right so it dragged awhile, got real hot and now doesn't work anymore. I keep meaning to pull it off and apart to see if I can get it fixed but it's such a pain. To get he cable itself I'm pretty sure I had to remove the caliper and take the side off it, not one hundred percent as it was awhile ago.

My AMT 600 has the early brake calipers and you do have to remove the side of these calipers to remove the cable end which is some special odd shaped thing that you have to wiggle around and hook into the caliper with great difficulty. When I bought my AMT from a neighbor it had no brakes at all because the neighbor apparently thought he should lube the calipers along with the chain and the pads were loaded with chain lube. It took me many hours to clean them off with brake cleaner and then they would not automatically adjust as the owner's hand book said they should. I finally took one caliper to the local JD dealer to ask how the cable was supposed to attach since it would not self adjust and I thought I might have it in wrong. The service man said he could not work on it unless I brought in the whole unit so I loaded it on a trailer and took it in and $90 later they said they didn't know how to fix it and had adjusted the calipers with the "adjusting screw" so they both dragged heavily and said that was the best they could do. Eventually I got them to work fairly well but had to keep adjusting the "adjustment screw" to lock up and then back off until the rotors turned free in order to keep the brake pads close enough to work but not drag. A different dealer, the one who sold the unit originally, said the screw was only used to back the pads off for changing them and was not used for adjustment, which was supposed to be automatic, and that final adjustment after a pad change was to be done at the cable end at the brake lever. They also said my brake calipers had been superseded and if anything needed repair I would have to buy new calipers and cables because the old calipers were no longer available and the cables were not interchangeable. The replacement cost was almost what I had paid for the AMT so I learned to live with the weak brakes and the frequent adjustment needed. Then one cable broke off at the lever end so I've had to live with brakes on one side only, which can make things interesting on a hill with lots of slippery leaves. Ever have your AMT do a 180?

There is a fellow who makes and markets a hydraulic conversion for AMTs which uses a hydraulic motorcycle master cylinder on the handle bar and new calipers with adapter plates that bolt up to the old caliper mounts. It is a little pricey but no more than replacing the original sucky parts with new JD parts for a new sucky system. I think you can find him on eBay; I am still considering it myself.