Galion t500a motor grader brakes

[crzipilot]

Long story short. My father in law "borrowed" a motor grader from an uncle. Grader had no brakes, but he was able to get it up to the top of the mountain and park it next to our house. That was 5 yrs ago. The grader needs to go, needs to be moved. His project of fixing the brakes never came to fruitition. He got it jacked up and removed one wheel, but then got stuck at trying to pull the hub off. Stopped there and hasn't looked at it again.

Well now uncle wants grader back, and I'm stuck trying to get this thing working again. I'm not taking it down the mountain w/o brakes, and can't use the grader to act as a brake, as part of the way is on a paved road, going down.

I found a snippet of a mtc manual that says you make a little tool (6" pipe with nut welded on end) and jack up opposite side wheel, put the pipe on wheel on ground and hit pipe multiple times to break the hub free. Is this how it's done? Just trying to find an easy way to at least see if it's something simple as the wheel cylinders for the brakes or what.........

5 yrs of a great lawn ornament...

 

[Silveroddo]

Got any pictures of the hub? It would cost a few hundred bucks but somene with a lowboy might be well worth the investment on a deal like that.

 

[mitch504]

Got any pictures of the mountain in FL? Is this machine torque converter or direct drive?

 

[crzipilot]

I can get the picture tomorrow. Not sure if hub is correct term. Basically. The wheel is off and he stopped at getting the drum off.

And oh. The mountain is in nc. Just outside of Boone. The other issue is to get up or down the drive there is a narrow 180deg. Switchback. That I'm not sure any tow rig or lowboy. Could maneuver easily

 

[mitch504]

If it is a direct drive you could just put it in low gear and creep down, if it is a torque convertor machine that won't work. It is probably going to end up being a lot of work and a lot of $$$$ getting the brakes working on an old grader. Another idea is to use something like a tandem dump behind it to hold it back.

I think I have a service manual for this machine, I'll try to see if I can get you some relevant info, but I am still betting you'll be around $1000 in parts at least getting brakes working on a grader that has sat up. I would start by putting fluid in it and seeing where it comes out. If you are real lucky, it'll be just one wheel, and you can plug that line, particularly if it has brakes on all 4 back wheels. I can tell you from bitter experience that if you fix one thing, the next will blow out from increased pressure. These old girls aren't like a car, if one hose, rusted steel line, or wheel cylinder blows, you lose ALL brakes. If the brakes are all that is between you and an uncontrolled descent, I wouldn't depend on them unless I worked it a while after I got them fixed.

Good Luck, and BE CAREFUL on the trip down,
Mitch

 

[crzipilot]

Talked to the bro in law. He believes it's a torque convertor, so that idea is out. Might have a lead on a dump and use it as an anchor. I'll be up there tomorrow and get some pictures, and will see if we can't investigate the fluid idea...

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

as a last resort take some old tires and chain them to blade where they would be under blade and then let them down and scrub use to see it alot on old pans and scrapers when roading them

 

[russ28617]

Hello if you still have grader , I would love to talk to you

 

[overworked]

Believe it or not I have seen alot of old graders loose brakes , fill em up, pump like hell and bingo, good for a couple weeks. Getting some of those hubs off is like hitting the lottery, see one guy loosen nut and try to run it till hub came loose, bet it's been fifteen years now and still on there. NEVER relies on going down hill in low gear and no brakes, tires under blade sounds pretty good, if it stalls though you still have no control of blade, make shure you got fuel and new filters. Good luck and be safe.

 

[russ28617]

I live near Boone and if the grader is still available I would be interested , I don't know if you can leave contact info on here or not

 

[Camperguy]

I came across this posting while looking for a source of break cylinder for a T500 I just purchased. The comment about "you make a little tool (6" pipe with nut welded on end) and jack up opposite side wheel, put the pipe on wheel on ground and hit pipe multiple times to break the hub free." is exactly how you get the hub off the tapered shaft. I have done it and it works, wish I had found this post when trying to figure out how to drums. Hope this helps other. Anyone know where to get part numbers or rebuild kits for the break cylinder?

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

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