1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 5 of 5

The brake lining material finally came in, so it's time to refurbish the one brake band that had lost most of its lining. The brake "drum" in the final drive had been wearing quite a bit on the metal brake band.

Below is a photo of the lining material and a few rivets I got from McMaster-Carr. The hollow-end rivets (bag of 100!) are 9/64" diameter x .281" long with .313 head, and the lining is 3/16" think x 1-3/4" wide x 36" long. I got enough to do both bands if I needed to.

The rivets and lining cost $30 but I wasn't able to get a shipping cost from McMaster. Apparently that is their modus operandi. They fill the order, then charge whatever the shipping fee is, which in my case was $20. That seemed outrageous in this day and age where many places have fixed nominal shipping or even free shipping, and the items took a week to arrive, which was just the icing on the cake. Next time I'll think long and hard before placing a McMaster-Carr order. Anyway, on to the action.

I clamped the lining into the band, then cut it to length.

I drilled 9/64" holes through the lining, then used a 5/16" Forstner bit to countersink the holes a little more than half way through the lining to allow for the rivet heads to sit below the friction surface.

I made a thimble on the lathe for under the brass rivet heads, to support the rivet while I peened over the top end of the rivet.

I had to get a little creative with a support to whack against. I had an old sledge hammer head that I clamped in the vise with a large portion of it hanging out the side so the brake band could slip over it. I found that I had to also support the outer end of the sledge, as it was twisting in the vise when I tried peening over the first rivet.

I made a punch that fit the hollow ends of the rivets.

Here is the finished product.

And here is the final drive with the brake band installed.

Things are coming together. I painted the wheel rims silver.

And here is the project all wrapped up. The transmission is still a bit noisy but it's not from bearings being worn out. I figure the gears are making the noise, as they were quite pitted also. I still need to paint the grill green and the front wheels yellow, but will leave the hub caps green.

Here we are a week after I got the tractor back together (photo below) and the tractor parts are now painted the correct colors. All again is right with the world.