8N Brake Upgrade?

Does anybody make a kit or anything to upgrade the brakes on the 8N? I have plenty of material left on the pads but you cant even stop it from rolling on a small hill. Any ideas?

No upgrades that I know of.
None of the Fords with the dry outboard drums were known for more than barely adequate brakes. They were lousy all the way into the 1980s.
You have to get into the 65 and newer 50+ HP Fords with the wet, inboard, disc brakes before they were good.

Funny how I always hear that said, yet our naa and our 661 will both lock up the wheels no problem, and the naa has the large pie weights too!Are you sure they are adjusted right?

(quoted from post at 02:38:02 04/25/16) ...Fords with the dry outboard drums...

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Dry outboard drums? You obviously haven't seen my 2N

I think they're talking original intent, not actual operation.

(quoted from post at 21:56:26 04/24/16) Does anybody make a kit or anything to upgrade the brakes on the 8N? I have plenty of material left on the pads but you cant even stop it from rolling on a small hill. Any ideas?

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Both our 9n and 8n have pretty shabby brakes. When first got our 9n we noticed that it didn't have much braking at all and noticed quite bit of oil that had been leaking out around the rear drums which meant a long and labor intensive job of pulling the trumpets and axles to get to the rear seals to replace them as well as adding a sure-sear to further prevent oil leaking but much to our surprise even after cleaning out the oil, replacing the brake shoes, and tightening the brakes this still didn't give the braking that a tractor of this size needs and especially when you're going down even a small slope.

Our 8n (which is MUCH EASIER getting to the brake internals than a 9n) was looking pretty good inside and so the only thing we could do trying to help give it some better braking was to take coarse sand paper like 60 grit or even rougher and scratch up the brake shoes and drums instead of having a smooth surface. No doubt that this isn't a permanent fix and will have to come back periodically to rough up the brake shoes but we did notice a difference with the tractor coming to a stop.

After I got done with my brake job on my 8N, I tried them out on a gravel town road with a small hill. When I pushed down on both pedals, both rear wheels locked up and I came to a quick stop. Then I tried the same the same thing again on a town road that was paved. I have no oil leakage thru those rear end seals onto the linings. The seals, shoes, drums, etc. came from Dennis Carpenter and the local NH Dealer. At the time I was not aware of YT's parts availability. Oil level in the rear end is kept to the lowest bolt hole on the right inspection plate.

Agreed. if the pads have meet left , and the drums are within spec, and all is dry, and they are adjusted correctly.. there is no reason you can't lock a wheel.

I steer with the brakes on my 950 when mowing if I need to make a tight turn.. it will lock up loaded 14.9-28's and spin around on that tire.

Yeah I have always wondered where the brake complaints come from, only ones underbraked that I ever operated had very heavy loaders and backhoes on them, so I don't fault the tractor at all for that kind of loading. Even towing heavy wagons the naa always had plenty of stopping power. And the 661 we bought is even better in that aspect.

(quoted from post at 06:04:13 04/25/16) Yeah I have always wondered where the brake complaints come from, only ones underbraked that I ever operated had very heavy loaders and backhoes on them, so I don't fault the tractor at all for that kind of loading. Even towing heavy wagons the naa always had plenty of stopping power. And the 661 we bought is even better in that aspect.

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Where the complaints come from are that other tractors of the same era had better brakes to start with. A good example would be the Farmall H that came out in 1939 and had band brakes that functioned very well, much better that the 9N brakes worked with both tractors being new. That being said the brakes on both of my 8N's work well and with skid the tires or allows me to steer the them with just the brakes. The key IMO is dry brakes. If the rear seals leak even a little they are done. May as well go and buy new brakes as I've never been real happy with trying to clean up oil contaminated brakes. They never seem to work as well.

Rick

As you know I have messed around with several of those mid 1970s school tractors that were donated to votechs, etc. They are new, zero hour machines. My 3000 is a school tractor and the brakes are adequate but I wouldn't call them good. I've had the drums off of it a couple of times and they are spanking inside. No dust, no rust, no nothing. Maybe the shoes haven't seated yet. Dunno.
On the 3 cylinder Fords the brake return springs are external. They hook the pedal to a bracket on the bottom of the right step plate.
On a 4000 with wet internal brakes just the weight of the pedal hanging down is enough to apply significant braking action. Enough that if the return springs are not connected you can not tow the tractor. Thus the rope tieing the pedals up in the photo. I'm picking these numbers out of thin air here but on dry drum brakes it takes 50 lbs of force per pedal to skid a tire. On the wet brakes it takes about 15 lbs.
It is a huge difference. I never gave much thought to the brakes on the Ns, Hundreds and Thousands I owned. Just adjusted them and used them. When I finally drove a 4000 with wet brakes I was amazed at how much better they are and it convinced me that dry brakes Are adequate. But just...

While it is debatable, that the total as-designed braking surface is up to the task of the tractors weight and momentum....
If stomping on the brake pedal doesn't lock up that wheel...any tractor.....your brakes have problems and need work...re-do them.

I have several Ford tractors and if the brake shoes and drums are dry, I can lock the wheels on all of them. That is 9n 2n 8ns and my 1965 2000. Once the shoes have become oil soaked, that is a different story.

I've also wondered about the bad-brakes comments, but, admittedly, I have fairly level land so not a major braking challenge. I have a 5-foot brush-hog mower on one of my 8Ns, and one rear axle seal leaked horribly. The brake linings were soaked. With nothing to lose after replacing the seals, I burned off the oil with a propane torch, repeated the heat a few times, then sprayed the heck out of them multiple times with brake cleaner. I didn't know what to expect, but I've found after several years I can still skid the tires on my gravel driveway even with the mower attached. Maybe I was just lucky.

When Edmund nnalert took 3 TE-20 Fergusons to the South pole and had the usual brake problems, they found it useful to blow some powdered rosin into the brakes every day.

I keep meaning to try it, but have not yet gotten around to it.

You ain't going to get them much better. Experience speaking here.