ford 8n

recently wile raking on a moderate down hill slope my newly aquired 8n, through itself out of gear, creating a very dangerous situation for my 16yr. old son operating it. gravity took over , the brakes seemed to do nothing but help with the acceleration. i know this because it happened to me just a few days prior. what caused this and is this common?

(quoted from post at 17:28:10 07/26/12) recently wile raking on a moderate down hill slope my newly aquired 8n, through itself out of gear, creating a very dangerous situation for my 16yr. old son operating it. gravity took over , the brakes seemed to do nothing but help with the acceleration. i know this because it happened to me just a few days prior. what caused this and is this common?

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If you would look/post over on the 2/9/8n forum, they will tell you how to adjust them. You need to get the FO manual as it does have pictures and shows how to fix the brakes. If the shoes are okay with plenty of material left, then you need to adjust like you would on an odler car with drum brakes. Stick a screwdriver in the slot on the back of the drum and turn the little wheel adjuster to tighten up/loosen the shoes. I have a '52 8N and had to adjust the brakes a while back and it works pretty good and will stop on a hill. Tell your son the put it into a lower gear and go slower down the hill and let the engine brake the speed, it will help a lot. The N's are good tractors for mowing or general use and I like mine, they are not a piece of **** as described above. Nothing compared to modern tractors, but they will git 'er done as they say on the N forum. Also, please make sure you have an over run couple on the back if bush hogging. That keeps the hog from continuing to push you forward even when you push the clutch in to disengage...if that is what happened to you. These things will kill your son... please tell him to be careful, I had a friend that had one arm twisted off and the other mangled by the pto on a tractor he was using.

I forgot to add if you will go to the forum list and scroll down a bit, you will see the 2/9/8N forum just for these machines.

(quoted from post at 01:28:10 07/27/12) recently wile raking on a moderate down hill slope my newly aquired 8n, through itself out of gear, creating a very dangerous situation for my 16yr. old son operating it. gravity took over , the brakes seemed to do nothing but help with the acceleration. i know this because it happened to me just a few days prior. what caused this and is this common?

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These are great machines! Like anything else, it helps to keep things oiled and adjusted. gwstang has good advice

Sounds like you have a neglected machine to need a bit of work done to it. As some one else said better info down in the N series forum. You probably have either a bad bearing or a weak dent spring in the shifter to cause it to jump out of gear plus oil on the brakes and or brakes that have long since seen a better day. That all said even on a good day the brakes on them where at best there to slow a person down and that is about it

(quoted from post at 17:28:10 07/26/12) recently wile raking on a moderate down hill slope my newly aquired 8n, through itself out of gear, creating a very dangerous situation for my 16yr. old son operating it. gravity took over , the brakes seemed to do nothing but help with the acceleration. i know this because it happened to me just a few days prior. what caused this and is this common?

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Ttime to park it until the brakes AND transmission are repaired... You have been lucky twice; don't count on a third time being so good.