cleaning clutch plates

[townlineterry]

Clutch plates on my 1010 are rusted, has anyone tried cleaning them in a parts tumbler? This would have a mild soap solution. Also what is the best method to clean the fiber plates?


Terry

[mailtrain]

Hi Terry;

Go to the top of the message forum index page and type in steering clutch cleaning and you will find the answers you need. Dean

[Lavoy]

If your fiber discs are oil soaked, they can not be cleaned. You may get the surface clean, but you will never get the embedded oil out of the discs. As soon as they get hot when working, they will bleed the oil back to the surface again.
The steel plates can be cleaned in almost anything. A $3 can of brake cleaner will clean them up if covered in oil.
Lavoy

[jdemaris]

If your fiber discs are oil soaked, they can not be cleaned. You may get the surface clean, but you will never get the embedded oil out of the discs. Lavoy

I'm not recommending this since new clutch fibers are relatively inexpensive - but I have seen many oil-soaked fibers dried out and used sucessfully when not too worn. Same goes for winch brake-bands which are NOT cheap.

I've seen them baked in ovens, heated with torches, etc. Worked fine.
In fact - at one time we had a bunch of brand-new Deere winchs that had oil leak problems. After replacing many $200 brake-bands under warranty, Deere Co. suggested we try oven baking and reusing - which we did.

I'll also add that some Deere crawlers used bronze-metallic steering-clutch disks as a HD option instead of fiber and they were less prone to getting soaked with oil and also less prone to get stuck. Around the same time that Deere offered them as an option only - Allis Chalmers made them standard equipment on their smaller H/HD crawlers.

[townlineterry]

Oil is not the problem with these clutch plates, it is rust. Today I cleaned the fiber plates with a buffing wheel and that worked pretty good. My concern with the steel plates and a parts tumbler was that it might leave a residue since it uses soap and some oil but they cleaned up very well.. Tomorrow I will put them through another cleaning, acid and the tumbler again couple might need replaced because of pitting but over all seems to be working well.

I will need a track tensioner, one is rusted so bad I can not get it to move, if anybody has one for sale send me a pm.

Terry

[jdemaris]

Oil is not the problem with these clutch plates, it is rust. Today I cleaned the fiber plates with a buffing wheel and that worked pretty good. My concern with the steel plates and a parts tumbler was that it might leave a residue since it uses soap and some oil but they cleaned up very well.. Tomorrow I will put them through another cleaning, acid and the tumbler again couple might need replaced because of pitting but over all seems to be working well.

I will need a track tensioner, one is rusted so bad I can not get it to move, if anybody has one for sale send me a pm.

Terry

The steel plates don't present a problem as long as not overly worn or warped. But . . . the fiber disks soak up moisture, oil, etc. If the plates are rusted, chances are the fibers need a good drying out - or replacement. Otherwise - they might be swelled a bit. Install them that way, and adjust the pressure-plate fingers accordingly -and then use it - they'll shrink a little and adjustment will change.

[Lavoy]

I guess it kind of boils down to this. You know how much work it was to pull the final, do you want to do it again if you end up having problems with used clutch discs?
Lavoy