John Deere AMT 600 Brake Conversion

[crokett™]

Just for some background, the AMT 600 was the Gator before the Gator was the Gator.  4 wheels in back, tricycle wheel up front.  Mine is about 30 years old.   The brakes are disc but are operated with a cable.  This makes them very stiff, even for me.  I found some stuff online about replacing the existing brakes with ATV hydraulic brakes but no real details on how it was done.  I got a used set and the master cylinder off Ebay.   I'm going to do the conversion this weekend.  I had a friend who wrenches on motorcycles and some on ATVs come over to look things over. We think we can mount the new calipers to the existing bracket, if not I will have to fab up a new plate.    The easy part will be installing the new brake lines.  I'll try and get some pictures as I go.

[pprobus]

Just for some background, the AMT 600 was the Gator before the Gator was the Gator.  4 wheels in back, tricycle wheel up front.  Mine is about 30 years old.   The brakes are disc but are operated with a cable.  This makes them very stiff, even for me.  I found some stuff online about replacing the existing brakes with ATV hydraulic brakes but no real details on how it was done.  I got a used set and the master cylinder off Ebay.   I'm going to do the conversion this weekend.  I had a friend who wrenches on motorcycles and some on ATVs come over to look things over. We think we can mount the new calipers to the existing bracket, if not I will have to fab up a new plate.    The easy part will be installing the new brake lines.  I'll try and get some pictures as I go.

I would look at the ATV/UTV forum on mytractorforum.com  to see if anyone has already done this.  That would also be the better place to ask, IMHO.

http://www.mytractorforum.com/index.php

Paul

[crokett™]

I had looked there already, hadn't seen anything. The best I could find is a couple youtube videos but no details. I don't need help per se, it's just a matter of mounting the calipers and master cylinder and then connecting the brake lines. This is going to be a build-along thread as it were. I'll test it all really well before I remove the factory brakes completely.

[crokett™]

After some thinking, measuring, marking, more thinking, templating, checking and rechecking the template and finally cutting steel I produced these.  This is before some grinding things a little more smooth and getting rid of the rust and painting them.

[attachment=10749]

Obviously a machinist I'm not.  It might have gone better with a metal cutting blade on my bandsaw but it didn't occur to me to get one until after I'd done most of the cutting with a jigsaw. 
  I'm also not sure my bandsaw spins slowly enough to cut 1/4" steel.   The larger holes attach to the caliper.  The smaller holes attach to the frame on the AMT.   These came out better than I thought.  One of the holes that attaches to the frame was off just enough that the bolt wouldn't go in. That's a danger of using wood as a template.   There are 2 more holes in the frame I can use so I just marked for one of those and drilled and tapped a new hole.    The calipers are assembled on the new brackets and I will mount them and hook the brake line up tomorrow.