How do I replace the brake pads on my 17 HP craftsmen riding lawn tractor? They are soaked with oil and the Sears repairman said it would be easier to replace the pads than to replace the oil seal that is leaking in the real axle assembly.

Jim Seymour, July 2004

The brakes on a craftman lawn tractor often work like this:
normally the back wheels are on an axle that go through a transmission (the transaxle) manufactured by Peerless.

There is a cable that actuates the brakes, that also releases pressure from the drive belt, and this actuation is actually a device that applies pressure to the brake that is mounted on the side of the transaxle, and thus the brakes on the back wheels apply.

If you carefully disassemble this device, which is usually a rotating bracket connected to the cable, you will see two dowel pins. The dowel pins are what get "pushed" in so the "disk", now clearly visible, gets trapped between two small brake "pads". Disassembling the brake apparatus further will access the pads. Where to get them? I haven't got that far yet.

But, be sure to remember how you disassemble the brake and as you disassemble, pay attention to the close tolerance between the actuating device brake's tightness versus the ability of the disk to freely spin when the brakes are NOT applied.

I learned the above thru the college of hard knocks because I took off the transaxle to see what made it tick.

David Conrad, Minnesota, September 2004