I rebuilt the brakes on my 1955 300 utility last year and everything seemed fine until recently. Then one day I went to use the tractor after it had been sitting about 6 weeks without use during some very rainy weather (I'm an infrequent user anyway.) It had been parked with the brakes "on" by means of the pedal lock.When I went to use the brakes, the right wheel locked up at the slightest touch of the pedal. Had to put it in reverse to get it to "unlock". This kept up all afternoon. (I tried to stay off the brakes altogether.) Later, I tried to toll the tractor down a steep hill while "feathering" the pedal. At first it still locked, but after a few tries it seemed I could brake normally. I thought the problem was solved until the next use a few days later after parking with the parking brake off. Locked again at the first touch. So I took the right brake drum off to see what's up. The only thing I found was some rust in pits on the surface of the steel discs. (I have not taken the two steel discs apart -- but when I rebuilt them I had cleaned the ball "ramps" real good, touched them with a film of disc brake grease and installed good balls and new springs.) I have cleaned up the discs but not yet reinstalled. Can that bit of surface rust be what's causing the brake to lock? If so, is there something I can put on the surface of the disc to retard the rust without making the brake useless? Thanks very much for your thoughts. Bob Kirk
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