2606 brake balls

Finally got to pull the right side last night (which also had to have about an inch worth of washers to make them work) and found about new disks and the actuating plates were almost touching. Calipered the balls and they were right on 7/8". They fit the holes about perfect but sat in fairly deep. Without replacing the actuator plate assembly which is probably expensive, I just wondering what anyone thinks about putting in bigger balls? Next time I get down to the parts dept I will try some 1 inchers he said he had in stock. thanks.

So with the 3/4" balls back in and with all the parts laying in the brake housing and with a straight edge along the top, it leaves about .110" of space. A straight edge across the rotor part on the rear end shows it is about flush with bolt surface of the housing.

So I have dropped one housing off at a machine shop to get about .090 to .100" surfaced off of the housing.

I also noticed that without the end plugs in, (mine didn't have endplugs and probably didn't for a long time cause whoever painted it also painted on the outside disk) the outside brake disk can be inspected for wear and its proxmity to the end of the shaft can help estimate wear.

Gordo

I did some measurements. The balls all caliper out at 7/8" so no wear. They fit down in the grooves in the act. disc assy and don't appear wallowed out. I'm not sure if 1" balls will fit but I may go by the dealer and check.

You may be on the right track with having the housing put on a surfacer. You said .075" and I'm thinking about .30" to .40" to take off. Inspection of the rotor plate in the housing and the one on the rear axle case show they are shiny from use and appear to be wore down some. That is probably the problem. I calipered the act. disc assy when in regular position and it came out about 1.225" thick with barely a little gap between the 2 disks. About every 1/4" of pull on the rod opened it up another .10" except at 1 1/4" it goes up .13" and the balls are ready to come out of the groove at 1 1/2" of rod pull. Basic measurements per 1/4" starting at 1.225, then 1.31, then 1.40, then 1.50, then 1.62, then 1.75, and then 1.88 at 1 1/2" pull. Basically ends up opening the assy about 5/8" of an inch spread. My inch of washers I added to the rod to make it start to engage the brakes tells me that I need to take of about .40" from the housing to allow for the wear on the rotors plates.