Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi everyone,

I have a quick question for you all. Does anyone know how to adjust the clutch/brake pedal play on an Atco 8/32E garden tractor?

I have had a look at the Bosch site for the 8/30 but the diagrams on there don't really seem to help.

Many Thanks,

phade

Hello,
I am not familiar with the actual brake/clutch adjustment of the Atco 8/32E...however I think the very first version of 8/32E had a flat pulley on the back axle around which a brake band fitted...later models had a changed set up which I think may have had the brake on the side of the gearbox.??

Rather than having a one piece gearbox/axle (transaxle) I think they had seperate gearbox and then chain drive down to a differential back axle.??

I believe there were at least 2 distinct ranges of Atco lawn tractor. The first being from the early 1980s up to about C.1985.?? I think the 8/32E was from the early range. This early range was made in USA and painted and badged as Atco.
The later range which, I think, included the 8/30 was a completely different range , I think made in UK??, which was about in the late 1980s.??

There were detail differences during each year of manufacture, which certainly applies to the 8/32E,.. thus when searching for info'/parts you will get best results if you know or can establish a date of manufacture/original sale.

A clue to the tractors age may come from the engine, if you think it is original.

The 3rd set of numbers that are stamped into a B&S engines tinwork (the Code) reads Year/Month/Day/ Factory of manufacture.
http://www.briggsandstratton.com/displa ... ocID=69143

Best info' on the 8/32E may come from a local long established Atco Service Agent which may be found from www.atco.co.uk then Atco owners then Service Agent Search using your postcode.
Direct contact with Atco may help but they may have moved on to more recent models... thus best info' may come from one of their long established agents.??

All the best,
Clive.

Hiya Clive,

Thanks for the info I think my Atco 8/32E is the later type one.

My tractor has a Foote 2010-43 4 speed (3 foward, one reverse) gearbox which is driven by the drive belt its self. The drive belt is connected to the clutch's pulley, engine crankshaft's pulley and the gearbox's input shaft's pulley.

The gearbox then drives the rear wheels via a chain. The rear axle its self appears to be a straight axle with a balancing weight on it.

The brake its self consists of a single metal band wrapped around part of the rear axle its self.

I am not entirely sure how old my tractor is. The engine its self dates from 18th November 1980, but the tractor its self appears to be made later than that, possibly about 1983. The main clues to this are from what you had mentioned about the later 8/32E models and the fact that the original paint on the bodywork (underneath it's current coat of paint) is pale green.

The main question I have really is how to take out the massive amount of slack within the brake/clutch pedal its self. The pedal its self goes almost right down to the floor before I can engage any gear (the drive belt it's self is brand new).

I have had a quick look at the brake/clutch mechanism its self and all I can see so far is that the whole mechanism seems to be on a couple of link rods. Have I missed out anything out which could be obvious?

Anyway, thankyou for your help

All the best,

phade

Hello,
I have found that I have a ref' for Atco tractor age ident' in a 1983 service bulletin.

For 1981 models;..The background colour of the name and model transfers on the side of the chassis was red and the front grille was green and red.


For 1982/83 models of 8/32E;...The green and red grille was retained but the background colour of the side transfers was changed to green.

To confuse things further after having had another rummage through an old parts book I see that the 1981 model shows the brake on the back axle, whilst the 1982/83 version seems to have a brake on the gearbox side....and then the 1984 version shows the brake on the back axle once more.. ..no wonder they refer to tractor age ident' problems in their service bulletin.!!

I have not worked on these tractors...but looking at the quite basic parts diagram I cannot see any clutch adjustment on the linkages.??!!...just a shaped rod link from pedal to belt clutch arm. It does though seem to show slotted holes for the gearbox mounting and then for the back axle.. but whether for adjustment or just ease of assembly or just representative on the drawing...I really do not know..??

Is the belt the correct length, size and spec'..??

Could there be a problem with a new belt in old pulleys.??

One thing that does come to mind is the position of any belt guides that are there to hold the belt in shape around engine and gearbox pullies. If any guides are out of place a belt may not be held in shape loose around the pulley when out of drive and thus have one part of the belt that remains in tight contact with the pulley and thus try to continue to drive....which may lead to the gearbox remaining under load and thus not easy to select gears.

Most machinery using belt clutches have belt guides near engine and often driven pulley too....They are usually set to be just clear of the flat back of the drive belt when the belt is in the drive position..(checked with engine switched off and spark plug lead unclipped from plug and earthed to prevent accidental start.!!)

I suspect it will be the case with this type of tractor that you will select a desired gear and move off in that gear rather than make a change on the move.??

Is there play and wear in linkages that cumulatively add up to the long pedal.?? I am thinking here of the general build of this type of machine which uses pressed steel parts and rod linkages..??

Sorry not to come up with a definitve answer...and as ever I add that if you are unsure about bringing any repair/adjustment to a safe successful conclusion then please do consult a local service agent.

All the best,
Clive.

Hiya Clive (and all Atco 8/32E owners),

I have had a look at my brake/clutch mechanism today and found out what the problem was. The link rod from the pedal to the clutch pulley/brake link rod plate was very badly worn. It was worn down to about 1/2 of it's original diameter. This I believe was the cause of the excessive play with the clutch/brake pedal. I had also noticed that the brake/clutch pedal spindle was badly worn.

I have swapped the pedal's spindle around (and had to drill a hole to make it fit backwards) which had partially solved the problem.

I'm also going to try and fit my home-made new link rod to the pedal and the clutch pulley/brake link rod plate to see if it will cure the problem once and for all. My home made "link rod" its self consists of an M8 thread bent at right angles on each end, where I plan to hold it in place with two M8 nuts and washers.

I'll let everyone know if this works

Thankyou for your help,

phade

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know what I have tried today seems to work fairly well, just need to fit a couple of bushes to the clutch/brake pedal shaft and it should work correctly.

phade

Hello,

Good to read that you are getting the problem beaten..

Clive.

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know I have now written a document on the "unknown" parts of the Atco 8/32E garden tractor as a word file. They just consist of annotated pics but they should just about explain everything

If anyone would like a copy of my word doc then please let me know on phil.ade@virgin.net

Take care everyone,

phade