I had someone replace the brakes on our D17 IV last winter.  Everything was cleaned up and new, and the person was highly competent and experienced.  All new parts, and put together properly.  Also new seals and no oil or leakage anywhere.  Trouble is, the brakes are lousy.  I have to practically stand on them to stop.  We figured they needed some break in, but after 6 months or so, they are not really much better.  Just very weak braking.  I had originally planned to have Rick on this site reline them, but the timing didn't work out, so we used the aftermarket disks and bands.  Since everything was rebuilt to specs with all new components by a highly experienced AC mechanic, it just seems that the aftermarket brake linings are not so great (junk?).  Anyone have any similar experience?  I am half tempted to pull everything again this winter, and see if I can find better materials that will actually work.  I realize NOS asbestos linings might be a little difficult to find, but perhaps there are choices of lining materials that work better than the stuff we found from the major suppliers?  I am assuming the aftermarket stuff is coming from overseas somewhere, but I certainly don't know.  What I do know is the linings we installed from one of the major vendors don't stop worth beans.

The last three I have done I got relined brakes (and clutch plates when he was doing them) from Rick Corder. My opinion is that Rick's brakes are BY FAR better than anything else on the market.

Here is a little reading for you.

https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/my-review-of-ricks-brake-shoe-reline_topic160571.html" rel="nofollow - My Review of Rick's Brake Shoe Re-line - AllisChalmers Forum

Well, I finally got time to go out and look over the D17 IV, and son of a gun, the Doc was right.  The brake rod was in the upper hole, and the spring in the lower.  I switched the rods to the lower holes and re-adjusted everything, and the brakes are much stronger.  I would say there is about twice the leverage, since the lower hole was about mid-distance down from the upper hole.

We bought this tractor with a rebuilt motor and general workover from an AC dealer back around 1983.  Until the rebuild this past winter, I hadn't really touched the brakes except for a minor adjustment on the left side.  When I removed the cotter pins to adjust the rods, it looked to me like the right side cotter pin was factory, but that is just a guess.  Also, on the right hand side, the serrated pawl was in the way, so I had to reverse that rod to come into the hole from the outside in, due to interference from the locking pawl.  So it just seems odd to me that the original dealer and whoever else worked on it, switched the rod from the lower to the upper hole.  It just looked like factory with the rod in the upper hole. 

Whatever.  It is working and the brakes are much stronger now.  They still are not at strong as any of the old IH brakes (like in our Farmall 200), but at least I can lock them up on wet grass now.