The puck is not visible in the image. The puck is located behind the caliper and in front of the brake disc. You will see the puck after you remove the caliper. Yes, it seems odd indeed. I have mused over this specific situation and I conclude that the unique complaint can only be due to a couple of circumstances. The first one I have already outlined previously in your other thread. The second scenario would be that the entire frame of the tractor is being reshaped during turns because of looseness in frame rivets, or bolts, or screws.......as the case may be. This hypothetical frame reshaping could probably conspire to LENGTHEN the effective brake rod travel when making a left turn (less brake power)......and SHORTEN the effective brake rod travel when making right turns (more brake power). Because there is a "fine line" difference between NO BRAKES and GOOD BRAKES on this mechanical type of disc brake anyhow, just a little difference in the effective length of the brake rod would have a profound overall effect on the stopping power. Study carefully how the frame is put together. Look closely for signs of dry, powdery rust around all the bolts (or whatever is used) that hold the frame together. You might need to wipe around the bolt heads with a clean dry paper towel and then look at the towel to determine if there is any rust (which implies a loose fit condition).

First, a brake caliper is a device that squeezes the pads from the sides against the rotor. If you think of a "vernier caliper" where you are measuring the thickness of an object from the sides, you get the picture of a motion that the brake caliper reproduces, hydraulicly. Second, brake calipers do seize and often times parts are available to rebuild them, as well as there are replacement calipers, both new and remanufactured. It comes down to considerations of cost, availability, and a fair profit for the shop doing the work, while limiting potential warranty exposure. As some others have mentioned the parking brake is often part of the rear brake calipers on many cars, and without seeing one, I would expect this is the case on the Mazda. IMO the rear calipers that incorporate the parking brake have been a weak link, and very troublesome poprtion of the brake system on four wheel disc. The movement to systems that use small brake shoes that fit inside the rotors in the rear have been a major improvement, except for the fact that we are seeing these rear shoes delaminate in high road salt areas, but thats a different story. The addition of the parking brake to the rear caliper makes it more difficult to repair in the feild. Plus no regular shop is going to have an acid bath that will allow them to completely remove all of the rust and scale that builds up in the caliper slides. So a tech has to improvise the routine and tools that he/she will use to service that portion of the caliper. Trust me, it's not easy in many circumstances and can take a considerable amount of time and not always produce a satisfactory, if not durable result. So given that single point, a shop/tech has to ask why even bother spending the time attempting a difficult task, where the outcome is not assured? Plus we have not even disscussed the actual servicing of the piston and the e-brake components in the caliper! Combine that with the fact that the "cheaper, faster, etc. attitude also applies to how many shops try to hire techs and you will see this becomes even more complicated. "It takes less talent, and less time to replace a component than it does to remove a component, rebuild it, and reinstall it" Think about that, less time means of course more time to do more work, as in other cars. Less talent means a less expensive work force. That actually means an over all a cheaper cost of doing business, and to a degree a cheaper form of auto service to the consumer. But this comes at a trade-off to some other consumers who might be better served on an individual basis. Jason, in your position, where you think having the tech repair the caliper would be cheaper for your MIL you are partially correct. But, for a shop to routinely do that level of a repair, they would have to hire a more expensive tech, who quite often would be doing more difficult work, which means he/she would turn fewer labor hours a week. The shop would in fact have to use a much higher labor rate and the net result ultimately would be you would get the caliper rebuilt onsite, but the end cost to your MIL, might be the same, if not higher than the bill as it's presently being quoted! By repairing the caliper, the shop wont be making as large of a profit on the parts either, yet the profit margin per hour that the shop needs must be met or the shop will fail as a business. If this all seems like doubletalk, I'm not suprised. But the bottom line is, the shop is making the correct call by replacing the calipers instead of repairing them. There are techs out there that can and do rebuild calipers on a fairly regular basis. (Me) It's actually expensive to do it that way in most cases, so it's done more out of necessity. Frankly having looked at this many times and quoting replacing calipers VS repairing them, I can actually make more money repairing them dollar wise for a single job. But since we can normally replace them in a fraction of the time for slightly less gross profit, and have all that extra time to do a different car. It becomes a wise choice that ends up costing my customers less in the long run to routinely replace instead of repair calipers.

I do not know what size our existing heat strips are. I am assuming the lowest possible, it is the same unit the builder placed in the home and it doesn't appear the original home buyers upgraded much. No idea about heating the place yet, we just moved into the home in March and our winter months here last year were very mild so I think we already had the a/c on. As far as cooling goes, we do not spend a lot of time up there yet. Our master is downstairs and the loft area is in under construction. It does not ever feel very cool to me but I really think this more impacted by the large windows in the great room and high 20 ft ceilings that open up to the loft as well as the age and capacity of the unit. I received another quote from another company here in town and the gentleman recommended the XR15 as a cost effective alternative to the XL15i. The quote he provided included replacing our downstairs system as well (both up and down with XR15's, 2.5 ton for upper and 3.5 for lower with variable speed handlers and Honeywell thermo) and didn't break up the prices in two. The total cost was $10k. I cannot get to the estimate right now to provide part numbers. However, I am now completely confused as he did not include a separate line item for the heat strips? We also discussed upgrading the insulation in the attic space because of the cooling issue etc. He confirmed what I origianlly thought and that is the insulation is the minimal for the standard back in 1999. He oprovided a quote to upgrade with R-38 of around $1800.00. I feel like the more I try to learn about the HVAC system the more confusing it gets. What exactly is the function of the heat strips? Is there any reason his quote wouldn't include a line item for same? Thanks for your help.

Tom, there is nothing holding the tractror back. Not sure WHY you cannot grasp this.....so ill try another way. Think of a manual car or truck. Depress the clutch all the way in, to the floor and slowwwly release the clutch pedal while in first gear. Usually, on just about every manual transmission ive driven, the fri tion plate will start to grab the clutch disks half way thru the pedal travel. Or approximately half way from floor to the full release of the pedal. My tractor used to operate EXACTLY like this. Slowly, over the years, the pedal has risen higher and higher in order for me to get movement/friction in the clutch to get the tractor moving. In my current situation, i push my tractor pedal all the way in, and slowwly release the pedal. It starts grabbing or providing friction ONLY the very last inch or so. That is why it jerks so hard. The brake/clutch adjustment is all the way adjusted. The dri e belt is OEM,nothi g is clogged or off pulleys. As stated this has been a slow/gradual process of me losing my clutch pedal. Someone mentioned changing the blade belt may firm back up the clutch pedal to where it engages at mid travel. Thoughts?