Brake adjusment

[madatme]

ok so this Sunday I had a chance too pull the drums and inspect the brakes, Did not find any wheel bearing grease on brake shoes, what I found was the left drum had some scoring about a 1/4 inch wide toward the outer edge and the rear shoe had a small piece of metal stuck in the shoe so I picked it out and sanded the shoe a little to smooth it out, also a small amount of grease in the drum around the seal, cleaned it up, put back together and adjusted the brake till lockup and backed of 5 clicks. The right side during inspection found a small amount a grease where the magnet touches the drum, cleaned that off, reassemble, also wheel bearing nut was to tight, adjust the brake. Road test time, used the manual slider hardly no braking, went a few miles got better, a few more miles and the trailer started to sway back and forth at 100% braking at 40mph, adjusted the gain to 7.0 and the sway was gone and seemed to be braking better, so my gain is at 5.0 and seems to be doing ok. So my trip next week will be the test. One thing I forgot to do was turn off VSA and see if that makes any difference.

[babock]

The sway was likely from brakes on one side of your trailer working better than the other. It may be just a matter of bedding in the brake material.

[Crockett]

how are you doing bearing adjustment? 5 clicks off of lockup may cause the primary shoe to engage and cause fade. take a shake down cruise to check for fade.

[babock]

Originally Posted by Crockett

how are you doing bearing adjustment? 5 clicks off of lockup may cause the primary shoe to engage and cause fade. take a shake down cruise to check for fade.

How does bearing adjustments have anything to do with braking?

[Lins]

Originally Posted by babock

How does bearing adjustments have anything to do with braking?

He might just be asking because the OP mentioned it

[madatme]

Originally Posted by Crockett

how are you doing bearing adjustment? 5 clicks off of lockup may cause the primary shoe to engage and cause fade. take a shake down cruise to check for fade.

the bearing adjustment = tighten the nut till tight, back off until loose then tighten finger tight, put the pin in, right side hole did not line up so I back off until the hole lined up, put the pin in. The braking seemed to be ok

[madatme]

Originally Posted by babock

The sway was likely from brakes on one side of your trailer working better than the other. It may be just a matter of bedding in the brake material.

Thats what I kinda thought so, with that said a few miles and it should wear in and be better, I will post back possible tomorrow as in my 100 mile destination when I get there

[timfromma]

Originally Posted by babock

That's why I suggested to look at them. Also, I will never pump grease in mine with the EZ-Lube system for that very reason.

You can read all about my experience with ez lube here:


http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ay-156264.html

[Crockett]

Originally Posted by madatme

the bearing adjustment = tighten the nut till tight, back off until loose then tighten finger tight, put the pin in, right side hole did not line up so I back off until the hole lined up, put the pin in. The braking seemed to be ok

Sounds good. Be sure to rotate hub while tightening to prevent brinnelling the bearings.

[madatme]

Well I found the solution to my brake problem, after my 300 mile trip it was scary when you hit the brakes and the trailer would sway, at home pulled the drums again, found more grease in the drums, replaced both seals, left wheel brake was overworked, right brake not working, magnets where fine, shoes ok, solution was to replace the wire from left brake to right brake, I had voltage at both but a apparent drop at the right wheel, don't know if the wire was corroded or not inside the tube but it's fixed

[Bama Rambler]

Thanks for coming back and letting us know how you fixed it.
It's always good to hear the solution to a problem.

[Lins]

Nice work!

[madatme]

You folks are welcome for my solution, Thanks for everyone's input

[alpha]

Thanks for the update madatme... my brake controller had to be run all the way up to 10 this last trip to enable stopping. I decided to pull all the wheels to check for grease on the drums/shoes. So far I've only had to pull two to discover the grease seals have leaked and contaminated the drums.



I pulled the seals and inspected the bearings only to discover some mighty thin, black, runny grease mixed in there with otherwise red, high viscosity grease. Apparently either the previous owner (we just bought this used in February) or the dealership used an improper grease in the EZ-Lube fitting and it seeped through the seals.


Dexter recommends a quality #2 high temperature grease with a viscosity of 80 or better. So, while currently awaiting the seals (they're in the mail), I'm pleased to see other folks have solved the same problem. We have enough to think about while towing our RV's on the highways without worrying if we'll be able to stop in time.


Thanks for the update!