brakes bearings and Xfactor

[H. John Kohl]

It was time to put new brakes on. I purchased the self adjusting brakes at last years fall rally knowing I would have to replace them this year. Of course since the drums are off might as well do a full job on the bearings and all new grease. So here is how it went.
John Goff (johnnyg) offered to help me with the XFACTOR. We aquired the material and he got a chance to play with his new welder and proved his old experience. We copied the example of powerguy. It took about 5 hours to fabricate and weld the XFACTOR. That includes putting the trailer on four jack stands and landing legs (six point support) and pulling the tires. The second day was painting the XFACTOR and John and I did the brakes and regreasing all drums in three hours. John had the messy job but did great. Today we put the XFACTOR on. As we were putting the tires on John doing his normal "close eye quality inspection" found a nail in one tire. One other tire was badly scalped so I took both to the tire shop. Repaired the flat and replaced the other tire. Mounted all and drove home tapping the brake controller to adjust the "self adjusting" brakes.
When I got home I checked the temperatures on the brake drums. Two were 144, one was 134 and one was 113. So they are almost adjusted and should be there in one more trip. A big thank you to John G. for his knowledge and welding expertise and support. As John said when two are doing it it takes one third the time.

[NCFischers]

PICTURES!!!!!!

[H. John Kohl]

Did not do pictures because hands were greasy. It looks just like dieselguys.

[Rondo]

Sounds like you did a pretty fair job and the Monte's ready to go! Why don't you and Ann hop in it and head for Nebraska and we can work on ours now!!! Hope all is going well and give Ann a big hug and a kiss on the cheek from both of us! Looking forward to seeing you two at the Fall Rally if not before!

[NCFischers]

Hey, Johnnyg,
Come on down to North Carolina for a visit. If you happen to bring your welder, I'm sure we could find something to do with it.

[sreigle]

John, I'm wondering why it's taking a couple of trips for the auto adjusters to complete adjustment. Mine are Dexter 7k axles with the self adjusting brakes that adjust when stopping either forward or backwards. My understanding is it takes only a few feet or maybe yards to complete the adjustment. Is that not your understanding?

[H. John Kohl]

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

John, I'm wondering why it's taking a couple of trips for the auto adjusters to complete adjustment. Mine are Dexter 7k axles with the self adjusting brakes that adjust when stopping either forward or backwards. My understanding is it takes only a few feet or maybe yards to complete the adjustment. Is that not your understanding?

Steve,
I believe the brakes adjust each time the brakes are applied. However, since the brakes were new the tolerance between brake and drum were not the same for each brake they had to be tightened. When the brakes are applied it will move the star wheel one notch, similar to adjusting the old ones with a screw driver or star tool. So I manually applied the brakes at slow speeds with the brake controller. This activated the brakes and adjusted a notch. As stated I feel two wheels are fully adjusted and the others are not too far off and the next trip will bring them up to tolerance.
This is my belief.

[sreigle]

Thanks for the explanation, John. I assumed each adjustment would bring them fully into adjustment but apparently that's only true once they are fully adjusted in the first place. Thanks for the explanation.