Middle of trip brakes not working correctly

[Scootsk]

Hi all,

I’m in the middle of a trip and my brakes are working 60% at best. I’m dreading checking the drums for a bad inner grease seal with this EZ lube axles. If there is a bad seal, I know what to do. If not, what should I look for. I’m not worried about worn shoes as I only have about 12k miles in the FW. They are electric brakes. I will say that I had an issue about a year ago, my break away switch was activated without my knowledge for at least two days. Did I burn out any of the mechanisms? How do I check?

[rohrmann]

It's possible you only have one axle's brakes working due to a broken wire. You can jack it up, pull the break away switch and see if all the wheels are locked up. If it's greased brakes, you will have to pull all the drums to check. Prior to us upgrading to discs, I pulled the drums to check the brakes and repack the bearings, and found one brake assembly totally destroyed, and had no indication there was a problem. Good luck, you have your work cut out for you.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Scootsk

Hi all,

I’m in the middle of a trip and my brakes are working 60% at best. I’m dreading checking the drums for a bad inner grease seal with this EZ lube axles. If there is a bad seal, I know what to do. If not, what should I look for. I’m not worried about worn shoes as I only have about 12k miles in the FW. They are electric brakes. I will say that I had an issue about a year ago, my break away switch was activated without my knowledge for at least two days. Did I burn out any of the mechanisms? How do I check?

If you have hydraulic jacks raise the unit with wheels off the ground, spin the wheels and have DW apply the brakes in the truck. See if all are working. You could have burnt the magnets if the breakaway was on for 2 days. If you use the EZ lube it's very possibly you have grease on the drums.

[mlh]

If no brakes are working I would look for a bad connection or broken wire.
Lynwood

[jsb5717]

Could be a few things. We were experiencing similar symptoms. I first pulled off the wheel hubs to check the brakes and the wiring to the magnets. Right Rear I found that the cam on the actuator arm was just missing. How it could be missing is still a mystery. As a result the arm was allowed to travel too far and broke a wire. I manufactured a new cam and repaired the wiring. Then I decided to pull the wiring from inside the axles and replace it with exterior wiring zip-tied to the axle. I’m glad I did. I found one of the wires worn through and causing an intermittent short.

So fresh wiring and repaired actuator arm solved our issues. Brakes working well again. Do a thorough inspection…you’ll likely find the issue.

[Scootsk]

Today I had the opportunity to look underneath and found this. The curb side rear brake wires seem to be cut or were never attached. I did confirm that I have no brakes on the rear axle. Fronts seem to be working fine but are just not enough. Question is, how would these be attached? Do I need to worry about polarity? It seems to be the main feed as there are two wires attached (black side) with one set going through the axle tube to the street side rear brake and the other into the curb side brake drum. Can I just hook the white wires to the joined blacks?

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Scootsk

Today I had the opportunity to look underneath and found this. The curb side rear brake wires seem to be cut or were never attached. I did confirm that I have no brakes on the rear axle. Fronts seem to be working fine but are just not enough. Question is, how would these be attached? Do I need to worry about polarity? It seems to be the main feed as there are two wires attached (black side) with one set going through the axle tube to the street side rear brake and the other into the curb side brake drum. Can I just hook the white wires to the joined blacks?

No polarity. Just reconnect them using wire nuts and tape.

[Scootsk]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

No polarity. Just reconnect them using wire nuts and tape.

Done. We had a safe trip to our next destination. Thank you