Wheel Bearings /Brakes

[Dee]

We have had our 2935 RK for almost a year now, so I decided it was time to do the wheel bearings, ordered the seals from Dexter
(much better price than Napa)
Pulled the first wheel & hub and just as I had read from several posters on this forum The electric wires coming from/to the magnet were severed. Cleaned everything up and rewired using shrink tubing
tied the wires up out of the way. The rest of the wheels/ brakes were fine.
Now on my unit I have had several problems with the grease cap coming off while going down the road? I carry a spare, however it is a pain to pull the wheel so the hub cap can be removed/replaced.
We noticed after sliding the hub/new bearing back on the axle that a tiny bit of air pressure builds up in the hub, and when you lift the little rubber cap off the end you can hear it come out? Even with my shot ears! So after thinking about that for a few min I took a tiny awl and poked a small hole in the rubber in all axles? My thoughts maybe driving down the road the pressure builds up enough to force the grease caps loose? Then they get off center and the vibration does the rest? Now that said I do not pump grease through the zerk fitting I sinmply repack the bearings and make sure there is ample grease in both inner and outer brg. Pumping grease through that zerk only forces grease to the inner brg, and if you get carried away you will force the rear seal out.
We will see what happens now.
Dee

[levietta]

Interesting. I can't help you with any constructive response, I am sorry. But you have raised a question I am asking myself. My Montana is being serviced at the dealer's. I wonder if they are going to check out this very thing as a general maintenance, or if I should specifically mention to them to take care of it.

[Crossthread]

Thanks for the heads up Dee. Bill

[Dee]

Levietta
Now in a perfect world they would check things like that.
But?????
I am not going to take a shot at dealers this morning, but if you don't ask them to check something I am pretty sure it will not get looked at?
As far as the brakes they would need to pull the wheel/hub to even see in there ?
I would have thought that cut wires would have showed up as a short
on my brake controller but it did not?
As far as the grease caps being loose in the wheel that is a simple look check.
Dee

[H. John Kohl]

quote:Originally posted by Dee

Levietta
- snip - I would have thought that cut wires would have showed up as a short
on my brake controller but it did not?
- snip -
Dee

The cut wires will not show as a short unless they are touching. When wires are cut they are (OPEN). No current going through them. A short is when the two wires touch together or both touch metal. That is why a "short was not detected" on your controller. One way to check each brake is to manually hold down the brake button on the controller and listen for a hum on each brake drum. If you have a compass it will swing to the magnet on each drum if it is working. You may need to hold the compass close to the wheel to see the needle swing.
My Jordan brake control show current not voltage so I was alerted when a magnet became disconnected because the current dropped from 11 plus to 9 plus with full brakes or full button pressure. They say each magnet will draw between 2.5 to 3 amps.
I hope this helps.
cheers,

[richfaa]

Now there is a good troubleshooting tip by John above. I would copy that post and use the procedure to check the brakes on a regular basis.

[levietta]

Thanks, Dee

[simonsrf]

Thanks Dee. Thanks John.

[clutch]

My trailer brakes are better than the truck breaks so I think mine are working. Now I know how to check if they are all working. Thanks for the interesting post.

[robb]

The electric check is good for checking the wiring but it will not show if Dexter filled the hubs with grease!!
Found two of our hubs packed and linings pulled off the shoes of the other two hubs.

Robb
2007 3400RL Montana
1999 Volvo 610 Pickup

[Dee]

John
I agree if the wires were just cut it would not show up as a short.
However there was obvious sign of the wires shorting out, fact they were pretty cooked! with burn marks very obvious on the back of the brake shoe. I guess I did not go into enough detail.
Dee

[Illini Trekker]

With my Prodigy controller with wires worn and touching it will show SO. This SO happened on two hubs at two different time. I chose two use wire loom to cover the fixed wires.

Greased four bearings last winter and replaced seals. Had one that leaked grease in hub not much cleaned up hub and works fine. Has easy as it is to do all four bearings I will never use grease gun!

Good tip John!!

[richfaa]

Had my wheels pulled to check the brakes and all the seals were blown, I had never greased them, requiring all brakes and seals to be replaced. A brake check is on my routine maint list and visual inspection of the hubs is now a yearly task. The 3400 was 16 months old with about 12K miles towed on it.