Brake Replacement

It was the cylinder piece that slides on the brake adjuster. The darn thing just had fallen off -- or maybe was never put on.

I opened the little rubber plug on the back of the brake and found a loose piece of metal inside. Poked it with a little screwdriver, it just flops around. I'm guessing this is not good. As best I can tell the brakes work just fine.

 Does anybody have any idea what it is?










178 pulled with a grand caravan

The thickness of the pads determines when to replace. On my new brakes they are .192 thick and the ones on the trailer had gotten down to a little less than .100 thick. In Lipperts trailer axle book they say to replace the brakes when they are .06 (1/16”) thick. I think that is way to thin. When they get too thin they are not able to handle and dissipate heat as well as a thicker pad. I live in California and travel over some big hills so I want to know that my brakes are going to slow me down when I need them.

Brake Drum Inspection (from the Lippert manual)
The brake shoes contact the drum surface and the magnet contacts the armature. These surfaces are subject to wear and should be inspected periodically.
The drum surface should be re-machined if wear is more than .030” or out of round by more than .015”. The drum should be replaced if scoring or wear is greater than .090”.
The inner surface of the brake drum that contacts the brake magnet is the armature surface. If the armature surface is scored or worn unevenly, it should not be machined more than .030”. The magnets should be replaced whenever the armature surface is refaced and vice versa.

Shoes and Linings
Linings should be replaced if the material is worn to 1/16” or less. Shoes should also be replaced if they become contaminated with grease or oil or have become scored, pitted or gouged. Heat cracks are normal and rarely require attention. When replacing shoes, both shoes on the same brake and the brakes on the same axle should all be replaced at the same time, once again ensuring even braking capacity.

An update to my brake installation. On the right side I had 2 issues to deal with. One was the two 12 gauge wires that needed to be crimped to the wires coming off the magnet. To crimp two 12 gauge wires in one end of a butt splice you would need it to be an 8 gauge size. They make 8 gauge step down butt connectors but they only neck down to a 10 gauge and the wire coming off the magnet is 16 gauge. I ended up having to use a closed end splice and insulating it with 4-1 shrink ratio adhesive lined heat shrink tubing. The tool I used is a NTM (Nichifu) NH-36B closed end crimping tool, Waytek Wire carry’s this crimper Item #477 ($118) and the closed end connector size Number 8, item #37025. The second issue I had was the drum would not slide over the brake pads till I turned the brake adjuster star nut to draw the shoes in to make a smaller diameter. The brakes will self-adjust as I apply the brakes driving down the road when I recalibrate my brake controller for the new brakes.

Excellent write-up and pics, thank you!