FMTV Front Brakes

[Wile E. Coyote]

One of the recent purchases at work had ineffective brakes. Checked to see air was being applied to all the chambers - all good - then found out that the back brakes were working, but the fronts appeared to be doing nothing. Pulled the front chambers apart and manually actuated the plunger to see if it appeared to be doing anything at the wheel end - nothing.

Pulled the wheel off today, repeated the same experiment. Plunger goes all the way in, nothing happens at the wedge brake. Pulled the wedge brake assembly apart and...laughed my head off for ten minutes straight.

They'd put the front brakes back together with no wedge brake expanders. Nothing. So there was nothing to drive the wedges apart upon a brake application. The plunger driven by the air chamber just pushed away on into free space. No wonder it sent the front axle into LOW AIR after a couple of applications. All the parts are nice and new, however - it's just (lol) - there aren't *enough* of them

Anyhow, this one came out of Ft. Campbell in Kentucky, ex-101AB. Be advised.

 

[Oxyacetylene]

Where did you purchase the replacement parts? Luckily mine is good, but it would be nice to know the options for spare parts.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Well, by fluke the missing plungers were available on Ebay when I had a quick look, so I bought a pair. The Stopmaster brakes are used on a few things - old Euclid trucks, for one - which is what came up in my cross-reference first. Usually if you find the parts required/ missing in the 24P or 34P you can run the manufacturer's part number and/or NSN/ NIIN on Google (or Ebay) and see what comes up. I have had a lot of success in the past doing just that.