Finally got the brake project done. I did not enjoy it. Ended up overhauling the front axle as mentioned earlier (this was the worst part). Got all the new wheel cylinders and new brake shoes in everywhere including the larger 1.5" diameter front ones. I had to modify the link pins to get the shoes to fit as shown
here.
Also found that one of the rear axle seals must have leaked again from when they were replaced a year or 2 ago during the hub flip. I removed the breather vents from the top of the axles to clean them out and heard a pssst noise on a couple so I decided to install vent lines instead. I put some 1/8npt fittings into all the breather vents on the 3 axles, transfer case, and transmission and using 1/4 nylon tubing ran them up to a breather manifold on the firewall near the remote reservoir for the brake fluid. Hopefully this eliminates any future seal leaks due to plugged vents (transfer case has a leak still too after driving a while... this also made a "psst" noise when I removed the breather).
While I was gutting the brake lines, I also decided to gut some of the copper air lines and replace them with the nylon air brake tubing. Swapped over the hydaulic brake switches to the air switches while I was replacing the air packs. Ebay came through again for the best prices on the air switches and some other random air system check valves I replaced while they were out. I will say this is a good hobby to get nice NOS replacement parts for cheap (at least cheap for us buying these the second time around, overpriced for us taxpayers the first time around).
Made new brake lines out of CUNIFER and put Stainless steel spring armor on them all. You can check out my
BRAKE PARTS REFERENCE GUIDE HERE which shows line lengths, sizes, and part numbers for most other brake info in the first 3 posts.
Added the stainless steel braided brake hoses too.
Installed the new master cylinder which went in easy. I planned on using some cunifer hard line for the remote reservoir lines but had such a hard time with it that I switched over to air brake tubing which was way easier. Made a pressure bleeder cap for the reservoir which worked well but I think I still had some air stuck in the top of the M/C or the remote reservoir line that was snaked around some things. I decided to borrow a vacuum pump from work and made a adapter out of some scrap plexi and some foam gasketing. I stuck it on the top of the reservoir, turned it on and watched lots of bubbles come up. It probably pulled some air in from the wheel cups too so I re-bleed it again and all is good.
Here is some info on building a pressure bleeder for the dual circuit trucks.
Adjusting the brakes was really difficult at first, I ended up buying a 1-1/8" deep offset box wrench for the lower "major" adjusters which made the job way easier, it was worth the $30 verses trying to use an adjustable wrench or large combination wrench. Also got a deep offset 7/16" wrench for the bleeder screws. The brakes work well, I think the new shoes will need to wear in a bit and then I'll re-adjust them.
Also mounted the accumulator I mentioned in post 22 that I wanted to add in order to reduce the sink water pulsation due to the water pump, this was also a nice affordable problem solver.
In total, I used over a
Gallon of brake cleaner through a sprayer and a half bottle of anti-seize on the brake/axle project.
!
so I'll deal with that some other time. Plus I hadnt figured out a way to keep the deck locked in the upright position, or support the front of the deck when down. Basically I just sort of figured that out as I went today and had to machine a few brackets and hit the hardware store. I'll end up redoing the front support arms in a while so they hinge from the trailer and not the deck, I'll also modify the upright position lock later on so its a little sturdier and wont mar up the decking...... but for now it will (should) work.
