Anything special I need to know about cotter pins used in brakes other than that they are made of steel. I know bolts have grades. I am assuming that there is not since all the online parts places do not seem to sell them. I am to the brake reassembly stage and I don't want this to be the failure point.

Thanks for any help,
John

 

Since no one has replied, I'll jump in. I've been doing brakes for 25 years, and
have never seen cotter pins graded. I buy them at the local Napa in a box that has all
different sizes. As far as I know, they're all the same.

Hope that helps.

 

The only upgrade I know of is to marine grade stainless steel, certainly overkill for brakes.

 

I wouldn't buy them at a super low price place where you get 500 in a plastic baggie for a dollar

 

Unless you were to go with Ray's stainless variety, won't mild steel ones all be the same China grade _rap? Stu

 

Since there are no known grades I will probably just stop by Ace and see what they have.

 

I have quite a few farm implements, and anybody will tell you that I can be rough on stuff. Some say that I could tear up an anvil. In the approximate 13 years I've been fooling with this stuff, I've never once broken a cotter pin. I've broken my fair share of big "main" pins, pto shafts, etc., but I've never broken a cotter pin. Tractor Supply sells a nice box which contains about a zillion different sizes of those things.

 

Maybe the same box that I bought at HF, with a different paper label. Stu

 

My local True Value has cotter pins in their bolt section that cost more and are made in SAE sizes, appear to be better quality. The Chinese ones are nearly always really metric and fit sloppy.

Where are cotter pins used on brakes? May be a Big Truck thing?

 

I assume its for the spindle nut that retains the front bearings.

 

The main concern for safety is that the cotter pin fits and fills the hole. Use the largest diameter pin that goes into the hole, you don't want one where it rattles around. AFAIK all cotter pins are made from mild steel so they can be bent open easily without cracking.

 

I need two smaller ones that hold on the bottom of the brake shoe and one larger on that goes through the castelated nut that holds the drum to the spindle.

 

and don't put them in backwards.... you'll never get them back out

afa quality... the ones I buy at NAPA or good auto parts stores have a little more resistance bending than the ones I've had from H.F. must be that cheep Chinese metric steel... made from melted down girders from the buildings that Godzilla torched... totally took the temper out of the metal.


later
john