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When you get to a side to side differential of 80°F you're getting close to a pull due to friction material thermal COF. I carry one of these with me for various reasons, but its easy to check for an impending issue. When towing, I can check all the opposing surfaces, truck and trailer, and check the trailer tires for how they are running as well.
I got a few transit fleets to put a mechanic out at the fueling depot when the busses come home to find issues before they become the smoking gun.
Now that's a good tip.
You know....I'm almost OCD enough to get one of those for checking the boat trailer and the camper. Also to check the truck as well.
You can find decent ones cheaply and I found a trailer tire slow leak during a trip that didn't show as a soft sidewall. It gave me time to find a repair facility on my choosing rather then by a ES on the shoulder of a highway. I've seen enough of boating weekend warriors with issues on the shoulder of the Garden State Parkway. Highly recommended if you tow.
FYI on the infrared temp sensor. One rides in my door of the truck so it's always with me. I picked it up at Harbor Frieght at a reasonable price. Can't imagine what a Fluke one would cost.
It's great for checking tires (high temp from scrubbing could indicate bent trailer axle), brakes (stuck caliper, inoperable magnets on a trailer brake), hub bearings (especially boat trailers if had water intrusion), cold exhaust manifold ports when checking for dead cylinders, ect.
It can really save your fingertips.
The several Fluke units I bought at work were in the $400-500 range back in the early 00's, but they were nothing compared to the plants that used thermal imagers for the presses. Those were in the thousands.
For my own use more then a dozen years ago I bought a Raytek ST20, which is way more then someone needs for around the house DIY or automotive. I paid over $200 for it and would never spend that today for a gun. Today you can find them all over for $15 & up. Even the well respected Flukes at the low end are around $50.
I might as well pick one up next trip to harbor freight. I'm sure they aren't too pricey. $5 says my wife will ask what I need that for. She hates the "just in case" excuse but then again I hate that question so we're all good.
My parts came in today so I should have my work cut out for me this weekend.
And a few extra parts
Someone suggested I should replace the wheel seal. Why would I need to replace a wheel seal along with this job?
Again, I'm replacing all 4 rotors, calipers, just the hose, and of course pads. Thanks.
It was me. POST #7. I said if you're doing backing plates you may as well also do seals.
Are you not doing rear backing plates? To change the rear backing plate for the parking brake you need to remove the hub. Backing plates rust out very easily. I've been using Dorman replacements.
Looking a lot better going back together. Oh did I mention now would be a great time to pull the rear cover for an inspection and oil change. 75w140 full synthetic and a tube of Ultra grey sealant is all you need.
Hmmmm. You want to do the other side of my Ex? I think mine was a trailer boat owner, everything,I mean everything was trashed but it didn't look it untill you opened it up. You don't want to know how I got the rotor off.
Crewdually, that devilish emoji fits you comment. I'll save that for another weekend. I've must have worked some muscles that haven't been used in a while.
Good luck Performance I hope you and your son get that truck workes out. My backing plates were toast.
You're probably right Toomanytoys.
My previous post was just the driverside rear. It was the cause of this project which lead to something that revealed, in my opinion, a bigger problem.
To be honest, you should have been replacing the shoes on the other side.
I've got a whole Powerpoint presentation done for my past life about the issues of using a DIH parking brake on vehicles of this weight class. They are very overwhelmed in this weight application and we did a ton of work trying to get the DIH shoe lining business. And it's a very hard application to make a lining work.
The shoe surface has to have the right profile, the friction material has to have the right compliancy, and the opposing drum surface has to be right. And aftermarket rotors, including the Motorcraft, are not right. The new towing standards are going to get it in the right direction, but there is a good reason why ambulances got a tail shaft parking brake.
Since almost no one uses the parking brake anymore, the best way to check that you're about to have a problem is take a look under the truck in front of the axle. When you see that big rust hole in the backing plate, its time for new.
One thing I see quite a bit with this style of parking brake shoes, really all brake shoes, if they have any age to them the bond let's go from heat, age, rust, ect. and then the friction material falls to the bottom and gets eaten up. I just did a tri-axle trailer that this happened to every single shoe. When I pulled the drums the remnants fell out and it still had .125" of friction material when it fell off.
No one does good ol' fashion rivets anymore until you get into the big trucks.
03-26-2017, 01:38 PM
