Howdy, I'm considering this beast. It's unusual, to say the least. I'd have to remove the bed (which was shortened 6") and install a flatbed w/gooseneck. That would only be an 8' flatbed, not very big.



But that's not what worries me. It has a three or more leaks, and I'm not even sure what is leaking because I don't fully understand its brake system. There appears to be two separate booster systems that share the same pump and fluid. There is a section that looks like a hydraulic booster for the service brakes, located between the firewall and master cylinder, that has large hydraulic lines to it. These run to a belt-driven pump with a 2qt reservoir. The same types of lines run all the way back to big cylinders on the rear drums. One of those cylinders is sweating.


View from driver side, notice the hydraulic lines

I think this cylinder is for power parking brakes


Notice it's sweating fluid. But all brakes were done last year

Now things get really hard to understand. On the firewall, lined up with the parking brake control on the dash, there is a control with the large hydraulic lines on it that's leaking down onto the injection pump. There's at least one leaking fitting, sweating where it's swaged onto high-pressure flex line. That line that's clearly sweating goes back across the cylinder head and down to - yes- the engine oil filter. What the heck is an engine oil line doing up there? But that doesn't explain the amount of oil leaking down onto the rear of the IP.

Here are pics of that from the passenger side.








I'm not sure what I'm getting into here. Are there docs anywhere explaining how this system works? Is this some kind of hydraulic oil over brake fluid system?

Finally, there is a warning light on the dash. Note the 4" electric motor under the brake booster controller a couple pics back up. The warning light says Brk Elec Mtr. Could it be that the motor under the boost controller is there to provide power when the engine-driven pump is not turning, and that motor has failed? Seller says it passed commercial vehicle inspection with that light on. I have to wonder...



Brake Electric Motor warning light

If I can't find good info on this brake system, I'm going to pass on this truck. The flatbed, lights, and gooseneck are already enough of a project. Additionally, the rear of the crew cab rides on airbags, which look to be as old as Moses. Could I find them for less than an arm and a leg when they fail? Nobody will ride back there but my tools.
.

 

I believe that is a Lucas Girling brake system.

 

You post all that and you're not going to buy the truck. Search "Lucas Girling Brakes" before you go looking again. Good brakes, but expensive to work on. They are on a lot of school buses. The big can in the back is the parking brake chamber and yes, they do have electric backup. Mighty handy if you spit a belt or suffer engine failure.

 

Talked it over with a master tech friend today. He's negative on those Lucas Girling brakes, expensive to work on, as you say. I hadn't made up my mind when I posted all that but now I have. I'll pass. The front disks are also crazed as in micro-cracks in the swept area, suggesting that at one point the drums in the back were not pulling their weight so the fronts overheated. Those huge disks would cost a fortune. The fronts were grabby during my test drive, probably a result of the surface not being smooth.

 

"Seller says it passed commercial vehicle inspection with that light on."

Funniest thing I heard all day!

 

When you pencil whip an inspection, anything is possible.

 

Lucas Girling systems aren't great, but work and are straightforward--- I've worked on both the air and hydraulic activated variants. Parts availability is "ok", often you'll have to rely on rebuilt / reman from the usual suspects (e.g. Haldex rebuilders)..............lines, in many cases will have to be fab'd if broken / leaking but there are readily avail kits out there and fittings are easy to source -- Northern Tool, Tractor Supply, etc keep many on the shelf (for us tractor owners)..................

Pick up a Ford Medium Duty Shop Manual and you'll find you can fix / repair the whole shooting match.................