| Author |
Message |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 10:27 pm: | |
Often I see the advice to drive as if you had no brakes, and that is what I do. Drifting to stops and seldom pushing the treadle hard. I now occasionally slam them on to see if the beast will stop as it should. Why you ask? Welllll, since you asked: Recently I eased down US 95 out of Las Vegas and caught N-163 down to the Davis Dam crossing near Laughlin, NV. Across the bridge and swung around the corner toward the red light which quickly went red. At about 40 MPH I slammed on the brakes and went throught the light at about 40 MPH. Whew! Almost no braking action, and I had just come down that 4 mile long, 7% grade.(in 3rd gear) Thank goodnes the dude in the pickup at the light looked before he pulled into the intersection. From there I babied it along to Peter Broadrib's place (The Madbrit), near Kingman,AZ, where his friend (ex-bus mechanic from London, UK) graciously crawled under the 4905 in the rain, and adjusted the brakes for me. When I left to go the RV park in Kingman that night, I bloodied my nose at the first stop sign at the bottom of the hill! Great! Check 'em out once in a while. HTH ...JJ |
Juan Navarro (Jnavarro)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 11:29 am: | |
Hi John,
I adjust mine prior to every trip we take and before coming back, as a mater of fact I keep a 9/16 wrench in my pocket the entire trip.
Air brakes are great provided you can get the cam motion to the shoes and not lost on the linkage,
Glad you are ok,
Juan Navarro '53 PD 4104 |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 10:49 pm: | |
Juan, these were new shoes that had not been "profiled", so had worn quickly. ...JJ |
Jim Bob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 8:53 am: | |
JayJay, I had a similar problem. My 4104 was really hard to stop. In fixing a bad front wheel bounce, I replaced the drums with balanced drums. (This cost $10 more per drum & made a HUGE difference!)
When inspecting the brakes prior to installing the new drums, I noticed that the shoes had not been "arced" or "profiled" and had contact only on about 1" at each end of each shoe.
I got some self adhesive drywall sanding sheets & stuck them on the inside of one drum. I took the shoes & one by one, slid them back & forth till I had an even contact pattern.
Put everything back together & what a difference! No bounce & boy does it stop. I also don't have to adjust the slack adjusters all the time now. (before, I had to do it about every 1500 miles!) |
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