Brake chambers..

This whole thread pretty much demonstrates the whole reasoning for making the spring side non-serviceable........

 

Nah. Im strongly against protecting stupid from themselves, even when im the stupid one like the time I used our case loader to lift my car so I could work on it even when i knew it slowly lost hydraulic pressure on the tilt cylinders. For a 17 year old kid there is very little that's more heart breaking than seeing your car laying on its side.

 

When I started as an owner operator in the early eighties I carried extra pancakes and caged brakes and replaced them all the time on the road.
Quick and easy with out having to even remove it from the truck.
Was it dangerous?
Definitely not. Never even had a close call.
Could it be dangerous if your stupid ?
Absolutely
But so is looking down the barrel of a loaded gun with your finger on the trigger.
The moral of the story is don’t be stupid.

 

That’s some funny stuff right there. I’m trying to fall asleep and now I can’t thanks to the laugh. Lol

 

I take it youve never had a brake chamber that the main spring broke on it... Usually when this happens you camt get the cage bolt to lock into the spring. Therefore, it can, at times be physically impossible to cage the brake chamber.

The last 2 nrake chambers that I have had fail did just that... Spring broke and was impossible to get them caged. The first one I put dimes inside the airline fittings to stop airflow to the badly leaking chamber. Then backed the slack adjuater all the way off to release the brake. This got me the 20 miles down the road to a safe place that I could make the repair.

The second one blew on me as I was approaching a closed scale house, where I pulled in and made the repair.

In both cases the repair (replacing the brake chamber) took about an hour. I always carry a spare chamber, and I also carry a piggy back chamber for my trailers as they are different style of chambers than the truck.

 

It has never taken me very long to knock the pins out of the slack adjuster clevis, pop the snapring off the S cam shaft and grab the nasty greasy slack with a walmart bag as if its a dog turd, toss it on the passenger floor mat and get going again while the jacked up can does whatever the heck it wants until i get where i need.

I use cut up innertube for rubberbands on my straps. A chunk of that balled up in the fitting will stop a leak.

 

I don't know about the rest of you guys but in the time everyone’s spent dissussing what to do and not to do with a brake chamber I’ve already changed all of mine and gotten a 1000 miles down the road. HAHA!

 

Matlack's R-600's had Ross 4 cyl air compressors so we could use the engine air to unload.

Sent to pick up a spotted trailer in a residential electric substation [after a lightening strike they drain the transformer into tankers and re-process the cooling dielectric oil to refill the repaired transformer] to find the can leaking...that 4 cyl let us release the brakes and d drive the few blocks back to the shop without dragging the brake.

Port drivers remove the clevis pin and go.....roving mechanic does at least one a week...chamber and clevis

 

I get what you're saying. Running that cage bolt in with a electric impact takes a deep deep socket. Time you get that cage bolt to do its thing you will have a lot of it protruding out? Only other way is to pull the pin on slack adjuster..think has been mentioned by someone. They are usually under pressure when brakes are set and can be kinda difficult. Got to do what you got to do.

 

Seen a sign once ,it said " take all the warning labels off, and just let the problem sort itself out" lol.