no drive brakes, will not adjust

Agreed, sounds like the brakes are caged.

 

When you rotate the S-cam as in backing off the brake far enough the rollers follow the cam to the other side and will force the shoe to the drum, but when you apply the brake the shoe comes away from the drum because the roller is now on the wrong side of the cam. The reason this can happen is due to the fact that the cam can be rotated 360* by the slack adjuster.

I won't go into any common sense issues of people knowing how to adjust brakes, we all had to start somewhere in gaining knowledge about their operation.

 

If the only cause of this problem was that the park chambers were caged then he would still have service brakes when applied. Caging the spring brake won't interfere with the operation of the service brake.

 

I don't think the DD3 can be caged, since there is no "spring brake"....which is what the cage bolt manually releases. Instead, there is a mechanical means of locking the brake in the applied position for the parking brake, which is released by applying the service brakes. Then you have the service brakes. Then you have an auxiliary brake powered by a 3rd air line to the chamber which acts as your "emergency" brake.

http://www.wsafc.org/WSFMA/Shared Documents1/Bendix Air Brake Handbook.pdf

http://www.mcicoach.com/service-support/serinfo/serinfo04E.htm

 

so what you are refering to are the old wedge type brakes correct?

 

No. A wedge brake uses a wedge to push the shoes into the drum.

 

You said no drive brakes does that mean you have front brakes?if so sounds like other problems

 

Did not know that,so similar to the old 30 cans with the three buttons on the dash

 

Since when do you adjust brakes during a full application? All the ones I've ever had you release the brakes and adjust them tight to the drum and back off a quarter.