To cage or not?

Welcome to the forum Tim!!

Sorry I'm not even close to being a mechanic so I couldn't help with the question.

Sorry

 

I don't understand what you mean by, "rebuilding the chamber"? I have never heard of any company remanufacturing their own spring brake chambers. The ones we use, and have always used, are crushed over collars. Do you mean they just change out the "piggyback half"? Removing the piggyback half only is dangerous without it being caged. You should always cage it for the sakes of safety. Mechanics do cut corners to save some time and will knock off the piggyback with out caging it, but you should get into the habit of caging every time. As for installing, it is way easier to cage a complete unit so you are not fitting getting it mounted and connected to the slack adjuster.

 

Welcome to the driving profession.
If you have air to your brakes it is easy to cage as you can release brakes put caging bolt in tighten nut all the way and when you pull the knob they are caged no tightening by hand is needed.
When removing brake chambers, the reason for caging is so you can remove pins from slack adjusters. No tension on pins. If you back off your brakes before you remove air lines you don't need to cage brakes. Chambers are not caged when buying new.
At some point you will have to replace the whole chamber and push rod as the corrosion will eat at the diameter of rod. Of course that takes years.
I always carry extra diaphragms with me to change when needed on the road. 30 minute job in good weather 1 hour when snowing blowing and below zero.

CAUTION
IF you don't know what you are doing 100% DON'T repeat DON'T work on brake chambers. They can kill you.
For safety reason you should always cage brakes when working on them . Not saying you can't, safety first.

 

from a cost saving/time standpoint it makes a lot of sense to just replace the service break diaphram if you have a chamber leaking on the service break side. or put a half can on for a park break side leak. a service break diaphragm is only a couple bucks and quicker to change than an entire can. you must cage the break before starting to work on it if you are replacing a diaphragm or a half can. doing it this way is a time saver because you don't have to cut the rod down or mess with the pins that are always frozen or disconnect the air hoses if doing a service break diaphram. just cage the break, remove the band clamp pull out the diaphragm stick a new one in and put the clamp back on and remove the cage bolt and your done. doing a half can for a park break leak is slightly more work but only extra step is to disconnect the air hoses. i used to just replace the entire can but found it much cheaper and quicker to just replace whats needed.

if you are replacing the entire break can you don't really need to cage the break. you can back off the slack adjuster rather than cage the break, or you can cage the break you can do it ether way. but if you are going to take the chamber apart you need to cage it or you will release spring tension and things will fly with a high likelihood of personal injury.

 

You need to cage them for installation for a variety of reasons, full replacement or not. I've always replaced the whole 30/30 unit with haldex lifeseal. I've had those last 7+ years.

 

May I suggest what my father would make me do. until your knowledge and skill increases with time, that you always cage the can no matter which side you are working on. It may save your life if you confuse the service side with the supply side.

 

Very good info given to you in above posts, if my memory is right the spring in the brake chamber can create close to 1200 lbs of force. Be careful if you do decide to split one. Safety begins with a careful operator.

 

Welcome to the forum Tim. Just repeating what the members have already said. It is nothing to changing the service diaphragm.
Just my opinion here, NEVER change the diaphragm on the spring side. In theory it should be easy to change but...? More than likely, parts are rusted and weak, creating more chance for problems. It aint worth the risk. Already said, guys have got badly hurt when the parking spring gets loose. The money saved isn't worth the risk, to me. Replace the back half(or the whole can) and have the satisfaction of new.
Best wishes in your new career...