Geoff Weeks

Last few years before I retired, I was alternating between my double bunk and single bunk Cabover with the dog house. I'm a big guy, over 6'3" and 260 lbs. I shared the sleeper with my 65 lb Chow/Great Pyrenees mix. I managed, but preferred the double bunk, or my Marmon walk-in.

It was the truck that really saved Freightliner, IHC and Freightliner cabovers were the pride of many fleets, or at least the main-stay. When the length laws went bye-bye, was right around when the FLD came out and they were well placed to take IHC's customers with it. Saw a lot of fleets go from IHC and Freightliner cab over to FLD's.

Sticker on the dash says it has a Rockwell trans? Not is common or trouble free as an RR (Eaton).

It looks to me like the "extra' gear is a PTO gear for the 6 bolt mount on the side. This is interfering with the 8 bolt mount. can't tell if the gear pitch matches from just a photo. Mis match of parts, either start again or get a PTO for the exact trans you are putting in. PTO's are very limited in what they fit, they all look alike but there are 1000's of combinations of parts, that all have to be matched for it to work.

450 to 500 ft lbs on inner and outer stud pilot nuts. Brake noise is often dirt/ dust.

This sounds like the ground is faulty, either the truck wiring or the lights themselves. Try running an external ground wire from a known good ground to the lamp and see if that solves the problems. You shouldn't need a relay with LED's

Incandescent flashers depend on an amount of current being drawn on the flasher to work, LED's just don't draw enough to make it function. One 1157 with may be a dash indicator draw enough most of the time, but with all LED's the correct LED flasher is needed. BTW I have used flashers like you have successfully on 6 volt trucks, by stretching the spring on the relay inside. they work more on "draw" than voltage, if there is enough current draw they don't care about the voltage so much. LED's draw so little that they don't trigger the flasher to function.

Do you have LED's on the rear as well? That flasher is for incandescent bulbs and may not work on LED's. Most times you can get by with it if one or the other (front or rear) has incandescent bulbs. Try getting a flasher that says it works with LED's It may have a ground wire on the flasher, I know some LED flashers do.

When I was working at a dealership, we all hated the 1st oil change. I think it was the factory installed the filter dry (no lube on the gasket) and the metal was clean, caused the rubber gasket to bond to the metal. In some cases it took stripping away the metal "can" and filter element to gain access to the filter base plate, sticking a blunt punch in an air hammer and beating the baseplate loose. Yeah, do that in book time" ! If we saw a white painted filter with no markings, we knew we were in for a fight.

Your experience is why I posted this way back. I'm cheap and don't like to throw parts at a problem. Your eyes and ears are the only ones looking at the problem, we can give pointers but it is up to your to trace out what is happening when, and under what conditions. I have seen many brake chambers condemned and replaced that didn't fix the problem. There is an O ring to seal the push rod between the service and spring brake chambers, and while that can leak spring brake pressure into the service brake side, as others have said, it should vent from the QR valve or the QR section of the relay anytime the spring brakes are released. Some trucks have "anti compounding" or inversion valves in the tractors braking system, both do different things and are there for different reasons but the one thing they have in common is they have connections to both (service and spring brake) systems.

You really can't tell what drum you need without pulling the wheels and looking. There are some real popular ones, and if it had hub pilot wheels it would be a fair guess, but with stud pilot, and not knowing even if it is inboard oi outboard drums, there are just too many possibilities.

I think he was reacting to RMSMack's post about Propar and Frurhauf. It was why I said the 1st most likely was Rockwell, 2nd Eaton, but there were other possibilities (all this before pictures were posted. There still are some odd ball stuff on the road, and just when you think you'll never see another, it pops up.

Here are some picture of shoes with wear limits on them. On the picture of the V notch, you can clearly see where the V goes to a vertical slot. Once the shoe has worn to that point it is time to change. The next picture shows a line on the side of the lining, the lining becomes a little wider at that point, when the shoe has worn to the line, it is time to change. I don't have a shoe with the 1/2 moon ground on the lining to show you.

yes. as long as the nut isn't bound to the Ferrel on the tube, where the tube want to turn with the nut. Often you can work it back and forth with a little oil and get it to break free.

That should be the one on top that "T"s into the relay and the large one at the far left of the picture. Disconnect the other black one that was next to the one you plugged. When you step on the brakes air should come out the valve but none out of the disconnected black line. If the rear relay is working correctly, and you don't get air out of the black line next to the one you plugged, then the relay is a good bet to be the problem. If you have air coming out the black line, then you have more work to do.

By "front axle" I think you mean front drive axle and not steer axle? You have a black line that is next to the one you capped, where does it go, and does the thing it is connected to work? Put a pressure gauge in the plugged port and see if there is pressure there when the brake is applied and then released. You should see pressure when applied and none when released. Relay valves are similar to electric relays, in that they have a control that manipulates the output. They can fail in the same way. either the input can be faulty or the output is not following the input. The first is not the relay's fault it is what ever supplies the input. In short it could be, but it isn't 100% what is at fault you need more diagnoses.

My take is, looking at picture which can be deceiving, new drums are called for, with new drums, you'd be stupid not to do shoes and hardware. S cam bushing are done as needed. Thin drums hot spot and get so hard the shoes don't "bite" and braking can be very poor even with new shoes on old drums. I tended to run my drums for 2 sets of shoes and then replace. Being able to stop in time loaded negated any cost saving from re-using old drums. Compared to lighter trucks/cars, heavy truck drums are cheap, esp when comparing pound for pound. Most modern shoes have a wear indicator, either a 1/2 moon on the side or a V ( or may be a Y) groove in the center between the linings on one shoe. If either the half moon is gone or the V notch is down to the point the sided are vertical, time for new linings.

For what it is worth, I did a quick search to see if I could find anything that says spring brakes are required on all trailer axles. I did not find anything that said that in those words, but and it is a big but, the mfg of the trailer must be able to certify that the trailer meets stopping distance requirements both with service and emergency brakes. Many tractors were made with spring brakes on one drive axle only, IHC with IHC and some Eaton axles, applied the Power divider lock when the spring brakes were applied so they held both axles. I have come across tractors with spring brakes on both axles and only one. I would want spring brakes on both, Back in to a parking space with a drop-off and the rear axle hangs over the drop, the trailer could end up in the ditch!

I agree about spring brakes on all axles. I'd have to look it up in the fed regulations, but I can't remember a trailer with spring brakes on only one axle, but not on any others. Hard to say on age, I see auto slacks, but that doesn't mean much. Biggest problem I come across on older axles is worn S cam bushing and worn spiders where the bushings are pressed in. If they are badly worn, it will be impossible to keep the brakes in adjustment and working correctly.

You really don't need the axle mfg for much of anything. Most likely it will have Rockwell (Meritor) brakes but there are other possibilities Eaton is the next likely. If you aren't up on truck stuff, best to take the parts with you and match them up. There are Rockwell Q and Q+ and they look similar but are different. Drums should have a casting number on them to ID them. Shoes most often have a core charge anyway, so you want to trade them, so make one trip and know you have the right ones. Unless the cut-off is from something real odd it will have 16 1/2 x 7 shoes. By "Budd" I assume stud pilot, and they can be inboard or outboard drums. Outboard would be most likely unless the cut-off was old. Get hardware kits and when the shoes are off check the S cam bushings. I don't have a recommended brand for drums, just what the truck parts place has. Some of the older odd ball drums are only available from lesser known brands. I try to get balanced drums if I can, but wouldn't bother for a farm wagon that isn't going to spend every day all day at highway speeds.

CHeck each glow plug individually, before going for the relay or controller. bad plugs (opens) effects how the controller reacts. Not saying your wrong, but check 1st.

Don't suppose it would go over well to show up at Deere in a Transtar!

Well, if it helps, I still think it a dumb idea! There was a truckstop "discussion" where a pair of Bull haulers were making the claim they "needed to have straight pipes because they were always heavy and had wind drag, and me with my tractor and load ticking the scales at 168,000 lbs, over 14'6 high and wide, the outside of which was I beams all the way around (talk about drag). I asked what they thought would happen if they had single exh and a muffler? "Why, we couldn't even get on the highway"! Oh really?

Lets see, did you read it? High School teacher was in an ad, a few of his students were unpaid "extras" in the background. It wouldn't be hard in a high school to get kids to volunteer for anything, Hardly a "smoking gun", no indication he even knew who or what "Black Rock" was. I remember my Spanish teacher had a few minutes of "fame" being in a commercial, I don't even remember for what.

Yes, irrigation pumps never "engine brake" where the engine is turned fast with the throttle closed. The only way it can happen is with a truck climbing a grade and then rapidly descending the other side with the throttle fully closed, and even then, it is unlikely and would require almost "open ports". I think the above truck situation is where the fable started, and was known in aircraft with no collector ring on the exhaust (manifold). Even aircraft, aren't likely to go from full throttle on and full off with the prop driving the engine. A lot has to depend on the cam and valve overlap when both intake and exhaust are off their seats and the manifold vacuum is very high. It is not a situation that happens in most applications.