Dexter Electric trailer brakes

Lefty · April 24, 2014, 12:47 AM

Ok, so prior to our upcoming trip I decided it would be wise to repack the wheel bearings on our 1998 Star Craft 5th wheel. Glad I did, because what I discovered was bad... really bad.

First, I jacked up and removed the front right wheel, got it onjack stands, and started to remove the hub/drum. But it wouldn't come off. So I crawled underneath to back off the adjuster, thinking there might be a lip on the inside preventing the shoes from clearing the drum. Wrong. There was a partial return spring dangling out of the adjuster hole.
So now I knew that wheel had issues. I used two pry bars and finally was able to force the drum/hub off. What was inside was a totally destroyed set of brakes. Every spring, retainer, cable, and holder was ground into mangled bits... the self adjuster had wedged between the masgnet and drum, bending the arm holding the magnet, as well as causing the magnet to grind against the face of the drum until it was ground almost in half. The adjuster itself was ground down until just a partial tip of it remained... barely enough to even identify that it was the adjuster. The shoes, having broken free, had flopped and grinded away to burnt, twisted remnants... Obviously, the original failure had been many miles and years ago... it takes a long time for that much damage to occur. Hub/drums were in surprisingly good condition, a little gouged and grooved, but not too deep. The local O'Reilly's mic'd them for me and they were still well within tolerance for turning. They charged me $10/drum to turn them & they came out like new and still had almost 0.012" left for future turning.

So.. I decided that was the end of that wheel for now.. so I removed the back passenger wheel... just as bad, just as mangled. BUMMER!!!

Got online and compared prices at several places... Etrailer.com offered free shipping on purchases over $99, so even though their individual part prices were slightly higher, they ended up being the cheapest by around $60. Hardest part was figuring out exactly which axle I had. The original label showing the GVWR of the axles is too faded to read. I crawled under the trailer and luckily the axles still had the original aluminum ID band on them from the factory. It identified them as being Dexter 5,000lb axles.

Ordered :
two left brake assemblies #23-458 $55.95ea
two right brake assemblies #23-459 $55.95ea
4 new seals #10-10 $4.95/pair

Ordered at 10:45pm on the 21st... they arrived here via UPS at 10:30am on the 23rd. FREE!!! VERY PLEASED!
I removed the old assemblies by removing the 5- 3/8" nuts holding them to the axle flange. Then I cleaned everything up and spraypainted the frame and springs with chassis black semi-gloss to freshen it up. I also sprayed the drums.
I installed the new brake assemblies, which came in pre-assembled, and torqued the mounting nuts to 50ft lbs per the manufacturers specs. Then I re-attached the electric brake magnet wires, which exit the back of the backing plates.
I repacked the original wheel bearings, as they were in excellent shape, and installed them back onto the spindles.

Finally, I sanded and masked off the wheels, and re-sprayed them with gloss white epoxy (same as original). They had to dry, so I quit for the day and will have to install them
tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I get to install those two tires, lower that side back on the ground, and do it all over again on the other side!! Whee!! Just praying the hub/drums on that side are also in turnable shape... So I don't have to buy those and wait till they come in.

Didn't take pics yet, but I will tomorrow showing the completed side and wheels... and the damaged old stuff.

Stripe · April 24, 2014, 01:33 AM

Wow, good write up. I can't imagine that you would even hear that rattling going on while traveling down the road. Too bad those trailers don't have some sort of alert mechanism (short of not being able to stop while pulling) that would indicate an internal problem with the brakes. And it's probably a good thing you caught that problem before it caused a major seizure while driving down the road and blowing both tires on that side. Not a pretty picture. Looking forward to the photos..

Fredric

DaveVA78Chieftain · April 24, 2014, 04:08 PM

Hmm, says something for having a yearly state inspection requirement.

Dave

Lefty · September 21, 2015, 11:19 AM

Sorry for the very long delay between posts.. I forgot to return to this and add the pictures I promised. I just ran into this post while looking for something.

Note: Pictures are from one side, I took them before I started the other side.. but both sides were in about the same condition and were replaced the same way.

Here are the old brake shoes:

This is the springs and hardware from one assembly. All 4 sets were destroyed.

Damaged magnet and bent magnet arm.

The other damaged magnet and bent arm... The two on the other side were just as bad.

Look closely... The bottom of the shoe on the right is bent outwards at a 90 degree angle. It's supposed to be straight. The adjuster was completely missing on this assembly when I removed the drum.

Ok, That's the damage.
Next post, the repairs.

Lefty · September 21, 2015, 11:45 AM

Now for the shiny stuff!!
Before I installed the new parts, I did some basic refreshing while I had good access.
I pressure washed the entire frame after spraying it with a strong mixture of Simple green degreaser. then I used a wire wheel to remove the surface rust and loose paint from the frame and axles. After going over the hard to reach spots with a hand held wire brush, I then sprayed 3 coats of Rustoleum Semi-gloss black enamel on the entire frame and axles.
It is important to note a few things... It doesn't do any good to clean up and repaint the outsides of a frame unless you also cleanup and repaint the insides of the frame.. If you don't, the inside of the frame will still rust, defeating the entire purpose. Also, never paint the spindles where the hub bearings and seals mount. Be sure to tape off those areas.
Yes, it is a lot of work. But it should preserve the frame for many years. I think it also just looks better and is a sign the job was done right & not halfway.

Here are the new brake assemblies for one side. They come pre-assembled and ready to bolt in place:

They bolt on using the old retaining nuts.. 5 of them. be sure to torque them with a torque wrench to 50ft/lbs as specified.

This is how it should look:

On the backside, you have two wires to connect. I used crimp on connectors that I also covered with heat shrink to prevent moisture from entering the joints. It does not matter which wire is connected to which..