Smoked my CUCV brakes

[Mastiff]

I put my parking brake on and I guess it didn't come off. On the way home I smelled something, which was one of the rear drums smoking. Rather than strand myself, I tried to go the rest of the way slowly, making stops along the way to let the brake cool off (I had no lube or anything with me to break stuff loose). I could tell at the end that I made a mistake since it takes way more pedal travel to stop now. I must've really worn down that one brake.

So... how tough of a job is replacing the shoes on 1-ton M1008 drum brakes? Which vehicle should I tell them at the parts place to get the right parts, since the drums look huge, probably bigger than a standard K30?

If this is a frustrating job, I might cave and have a shop do it the first time, since everything on this truck is so rusted. What do you guys think?

 

[darkshadow]

sounds like a great time to swap to disks

 

[dremu]

I put my parking brake on and I guess it didn't come off. On the way home I smelled something, which was one of the rear drums smoking. Rather than strand myself, I tried to go the rest of the way slowly, making stops along the way to let the brake cool off (I had no lube or anything with me to break stuff loose). I could tell at the end that I made a mistake since it takes way more pedal travel to stop now. I must've really worn down that one brake.

So... how tough of a job is replacing the shoes on 1-ton M1008 drum brakes? Which vehicle should I tell them at the parts place to get the right parts, since the drums look huge, probably bigger than a standard K30?

If this is a frustrating job, I might cave and have a shop do it the first time, since everything on this truck is so rusted. What do you guys think?

Pretty sure the rear axle on the '08's is the same as the civvy 14-bolt ... you prolly have the HD brakes, which are the 13", I think. LMC catalog shows you which are which by the width of the shoe. I'd just bring the old shoes with ya ... out here you get core for them anyway, though I think it's something stupid like five bucks.

I've always done my own brakes, no rocket science ... lotsa WD40 or whatever to break the rusty crusties loose, and prolly new wheel cylinders along with your shoes, maybe have the drums resurfaced.

-- A

 

[Mastiff]

Thanks. Somewhere I got the idea that maybe the whole axle had to come out on the full floaters. Is that true?

Man, I can't even get the parking brake to losen up. I soaked everything with penetrating oil and the parking brake is still totally rock hard. Weird thing is, it was like that when I tried to use it too. I think I got maybe one click out of it and that was enough to smoke the whole deal.

Right now I'm not even sure how to adjust the parking brake on this truck. It looks like the cable from the cab goes directly to the drivers side drum. The passenger side actually has the adjustment... hmm, maybe loosening that will make just a little slack on the driver's side too or something.

What a PITA.

 

[79k20350]

i second the swap to disks. Heres a kit for 555.00 with a parking brake http://www.blackbirdscustomtrucks.com/index7.html#3fbolt Then all you need is the short brake hoses for 25 buck so 280 w/ parking brakes, thats not a bad deal for everything.

 

[masterbeavis]

Have you tried backing off the adjusters inside the drum or re adjust the shoes? It takes alot to waste a set of shoes, if you are not hearing metal on metal, prolly wont need new shoes. Also try bleeding the brakes till you get clear fluid. That might help the spongy pedal you feel. Before you drop $500+ on a rear disc brake kit, keep in mind that if you buy the part yourself, there is no way a disc brake swap should cost more than $200-300 in parts. Do some research, it can be done. My one ton axle had 14" shoes (or so I thought the tape measure said.) When I do rear brakes, I take both drums off, but only take apart one side at a time so I have one side to reference.

 

[79k20350]

even if he didnt waste the brakes chances are they're glazed over in which case the need to be replced anyways

 

[perp]

yes you have to pull the axle shafts to remove the drums, but not the whole housing

 

[thatK30guy]

I agree on backing off the adjusters, IF, they turn. Depending on how rusty they are, hope they turn otherwise you will prolly need a BFH to pound on the drums themselves on the backside to get them to slide off.

And once you get them off, I also agree on the previous statements to convert to disc brakes. You can do it cheaper than the Blackbirds price. The lowest I've seen them go for is around $250 for the complete stuff.

If you still insist on drum brakes, M1008's use 13 x 3.5 inch shoes. Very easy to do and just like the civilian K/V30/3500's.

 

[Mastiff]

Thanks for all the advice. This truck is mostly a beater to haul junk with at the moment. I just want it to work, so I'm not so interested in the disk upgrade at this point. I'll start by seeing if I can just adjust them and get the pedal feel back to how it was. It's actually not that bad right now, it's about the same as the K5, it's just that it used to have a really solid brake feel with almost no play before braking started.

The most pressing problem is to figure out what's going on with the parking brake. I don't even know how to tell if it's released. The parking brake pedal is almost totally solid and there is tension on the cable. I can try just loosening the adjuster screw (rusted to hell, of course), but I'll need to find out if it's still frozen inside the brake. Guess I'll just jack it up and see how much resistance I feel.

Aren't drums supposed to self adjust or something like that? I'll have to read up a little...

 

[dieselponyexpress]

My M1008 is doing the same. I release the brake by pulling hard at the cable (grab under the truck right behind the tank).
I've inspected the system inside the drum many times and can't imagine why the release don't work.

Walter

 

[Mastiff]

My M1008 is doing the same. I release the brake by pulling hard at the cable (grab under the truck right behind the tank).
I've inspected the system inside the drum many times and can't imagine why the release don't work.

If you can release it by pulling, doesn't that mean it's stuck somewhere around the pedal or between the pedal and where you are pulling? If it's stuck in the drum, pulling would just make it tighter.

 

[Mastiff]

I checked mine again, and turns out I could release it by pulling the cable in front of the tank there. It's definitely sticking in the cable sheath-thing that goes through the cab floor. I've tried lubing it, but it's hard to get anything in there.

I wonder if the problem isn't actually on the drums side though after all, like is there a spring in there that is supposed to be pulling against the cable and it just rusted out or something?

As far as the brakes themselves go, I was able to look through the punch-outs on the backs of the drums and see that I have plenty of pad left on both sides. The side that was stuck yesterday is in contact with the drum and the other side is far away (like 1 mm or something). Looks like maybe the drums were all messed up anyway. I'm thinking maybe the auto adjuster stopped functioning on the driver's side?

I've never tried adjusting drums through the little punch out in the back. Should I give it a shot? Do I need a special tool, or can I just use a flat blade?