brakes

[encantotom]

hi all,

i had the brakes gone over in the coach i just got. they were a mess. in the back, all four had the pin that the caliper floats on to self adjust frozen with rust. the tag had a wheel seal and needed new bearings on one side. the other side seal needed replacing as well. put new oil sight glass hubcaps on both sides too.

today had the front brakes looked at. they were totally worn out. you can see from the pictures that there was next to nothing left. fortunately they had not gouged the rotor. the rotors on the front were solid. not sure you could ever wear them out.

my bus guy leo took the floating pin apart and cleaned and lubed it as well.

nice to have the assurance that totally rebuilt brakes give. two 1/2 sets of pads.

the calipers were rebuilt on the rear (mostly).

btw, they are gear and chain driven. under a cover on the caliper is a chain that rotates two gears that pushes the caliper piston out. one had frozen and leo built one good one out of an old one and mine.

i can do brakes on a car and my f350, but as rusted as these were and the special tools required to rebuild the calipers, i couldnt have done it.

just pads, yes. i watched and i could do those in ten minutes once the wheel was off. but not if you have to go into the caliper or bearings.

tom

tom

[tuga]

I was having my tag axle tires rotated today. When the tag axle tires were switched with the drive axle tires I noticed that my tag disc brake pads were very thin! About 3/16" thick!

So I'll schedule that little job with my local truck repair place that did my front air bags 2 weeks ago. It never stops!
Or should I say, it always stops if you keep good thick brake pads on the disc brakes!

Can anyone give me an approximate price for changing just the tag axle disc brakes? Labor and materials!

[prestadude]

Tom, where do you get the oil sight glass hub caps? I have been looking for those.

[MarkofSJC]

Man, I was under the impression that between jake brakes and the heavy duty nature of coach/truck brakes ~ they would last virtually forever! How many miles did each of you have on your respective coaches?

Mark

[encantotom]

my coach has 195,000 miles on it. my guess is i will be dust before i have to do brakes again.

tim, my bus mechanic just had them in his parts room. but they are th eones inside the metal caps.

tom

[tuga]

Mark,

My coach has 149,123 miles presently. I had a rear brake job done at 94,400 miles; the tag axle disc brake pads were o.k. at that time (4 years ago). Front pads are still good; about 5/8" left.

They last a long time; but not forever!

I guess it has a lot to do with the way you drive. My wife is hard on brakes; I like to let the coach "coast" for a while in anticipation of the the stop ahead.