brake faillure

[dutch-deuce]

Hi i don’t post a lot here ( i read a lot here ) but this event made me sweat ( real bad ) and just want to share this strange cause of my brake failure.

Used the deuce for work last week and on the way back i had to make a turn and hit the brake
to slow her down ( was going about 45 mph ) but in a second the brake pressure was gone pedal on the floor and the road was ending. So i pull the hand-brake ( almost out the floor )
The hand-brake really was smelly but slow the deuce just enough to make the turn.
fortunately i was 5 min. from home and drive her home in a low slow gear. One rear-tire was covert in brake-fluid.
Today i pulled the rear wheel and hub and noticed that the brake-drum was a little loose.
When i pulled it of i found out that some of the bolts that holds the drum on the hub came off.
4 bolts where completely out and broke the brake-cylinder.
I have flipped the hubs but that was 8 years ago and i checked the brakes and hub-bearings
regularly.

So why, how can this happen ?

Gone check the other hubs too and use a lot of lock-tite.

 

[rrrr]

I'm getting ready to flip my hubs. I'll be using red loctite !

 

[Flyingvan911]

I'm glad it ended well for you. Good luck on the repair job.

 

[glcaines]

I'm glad you didn't have an accident, tear up your truck, or something worse! With the Deuce having a single circuit brake system, it is actually quite amazing that more brake failures don't occur. These 40+ year old trucks have a lot of brake components that can fail due to aging hoses, corroded lines, etc.

 

[nk14zp]

Glad everyone is ok.

 

[dozer1]

Glad to hear that you were able to think fast and handle the situation. Sounds scary. Good thing you were close to home so you could limp the truck home and get some clean underwear lol. kidding. Those are the kind of stories that are good to share so when people are inspecting the brakes, they will be checking that out good too. Thanks

 

[hoop]

Pesky neighbors...............

 

[cattlerepairman]

I am glad you are ok and the incident happened in probably the best possible location (minus the curve). IIRC, the bolt heads that hold the brake drum to the hub have a hole drilled through them and are supposed to be secured with safety wire. This would prevent the bolts from backing out.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Thats what I was gonna say.

 

[DieselBob]

The bolts that have the safety wire are the ones that hold the hub / hub adapter assembly together. The bolts that hold the brake drum to the hub adapter only have lock washers under the nut.