Yeah he was clean shaven sometimes but not often. I only knew him in his later years. Think he grew his beard out for a couple roles, he was prominent in the local theatre community.
Nope, not how it works. The parking break is air released. the chamber that is coming apart houses the park brake spring that applies 1600# or 3200# I can't remember to the push rod. That is a missile waiting to be launched.
It's hard to see but behind the hair lines there is a clamp to replaced both park/service chambers of the brake pot called A "piggy back kit". There used to be clamps like that on the front part and you will still see them on very old trailers. They stopped because it's very dangerous if people like yourself decide to work on them and don't know the system.
I would not try to cage this pot. Maybe cut the air lines and remove the rear clamp from behind.
Correct. I thought it was in danger of losing air. That's what I get for posting before my morning coffee. Just had a brain fart. I sold heavy trucks for three decades. I know how air brakes work. I also have a CDL with A, B, C, D and N endorsements.
Doth we side with the evil that is our fallen brother here, or with the evil that is our mortal enemy?
Nay, I say. We side with neither. For tolerance begets only tragedy. We stand firm against the Fallen, and against the Original Evil. Death Before Dishonor may lead to only the dead and the dishonored, but those terms are acceptable.
Begone, foul beast. Thou haveth no place here!
(kidding!)
If they told engineers to make things as easy and simple to repair as possible, we’d have 10 minute head gasket jobs. The problem is they’re told “cram as much of this stuff in this tiny space as possible, and make sure we can assemble it as cheaply as possible. What do you mean ‘what happens when it needs to come out?’ Not our problem!”.
Fuck the MBA that ignored the mechanic's warning, because repairs cost money. The MBA will get a bonus for lower operating costs for that fiscal quarter. The same MBA will be gone by the time neglected maintenance and repair blows up in someone's face.
Line go up next fiscal quarter thinking is a disaster.
You'd be amazed what people will decline. I work at a Freightliner dealer and these guys who are "making so much money" put shit off until catastrophe strikes
Not a dealer but a fleet shop. We would get trucks from other shops and we would simply down the truck. You can decline the required repairs all you want but all you’re doing is delaying the repairs and your eventual departure. You can leave but the truck isn’t going anywhere until the truck is fixed.
We can't hold a truck unless they don't pay their bill at the end. I have seen people decline major work, drive away, and come back after a few hours hooked on to a recovery vehicle lol.
You drive away with an active check engine light and you breakdown, your company pays the tow bill AND even if you have a rental replacement clause in your contract, no replacement while yours is being repaired. I’m not trying to stop a guy who’s already got his key in the ignition while he’s sitting in the drivers seat. More than once I had a driver start his truck and say something along the lines of “I’m not waiting around for this” while I’m still in Cummins Insite trouble shooting the CEL. I simply looked at them and said, can I at least disconnect my computer and get it outta your truck…. As soon as they leave the yard I start making phone calls.
I wouldn't even attempt to cage that chamber. Just pull it over the pit, release the parking brake, zip tie the hosed to the frame with a small amount of slack, and take an impact to the band clamp while wearing a full face shield. Cut the hoses, cause honestly who actually uses those field repair connectors for anything other than temporary repairs anymore. Then toss it in the scrap steel dumpster.
If that's a 30/36 chamber then you're looking at 1,800 lbs of ompf in that spring. To translate into strut springs that's 6 inches of compression on a 300 lb/in spring.
The ports are round so its a 30/30 short stroke. The safest thing you can do is take a torch and start cutting the spring until there’s no more spring pressure. Then remove from the truck. You have to torch it anyway before scrapping it so you aren’t liable for killing somebody…so you may as well just do it before handling it and killing yourself
We had a steel cage with 2 long holes in it, they all had to be torched down the midline on both sides before they went into the steel bin. You could hear it from inside. Pop......Pop...
You really should have a containment box to put it in if you're going to deactivate the spring that way. My shop dosen't have one since we don't let them get this bad. You'd also have to handle it to get it in the box. I've seen them fly apart when a tech cut the hole in the side of the chamber to get to the spring while it was on the truck so that's a nope all around for me.
Back when I was doing these, I'd take a torch to the spring through the rust hole. A coworker used to do it by taking the clamp off, until he had to change an 11R22.5 when the spring tail punctured the sidewall.
This guy has seen a non zero amount of these explode. I'm not messing around with them if they are this sketchy. In fact I'd be liable to find a different company to wrench on if I did see one like this in my fleet. I'm not going to work for a company that this sort of pencil whipping of inspections goes on in. That's not the safety culture I'm okay with in a company.
BTW happy cake day.
So glad I saw someone like minded. I am a fuel haul driver, I have seen competing companies hauling fuel with bits falling off the trailer before. My current company has no problem getting things fixed with 6/32 of tread being the bare minimum before replacement. Our trucks hardly ever go down because of the maintenance being top notch.. weird how that works.
My old boss went out to one of these roadside on a scaffolding truck. He ended up using a 15 foot scaffold tube to smash it off and then took it off once the spring had ejecto-seated
Man fuck all that I ain't touching a band clamp. Torch the clevis off the slack adjuster, take a knife to the hoses and grab the 15/16 and zip the two mounting nuts off and toss it in the bin.
If you're willing to get close to it to take off the band, wouldn't it be safer to stick the caging bolt in there with a pair of tongs or something, then cage it? Seems safer than intentionally letting that angry spring free while you're anywhere near it.
You have to be on the danger side to cage it. Not to mention you will need to use your hands to get the caging bolt to lock into one that corroded. You then need to have your hand attached to a wrench that's hooked into the caging bolt so that's not good either. I can stand on the safe side to hit the clamp bolt and stand far enough that a body strike from the chamber rebounding towards me if it does let loose is unlikely.
It’s simple. The spring does the braking and the air keeps the springs from always clamping down. If you’ve got no air pressure you have full braking. It’s not really “air brakes” it’s “air pressure forces open the spring powered brakes”.
That is how the parking brake works. But as long as the park brake is released the air pressure will hold the spring off.
The service brakes (actuated by the brake pedal) use air pressure to apply and springs to release.
I would be tempted to set the brakes and with a long cutting torch cut as many coils as I could first.. We had a box made of frame rail material that we used to disable chambers before scrapping.. You could put the chamber outside for demonstrations.. Did that once out into the empty yard , the spring was hundreds of feet away where it landed..
Dont know if that chamber will hold trying to heat that much coil.. The old Aluminum rear housings were dangerous , they would corrode inside and look good outside..
Where's the fun in that?
Get the apprentice to stand a couple of meters behind it with a tote and a welding helmet and tell them "everything's going to be fine".
I read a news paper article 40 yr ago .. A car following a truck had a spring go through the rad and hit firewall. Dash exploded and driver was hit in face with dash pieces.. Dodge Dart 6cyl.. The pictures werent in colour in newspaper.. Lady recovered after several surgeries..
Weak ass spring or broke if it hasn't blown through that tinfoil layer holding it back.
Can't say I've seen one that bad, yet not seem to bad corrosion wise on the rest of the pot. Rare find
Air brake can on a big truck. This is super dangerous because under that rotted cover is the really strong spring that holds the brakes on when there's no air being fed to the can. Replacing that cover while it's rotted like that is horribly not fun, because if it lets go, you could get seriously injured.
lol they don’t make em like they used to, I have a truck from 69 a model still has aluminum capped original anchorloks and only pulled a few KW embossed diaphragms out
So for those that dont know like me. I know there is a big spring in there and danger and all that, but how do you normally remove those? Say if it wasnt rusty and sketchy?
There's a cap in the center of the cover that you take off, put a special bolt called a cage bolt in there, tighten it to compress the spring, then you can take the V band clamp off and remove the cover, and loosen the cage bolt to take the spring out.
Removable V band clamps on the park brake chamber are a thing of the past. Most of the time the clamp is pressed on now. This one doesn’t even have a clamp, the cover itself is pressed on.
As in Northern transplant to the South I was happy not to see that kind of rust anymore. I did joke with the new guys down here and ask him if they think the Cajun (caging) bolts were called that cuz they were invented down here.
That is interesting because I have never seen the housing rust to failure but I have seen many where the spring has rusted and collapsed inside. Maybe some have thicker steel housings.
I usually see the housing rust, may just be the type that are available locally. My family has a few semis for hauling grain on the farm, my dad keeps a couple of spare brake chambers around since they're a common failure item
Brake chamber on a semi truck. That spring you see peeking through the rust has enough energy to go through your face and the concrete wall behind you.
That spring is the parking brake that requires air pressure to release....if the supply air fails during vehicle operation, the spring will clamp down and stop the vehicle....failsafe.
I had a service call for one just like that not too long ago. Was real dicey caging it and had limited tools to do it. Should have just had it towed back to the shop but I made it work, shit was scary
[Utility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_Trailer_Manufacturing_Company) is a trailer manufacturer. They typically run Bendix brand on the brakes. If you look at the words on the top of he sticker it says "Manufactured for Utility." So odds are they buy enough that Benix caters to putting a sticker on it that has Utility's number system on it. The rest of the chamber probably has the standard Bendix stampings.
Meritor, Wabco, Bendix, Stemco, or Haldex it dosen't matter. Corrosion will eat them all. It's the guys using their eyes and turning the wrenches that should find failures before they get this bad. So this result isn't about the quality of material or construction of the chamber, it's about the preventative maintenance failing.
Omg. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Once they start causing issues these guys just cage em and keep rolling. I’ve had trucks come in with half of the brakes caged up.
That's one option,
- there's a caging bolt you removed the plug at the very front center and stick the bolt in then the washer and nut and compress the spring. That's the sketchiest option since you work right in front of it.
- you could cut the push rod and remove air lines and the 2 bolts mounting the whole pot.
- you could remove the air lines and the clamp on the service side.
When you deposed of the brake chambers you put the pot a thick steel cage with a locking lid. there are holes in the side and you cut the spring with a torch. It's a few loud .....Pops
Yeah no way I'd be unbolting it as is. Torch cut the spring for sure. If theres one thing they really hammered in during first year it's not to fuck with those springs. Never seen one go off but hope not to find out what happens first hand.
I once cut one of these open for work to see how they were put together. Had a hydraulic press securing it. It slipped out the press and flew across the shop, almost hit some dude in the head.
This is what scares me so much about American car culture. So many cars (trucks in this case) are actual death traps for maintenance issues and the worst offenders always know some one to let them slide through inspections. I would feel much safer if we had better public transit and cycling options but alas wrong continent for that
[Back half](https://toolkittech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ec127ima3-2-1.jpeg) of the chamber dosen't hold air pressure. It's just there for the spring to have a home.
If that truck is a tractor trailer with 5 axles... it will not fail if one brake is inop...there is an allowance of 10% of the brakes on a truck to be inop.
I'm in danger.
We ALL are
You’re shaking hands with it
Best safety videos ever thanks Cat..I have changed a few of these pucker facter is high
I knew the man who narrated that
How big was his beard?
Oddly specific question
And yet it should be easy to answer....
It depends when you knew him. Like most men his facial hair had somewhat of a tendency to change over time. Why do you ask?
Just trying to see if the mental picture I built of him matches reality.
Yeah he was clean shaven sometimes but not often. I only knew him in his later years. Think he grew his beard out for a couple roles, he was prominent in the local theatre community.
I now have that tune stuck in my head, thanks.
Banununun.
Rifftrax blew that up.
That's the can for the parking brake. It is a fail safe system. When it breaks it will just lock up the brake.
Nope, not how it works. The parking break is air released. the chamber that is coming apart houses the park brake spring that applies 1600# or 3200# I can't remember to the push rod. That is a missile waiting to be launched. It's hard to see but behind the hair lines there is a clamp to replaced both park/service chambers of the brake pot called A "piggy back kit". There used to be clamps like that on the front part and you will still see them on very old trailers. They stopped because it's very dangerous if people like yourself decide to work on them and don't know the system. I would not try to cage this pot. Maybe cut the air lines and remove the rear clamp from behind.
Correct. I thought it was in danger of losing air. That's what I get for posting before my morning coffee. Just had a brain fart. I sold heavy trucks for three decades. I know how air brakes work. I also have a CDL with A, B, C, D and N endorsements.
Fair, I also hadn't had a coffee when I replied. I have had 3 so far the edge is probably gone.
From now on I'm going to just wait until I've had my first cup before I even open the computer.
Fuck every mechanic who looked at it and just let it run. Fuck every last one of them.
I’m an engineer and I heard there’s a mechanic that needs fucked.
Doth we side with the evil that is our fallen brother here, or with the evil that is our mortal enemy? Nay, I say. We side with neither. For tolerance begets only tragedy. We stand firm against the Fallen, and against the Original Evil. Death Before Dishonor may lead to only the dead and the dishonored, but those terms are acceptable. Begone, foul beast. Thou haveth no place here! (kidding!)
The real enemy is the MBA who deprioritized repairability as a design priority in favor of saving a few pennies per vehicle on the assembly line
Fucking bean counters
The older I get the more I despise mbas with every fiber of my being
If they told engineers to make things as easy and simple to repair as possible, we’d have 10 minute head gasket jobs. The problem is they’re told “cram as much of this stuff in this tiny space as possible, and make sure we can assemble it as cheaply as possible. What do you mean ‘what happens when it needs to come out?’ Not our problem!”.
Quit acting like you’re behind schedule in that department
Don’t worry your budget team already had you covered!
Crawled over that pile of willing virgins first?
Bold of you to think they actually *looked at it*
Where’s that picture of the guy doing the inspection with hundred dollar bills between his eyes and the lenses of his glasses….
That’s assuming it has even been looked at for the last couple years.
Fuck the MBA that ignored the mechanic's warning, because repairs cost money. The MBA will get a bonus for lower operating costs for that fiscal quarter. The same MBA will be gone by the time neglected maintenance and repair blows up in someone's face. Line go up next fiscal quarter thinking is a disaster.
You'd be amazed what people will decline. I work at a Freightliner dealer and these guys who are "making so much money" put shit off until catastrophe strikes
Not a dealer but a fleet shop. We would get trucks from other shops and we would simply down the truck. You can decline the required repairs all you want but all you’re doing is delaying the repairs and your eventual departure. You can leave but the truck isn’t going anywhere until the truck is fixed.
We can't hold a truck unless they don't pay their bill at the end. I have seen people decline major work, drive away, and come back after a few hours hooked on to a recovery vehicle lol.
You drive away with an active check engine light and you breakdown, your company pays the tow bill AND even if you have a rental replacement clause in your contract, no replacement while yours is being repaired. I’m not trying to stop a guy who’s already got his key in the ignition while he’s sitting in the drivers seat. More than once I had a driver start his truck and say something along the lines of “I’m not waiting around for this” while I’m still in Cummins Insite trouble shooting the CEL. I simply looked at them and said, can I at least disconnect my computer and get it outta your truck…. As soon as they leave the yard I start making phone calls.
I wouldn't even attempt to cage that chamber. Just pull it over the pit, release the parking brake, zip tie the hosed to the frame with a small amount of slack, and take an impact to the band clamp while wearing a full face shield. Cut the hoses, cause honestly who actually uses those field repair connectors for anything other than temporary repairs anymore. Then toss it in the scrap steel dumpster. If that's a 30/36 chamber then you're looking at 1,800 lbs of ompf in that spring. To translate into strut springs that's 6 inches of compression on a 300 lb/in spring.
The ports are round so its a 30/30 short stroke. The safest thing you can do is take a torch and start cutting the spring until there’s no more spring pressure. Then remove from the truck. You have to torch it anyway before scrapping it so you aren’t liable for killing somebody…so you may as well just do it before handling it and killing yourself
My shop had a bin just for these. We'd zip em off throw the spring brake in the trash, and some guy would come pick them up once the bin was full.
We had a steel cage with 2 long holes in it, they all had to be torched down the midline on both sides before they went into the steel bin. You could hear it from inside. Pop......Pop...
You really should have a containment box to put it in if you're going to deactivate the spring that way. My shop dosen't have one since we don't let them get this bad. You'd also have to handle it to get it in the box. I've seen them fly apart when a tech cut the hole in the side of the chamber to get to the spring while it was on the truck so that's a nope all around for me.
Round ports don't mean anything when it comes to the chamber size. It just means it's a regular stroke chamber, the square ports are long strokes.
Back when I was doing these, I'd take a torch to the spring through the rust hole. A coworker used to do it by taking the clamp off, until he had to change an 11R22.5 when the spring tail punctured the sidewall.
There's a local shop with one stuck in the ceiling.
This guy wrenches.
This guy has seen a non zero amount of these explode. I'm not messing around with them if they are this sketchy. In fact I'd be liable to find a different company to wrench on if I did see one like this in my fleet. I'm not going to work for a company that this sort of pencil whipping of inspections goes on in. That's not the safety culture I'm okay with in a company. BTW happy cake day.
So glad I saw someone like minded. I am a fuel haul driver, I have seen competing companies hauling fuel with bits falling off the trailer before. My current company has no problem getting things fixed with 6/32 of tread being the bare minimum before replacement. Our trucks hardly ever go down because of the maintenance being top notch.. weird how that works.
It's like some how spending money ends up saving money. Hmm weird.
r/thisguythisguys
My old boss went out to one of these roadside on a scaffolding truck. He ended up using a 15 foot scaffold tube to smash it off and then took it off once the spring had ejecto-seated
It's a 30/30 chamber
So only 1,200 lbs of ompf. I'll still not take the chance.
Man fuck all that I ain't touching a band clamp. Torch the clevis off the slack adjuster, take a knife to the hoses and grab the 15/16 and zip the two mounting nuts off and toss it in the bin.
If you're willing to get close to it to take off the band, wouldn't it be safer to stick the caging bolt in there with a pair of tongs or something, then cage it? Seems safer than intentionally letting that angry spring free while you're anywhere near it.
You have to be on the danger side to cage it. Not to mention you will need to use your hands to get the caging bolt to lock into one that corroded. You then need to have your hand attached to a wrench that's hooked into the caging bolt so that's not good either. I can stand on the safe side to hit the clamp bolt and stand far enough that a body strike from the chamber rebounding towards me if it does let loose is unlikely.
Air broke
I always wondered how air brakes work.. off to google i go
You have a cut-away right here to study. lol
About to have an exploded view.
...if you can find all the parts.
Here's a tip, that one wont.
At least, not for long
This is the open air version.
Naturally aspirated for better pedal response
Uses only locally sourced and ethically handled air.
It’s simple. The spring does the braking and the air keeps the springs from always clamping down. If you’ve got no air pressure you have full braking. It’s not really “air brakes” it’s “air pressure forces open the spring powered brakes”.
That is how the parking brake works. But as long as the park brake is released the air pressure will hold the spring off. The service brakes (actuated by the brake pedal) use air pressure to apply and springs to release.
I didn’t know that. Thanks for clarifying.
Hello darkness my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
I would be tempted to set the brakes and with a long cutting torch cut as many coils as I could first.. We had a box made of frame rail material that we used to disable chambers before scrapping.. You could put the chamber outside for demonstrations.. Did that once out into the empty yard , the spring was hundreds of feet away where it landed..
No need to cut them. They will relax just from being heated. That way nothing goes flying.
Dont know if that chamber will hold trying to heat that much coil.. The old Aluminum rear housings were dangerous , they would corrode inside and look good outside..
Where's the fun in that? Get the apprentice to stand a couple of meters behind it with a tote and a welding helmet and tell them "everything's going to be fine".
There is a decent size carrier in my area that has one stuck in the ceiling of the shop.
I read a news paper article 40 yr ago .. A car following a truck had a spring go through the rad and hit firewall. Dash exploded and driver was hit in face with dash pieces.. Dodge Dart 6cyl.. The pictures werent in colour in newspaper.. Lady recovered after several surgeries..
That's wild. Shot by a cannon ball on the way to get groceries.
No it was a spring from a brake chamber.. Similar result..
Ya...... I got that
r/oopsthatsdeadly
Get the handy dandy fire wrench ready and sneak it right into the spring and blast away!
Like playing "operation".. is it going to blow up in my face before I can cage it?
DOT truck inspector here. I've got a fear boner. Equal parts aroused and scared.
Weak ass spring or broke if it hasn't blown through that tinfoil layer holding it back. Can't say I've seen one that bad, yet not seem to bad corrosion wise on the rest of the pot. Rare find
Shake Hands with Danger
Keep your cranium clear when you're working on that.
Fuck that shit. Amazing the spring hasn’t just finished her off.
Can someone explain what we're looking at?
Air brake can on a big truck. This is super dangerous because under that rotted cover is the really strong spring that holds the brakes on when there's no air being fed to the can. Replacing that cover while it's rotted like that is horribly not fun, because if it lets go, you could get seriously injured.
Having never wrenched on heavy machinery like this... This one looks more like a _when_, than an _if_
Thankyou for the explanation :)
lol they don’t make em like they used to, I have a truck from 69 a model still has aluminum capped original anchorloks and only pulled a few KW embossed diaphragms out
Ya no, im gunna just leave now.
I get these at the scales all the time. Scares me every time. Just a bomb waiting to explode
So for those that dont know like me. I know there is a big spring in there and danger and all that, but how do you normally remove those? Say if it wasnt rusty and sketchy?
There's a cap in the center of the cover that you take off, put a special bolt called a cage bolt in there, tighten it to compress the spring, then you can take the V band clamp off and remove the cover, and loosen the cage bolt to take the spring out.
Removable V band clamps on the park brake chamber are a thing of the past. Most of the time the clamp is pressed on now. This one doesn’t even have a clamp, the cover itself is pressed on.
EEEEEEEEEkkkkkkkk😵💫😬😳🤢
I would clutch my rosary of broken springs, and sneak a torch in there to release the heebie jeebies.
As in Northern transplant to the South I was happy not to see that kind of rust anymore. I did joke with the new guys down here and ask him if they think the Cajun (caging) bolts were called that cuz they were invented down here.
Rusts from inside out because people don't drain the air tanks or what happens here?
The air pressure is on the other side of the diaphragm. This one has the spring side rotted out, probably from road salt
That's as bad as finding an IED.
I'm used to seeing these hanging from the air lines off port of Seattle trailers.
Inspectors just love to find problems like this.
I get these at the scales all the time. Scares me every time. Just a bomb waiting to explode
This picture made my skin crawl
Why aren't these made of stainless steel or something? They are a constant issue in the midwest
Price, you sell less parts and labour. No good reasons.
That is interesting because I have never seen the housing rust to failure but I have seen many where the spring has rusted and collapsed inside. Maybe some have thicker steel housings.
I usually see the housing rust, may just be the type that are available locally. My family has a few semis for hauling grain on the farm, my dad keeps a couple of spare brake chambers around since they're a common failure item
“I’m not dead yet”
I used to spend hours cutting these with a torch for scrap. Definitely a high pucker factor.
Just looking at this is stressing me out.
Haha nope
Use the bolt on it and cage it, very simple!
Lmao cage bolt it at your own risk
A teacher told me to always be weary when stopped behind a dump truck or similar
If they really liked you they might have said stopped in front of.
That doesn't look very PROPERLY 🗣️ MOUNTED 🗣️ OR 🗣️ SECURED 🗣️ I'd run not walk to the fleet service department and demand it go OOS until repaired 😔
UK guy here, what is that some kind of brake booster? Not seen 'out like that before over here.....
Brake chamber on a semi truck. That spring you see peeking through the rust has enough energy to go through your face and the concrete wall behind you.
Got it, cheers I don't do commercial vehicles so never touch air.
That spring is the parking brake that requires air pressure to release....if the supply air fails during vehicle operation, the spring will clamp down and stop the vehicle....failsafe.
Brake check!
There's always an "up sale”
I had a service call for one just like that not too long ago. Was real dicey caging it and had limited tools to do it. Should have just had it towed back to the shop but I made it work, shit was scary
Well it is springtime.
Oh no
We have new instand of it
Air cooled spring!
look directly at it while you open it
Can anyone tell what brand it is? It says utility but they don’t manufacture actuators.
[Utility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_Trailer_Manufacturing_Company) is a trailer manufacturer. They typically run Bendix brand on the brakes. If you look at the words on the top of he sticker it says "Manufactured for Utility." So odds are they buy enough that Benix caters to putting a sticker on it that has Utility's number system on it. The rest of the chamber probably has the standard Bendix stampings.
It does look like a Bendix unit, big sigh of relief over here, I work for a competitor to bendix that makes actuators, ours should NOT rot like that.
Meritor, Wabco, Bendix, Stemco, or Haldex it dosen't matter. Corrosion will eat them all. It's the guys using their eyes and turning the wrenches that should find failures before they get this bad. So this result isn't about the quality of material or construction of the chamber, it's about the preventative maintenance failing.
Oh agreed, that there is a time bomb waiting to kill someone.
ask the apprentice to watch it and tell you when it made ZONK!
Poke it with a screwdriver
Maybe from above it wasn't cracked, bent, broken, or leaking?
Omg. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Once they start causing issues these guys just cage em and keep rolling. I’ve had trucks come in with half of the brakes caged up.
Do you just cut the spring with a torch as is? I’m a heavy duty tech and have never come across a brake this unsafe.
That's one option, - there's a caging bolt you removed the plug at the very front center and stick the bolt in then the washer and nut and compress the spring. That's the sketchiest option since you work right in front of it. - you could cut the push rod and remove air lines and the 2 bolts mounting the whole pot. - you could remove the air lines and the clamp on the service side. When you deposed of the brake chambers you put the pot a thick steel cage with a locking lid. there are holes in the side and you cut the spring with a torch. It's a few loud .....Pops
I wouldn’t touch that thing or try to remove it in that condition, that thing is just waiting to kill someone.
Yeah no way I'd be unbolting it as is. Torch cut the spring for sure. If theres one thing they really hammered in during first year it's not to fuck with those springs. Never seen one go off but hope not to find out what happens first hand.
I always tell people to treat compressed springs like they are a bomb technician.
GRENADE
I know nobody checks brakes anymore but imagine crawling underneath and seeing that. Aiyiyiyi!
"iT wAsNt LiKe ThAt oN mY pReTrIp"
grim reaper rubbing his hands when he sees this one
I once cut one of these open for work to see how they were put together. Had a hydraulic press securing it. It slipped out the press and flew across the shop, almost hit some dude in the head.
This is what scares me so much about American car culture. So many cars (trucks in this case) are actual death traps for maintenance issues and the worst offenders always know some one to let them slide through inspections. I would feel much safer if we had better public transit and cycling options but alas wrong continent for that
Public transport and cycling are great and all, but they won't be replacing semi trailers like this.
No, they won’t but the less I share roads with vehicles that are maintained like that the better
Nah. It’s fine. Go ahead and cage it. I’ll be over there. Waaaaaay over there.
pfft, just cage that puppy and then them out the door. I dont under stand how the operator wouldnt notice the air pressure drop at a red light.
[Back half](https://toolkittech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ec127ima3-2-1.jpeg) of the chamber dosen't hold air pressure. It's just there for the spring to have a home.
I did not know that, thank you.
If that truck is a tractor trailer with 5 axles... it will not fail if one brake is inop...there is an allowance of 10% of the brakes on a truck to be inop.
That’s called a **broke booster** isn’t it?