Odd Brake Shoe Failure. Any Ideas?
Since I'm retired, I like to keep busy and help family and friends with RV maintenance items from time to time. This time, I volunteered to inspect the brakes on my son's 12 year old pop up and repack the bearings for him. He had the brakes replaced about six years ago, and has maybe put 3000 miles on it during that time.
When I inspected the brakes, there were cracks running parallel to both rear brake shoes. I've seen brake shoes crack laterally before, but never radially like the ones pictured here:
I inspected the drums and they were within size tolerance and there were no hot spots indicated. Since they were okay, I don't think heat was the issue.
I've ordered replacement brake assemblies and will be installing them as soon as they arrive. BTW, the assemblies I ordered were self adjusting and not the cheap manual adjusting brakes he had.
Have any of you ever seen a similar failure? If so, is there a likely cause?
As a side note, I'm also going to replace his bearings, races and the cheap brake wire connectors you can see pictured in the photos.
Jim
When I inspected the brakes, there were cracks running parallel to both rear brake shoes. I've seen brake shoes crack laterally before, but never radially like the ones pictured here:
I inspected the drums and they were within size tolerance and there were no hot spots indicated. Since they were okay, I don't think heat was the issue.
I've ordered replacement brake assemblies and will be installing them as soon as they arrive. BTW, the assemblies I ordered were self adjusting and not the cheap manual adjusting brakes he had.
Have any of you ever seen a similar failure? If so, is there a likely cause?
As a side note, I'm also going to replace his bearings, races and the cheap brake wire connectors you can see pictured in the photos.
Jim
