One brake over adjusted
On a new rig with less than 1500 miles, one self adjusting brake started to smoke. All others were fine. Factory says brakes were all adjusted during manufacture. Dexter says brakes can become unde...
Forum Discussion
enahs wrote:
This RV belongs to my kids. An on the road check was sone to be sure it was not locked up, and the controller was backed way down. The shop repair and inspection were done only a couple miles from home. Just to be clear, I am more than familiar with electric brakes in all respects — repair, replace and adjust. The shop verdict is that the offending brake was seriously over adjusted. Yet, there had been no problem for 1500 miles, and the factory insists it was adjusted when new.. It appeared suddenly. Now everything is properly adjusted and it has been inspected. So the question is this: what would cause a non-self adjusting brake to suddenly become over adjusted? Dexter says it can't unless there is a brake "malfunction'". But they can't even suggest what that might be. Bad magnet? Intermittent short? These wheels and tires are on an in-cab monitor, so the temps will show if the problem returns. Its originally showed a slightly higher temp (5 or 6 degrees) but nothing dramatic. A passing motorist warned that the brake was smoking.
The answer is it CAN'T "overtighten", period.
There is absolutely nothing inside the brake drum that can turn the star wheel as long as it is not a "self adjusting" unit.
Self adjusting units have additional parts and one of those is a lever on a wire and has a spring to hold the wire to the star wheel. That lever is what makes the adjustment (IE turns the star wheel).
Without that lever, the star wheel is all by it's self and it is a screw and no, that screw cannot turn either way on its own as it is under heavy spring pressure from the brake shoes..
Here is a comparison pix..
Left is non self adjusting and right is self adjusting
I call BS on the shop you had it at and I suspect what really happened was the other three brakes were not adjusted correctly leading to that one brake doing the work of all four which will cause it to overheat and smoke.
The problem is, you obviously was not present when the shop pulled things apart and it is basically "hear say" as to what really happened.
You have it fixed, time to move on and not fret about this any longer.
