brake issue

[r81vs]

My fifth wheel breaks aren't working, hardly feel a thing from them at max....pulled one wheel off and have found grease inside the drum and on the brake shoes....it appears all four are the same. The seals are fine, so how could it have gotten there. Anyway, do you thinking cleaning the drum and shoe with a degreaser will be okay or should I replace the shoes? They do not show any wear, the rv is fairly new with little towing miles on it. Thanks.

[mbopp]

"By the book" says you replace the brake shoes and clean up everything else. Brake shoes are somewhat porous and will absorb any grease that gets on them.
That said, in my younger days I would clean the shoes off with a brake degreaser and have even boiled them in a strong soap solution. YMMV.

[ScottG]

They don't put Bearing Buddies on RV type trailers.

[da_bees]

I would check the application for the axle rather than # on present seal when buying new seals. It's possiable your seals are in good condition but wrong type.
Since they are sometime confused,it is worth mentioning Dexter E-Z lube hubs vs Bearing Buddies.
One might be instructed by an E-Z Lube owner to add new grease until old grease comes out around outer bearing. That is correct for E-Z but if the unsuspecting diy has Bearing Buddies,grease will likly go past seal and into drum.

[r81vs]

Thank you all very much for the comments....have a great weekend.

[ScottG]

r81vs wrote:
It appears to me it was over greased....the seal looks great but after doing research, the seal is only $3 each....I might as well replace those when I clean the drum and shoe. I still don't know if I should just replace the shoe or not too.

The $3 seal will fit and work fine as long as you don't try to use the EZ lube feature. If you do plan on using it then you need seals with a double lip and they cost roughly $12 ea.

Your bearings weren't over greased, if they were then the excess grease would be around the area of the zerk. In your case the seal failed (common) but the evidence is often hard to find because the centrifugal force clears it away.

I would replace the seals and use plenty of brake cleaner to clean up the shoes. The shoes don't absorb oil or grease very well and you'll be able to see it clearly when they are clean.

After that I would not use the EZ lube function because they are very prone to failing in the manner you've observed.

Good luck,

Scott

[r81vs]

It appears to me it was over greased....the seal looks great but after doing research, the seal is only $3 each....I might as well replace those when I clean the drum and shoe. I still don't know if I should just replace the shoe or not too.

[the_bear_II]

I would guess the inner seals have leaked either due to bad seals, wrong type of grease or over greasing.

The drums and magnet can be cleaned but the shoes maybe too soaked with grease and need to be replaced.

[jmtandem]

The seals are fine, so how could it have gotten there.

I would certainly figure out where the grease came from and fix that first, then address the cleaning of the brake shoes/drums or replace. I wonder if you have EZ lube hubs?