Two hubs and two sets of rear brakes later

[Cerran]

Well I decided to finally tackle my parking brake issue the other day which I assumed was just an issue with the rear drum adjustment. I get the passenger wheel off and immediately notice
oil in the rear drum.

I get it apart and found this:



Figures the seal on the full floating axle would start leaking. Luckily being a fairly capable mechanic I tackled the job myself. Parts cost me about $70 for brakes on both sides and new brake hardware, springs, wheel cylinders.

Then I went to ask how much the seal was and was told $46. Holy crap! Well I bought it anyway but kept the receipt and did some digging when I got home and found a Timkin replacement available on amazon that people swear by for $23. Needless to say I took the other one back. Got it all back together and adjusted and everything is working well. Then I decided to take the other wheel off to put the new brakes on and found it had started to seep as well. so yesterday was spent doing the same job on the drivers side. Luckily I had the foresight to order 2 seals.

Hopefully I don't have to do it again in a long time. It's not difficult but doing it right and cleaning up everything properly does make it a 3-4 hour job.

 

[lone wolf]

Well I decided to finally tackle my parking brake issue the other day which I assumed was just an issue with the rear drum adjustment. I get the passenger wheel off and immediately nice oil in the rear drum.

I get it apart and found this:

View attachment 431821 View attachment 431822 View attachment 431823

Figures the seal on the full floating axle would start leaking. Luckily being a fairly capable mechanic I tackled the job myself. Parts cost me about $70 for brakes on both sides and new brake hardware, springs, wheel cylinders.

Then I went to ask how much the seal was and was told $46. Holy crap! Well I bought it anyway but kept the receipt and did some digging when I got home and found a Timkin replacement available on amazon that people swear by for $23. Needless to say I took the other one back. Got it all back together and adjusted and everything is working well. Then I decided to take the other wheel off to put the new brakes on and found it had started to seep as well. so yesterday was spent doing the same job on the drivers side. Luckily I had the foresight to order 2 seals.

Hopefully I don't have to do it again in a long time. It's not difficult but doing it right and cleaning up everything properly does make it a 3-4 hour job.

This sitehttp://www.rockauto.com/ should save you some money next time you work on anything.

 

[Cerran]

This sitehttp://www.rockauto.com/ should save you some money next time you work on anything.

If it's something planned I'll keep that in mind. I usually buy parts locally for basic stuff but I have it bookmarked now. I've been buying a lot of parts from autozone since they have a warranty they keep on a file and a record of purchases. That really came in handy with the brakes on my wife's van last year.

 

[lone wolf]

If it's something planned I'll keep that in mind. I usually buy parts locally for basic stuff but I have it bookmarked now. I've been buying a lot of parts from autozone since they have a warranty they keep on a file and a record of purchases. That really came in handy with the brakes on my wife's van last year.

Some of the prices in that link are 1/3 less sometimes.

 

[mu2bdriver]

Advance Auto Parts also has some great online purchase, in store pickup discount codes available. Some of them are up to 40% off. Is that a Sterling rear end?

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

The only thing that's a pain with Rock Auto is having to wait a week or two for the parts to come in.

 

[lone wolf]

The only thing that's a pain with Rock Auto is having to wait a week or two for the parts to come in.

I got mine in one day.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I got mine in one day.

You live next door to the warehouse? I've bought from Rock Auto a few times. "Can't get it" from any of the local parts houses or it was very expensive.

It sucks to have to wait a week or two for parts. Yeah they can next day air ship, but I'm not usually willing to pay that kind of money.

 

[Cerran]

Advance Auto Parts also has some great online purchase, in store pickup discount codes available. Some of them are up to 40% off. Is that a Sterling rear end?

Yeah the Sterling 10.25. From what I understand it's an excellent heavy duty setup and until now it's been rock solid hauling heavy loads of wood and home project stuff. The seals on the rear end are at least 10 years old so them failing really isn't that surprising.

 

[Cerran]

I got mine in one day.

If I was buying a complete brake rebuild I might consider it, in this case I wanted to have the parts on hand and ended up buying them locally. When I do the front calipers in a year or so I'll likely order from them. Next order of business on the truck is a tune up and oil change which the previous owner gave me the parts for more than 5 years ago. (Cap, Rotor, Plugs, Fuel filter) I'll likely do a carb adjustment and air filter as well when I do the tune up.

 

[mu2bdriver]

That's the rear end my 250 has. How was getting the drum off the hub? I had to beat on mine pretty good to get it to budge. Probably original when I was checking out my shoes and generally it looked in good shape.

 

[Cerran]

That's the rear end my 250 has. How was getting the drum off the hub? I had to beat on mine pretty good to get it to budge. Probably original when I was checking out my shoes and generally it looked in good shape.

Because the seal on the hub had leaked oil into the drum it came right off. I'm betting if there were no seal leak that would have been an issue. The drums themselves looked really good on the inside with no pitting or scoring and very little wear. I need to pull the front wheels later this summer and check the front brakes as well.

 

[mu2bdriver]

Nice. Because I had such a hard time getting my drum off maybe that means that my seal is still good.

I just did front pads and rotors a few months ago. Not a hard process but detailed. If you have a 250/350 in 4WD you'll probably need to remove the hub and then get that special OTC socket to remove the nut. It's smart to replace the bearings while you're in there.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

As far as drums... before you reinstall, put antisieze on the hub to drum contact points.


To free up, heat, a BFH and punch to hammer between the lugs and GOOD oil like Kroil or at the worse PB Blaster.

 

[Cerran]

Nice. Because I had such a hard time getting my drum off maybe that means that my seal is still good.

I just did front pads and rotors a few months ago. Not a hard process but detailed. If you have a 250/350 in 4WD you'll probably need to remove the hub and then get that special OTC socket to remove the nut. It's smart to replace the bearings while you're in there.

I ended up buying the special socket for the rear hub the other day. I paid about 22 bucks at the local Napa. I was kind of shocked that the tool was cheaper than the seal itself by a factor of two (when purchased locally).

Just curious, why would you need to remove the hub to do brakes? Granted repacking the bearings is a good idea, but as far as I understand you don't need to pull the hub to replace the brakes.

Additionally, later this week or this next weekend I need to pull one of the wheels off again to check something so I'll take pictures of the completed brake job on one side. For anyone who is curious this is the seal I used:

http://www.amazon.com/Timken-370047...e=UTF8&qid=1434998505&sr=8-1&keywords=370047A

What I really liked about it is it came with the seal driver. I just put a block of wood between the seal driver and the hammer to even out the force and it went right in on both sides. Getting the seal out I had to use a 3-jaw puller and slide hammer to extract the bearing and seal at the same time.

 

[joe25DA]

Just did parking brake on my '84 3500 GMC. Has the full float 14 bolt rear. The sterling axle is easier in that you don't have to pull the axle shafts to get the drums off.
I couldn't believe how much bigger/heavier everything is on a 1 Ton or HD 3/4. The shoes are massive on it and the dual wheel style drums and hub are damn near 80 lbs a piece I bet!

 

[joe25DA]

1 ton drums and hubs. Munchkin for scale. These I got from junkyard as spares I'll never need

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Just wait till you work on semi truck or heavy equipment, it makes a pickup truck parts seem like legos.

 

[joe25DA]

Just wait till you work on semi truck or heavy equipment, it makes a pickup truck parts seem like legos.

Did a long time ago in high school. Summer job doing basic maintenance on "R" model Macks. Oil filters seemed like they held a gallon