I was able to score two brand new (not rebuilds) Euclid # E-6120 parking brake can assemblies on E-Bay for a very, very reasonable price. The reason I bought these is that a few weeks ago when I went to cage my right side parking brake spring there was no preload/resistance when turning the bolt out. So I tried the left can to compare as I would think if you are caging/compressing a spring you should have some tension. The left can was the same way, no resistance. So now I am thinking that sometime during the life of this truck (1995 Ford F700 dump 23,000 original miles.....I bought it with 19,000) someone must have caged the spring cans with an impact gun and broke the pin/attachment method that holds the caging bolts to their inner pistons? My parking brakes work fine but I was trying to see if the right side was causing my slight brake drag. The new cans have plenty of spring preload when turing the caging bolt in or out. Now here is my question......how do I remove the parking brake cans from the backing plates if I cannot cage the springs? I'll end up eating the things if I back it out with that spring preload not bottled up! Thanks in advance for all your help- RRRAVEN
Yeah RRRaven , I've worked on those systems years ago . They were on school busses . I see what your saying about the problem with the broken caging bolts . I don't remember having that trouble when we were working on them but understand your problem . I just wonder if a guy could plumb up a length of hydraulic hose & swivel fitting to the can & use the truck pressure with engine running to release the spring pressure and the hose & swivel would allow you to unscrew the can ?
Thank you for your input. After further investigation it turns out that I made a mistake and the caging bolts are okay and I can in fact cage the springs. The first time I tried to cage them I had the truck running and with the parking brake on or off I had no resistance on the caging bolt. Then I had the truck off and I pulled the parking brake on and off a couple of times so that all of the pressure was relieved from the parking brake cans. Then when I went to cage the springs I had resistance on the caging bolts. Very few people have had anything good to say about these brakes and there are still many trucks out there operating with this Lucas Girling system. I guess when I am done working on them I will be an expert and have more character or have gone insane?!
I only know of 2 yours and one i will get to work on before long. It has a leak. After these trucks got so old alot of companys around here took a loss and sold them cheap.
I was at a customer's and he asked me to look at the brakes on his small old water truck, said the park function would not hold. I was expecting to find some sort of horrible hydraulic system like this and would have told him I did not have the time. Fortunately for us both the original buyer had a brain and it was a full, normal air system with a mud dauber nest blocking up the balance port on the relay valve. (The small truck had a NTC-350 and a 9-speed also, which I thought was quite good for a 1980 or so model) A local fire department had a small Ford water truck with these brakes and they could never keep that thing under control, and finally sold it at a loss to get rid of it, and it stayed a year or so doing construction and was never seen again.
I had to work on the ford this week one side had a wheel grease seal leaking bad so i ordered complete brake backing plates,shoes and wheel seals. Now i have a problem how in the world do you adjust the brakes? I have been around this truck and years back worked on the brakes. I know you need the park brake releast but i cant get the star wheel to turn. They are self adjusting and it has brakes but the shoes are not as close to the drums as they need to be.
I assume you got pre-loaded backing plates? That's the way to go with these brakes. I recall those manual adjust star wheels are really tight, takes a bit of umpfh with a stiff brake adjuster spoon, and even then the dang rear leaf spring is typically right in the way. :Banghead
My 35,000Lb GVW boom truck has these infernal brakes as does my F-800 flatbed. I regularly curse them.
Their must be a spoon made just to do these. They bought this truck new and had alot of problems with it.
Well, the OTC part number is D90T-2588-AR. However, it's just a heavy duty offset brake adjusting spoon, it does not account (nor did the brake or adjuster designers) for THE DAMN LEAF SPRING IS IN THE WAY! These things are a challenge to manually adjust for sure. :Banghead
Thanks i will try and order one monday. They bought 2 of these trucks new and have sold one. The other ones brakes were alot easyer to adjust for some reasone but i dont know why.
I was told the ford was leaking brake fluid from one side. I ordered another loaded backing plate and i put it on the day before the newyear. Today i had to work a half day being it was sat so i tryed adjusting the brakes. I ground,heated and bent a big screw driver. I cooled it in water and it was very hard so it broke. I worked about 2 hours trying to make something to adjust them and didnt get far. I dont know why it didnt last very long or why i work at a place were they have a truck with this. I thought monday would be a better day to adjust it. I going to look into puting a brake on the trans and replaceing rear brakes to do away with this setup.This setup is a lemon i cant remember any thing as bad as it is.
I ordered the brake spoon today. I pulled the rubber plugs out of the other side to see if they need adjusting and found that side was leaking also. I called to order parts and they said they would warranity them. I also found out that the adjusters are backwards in the way they are turned to tighten the brakes. I dont know if that has any thing to do with them leaking so soon.
Always hated them dang girling brakes. They were also called Boker brakes. The adjusters would always seize as you have noticed, there used to be a grease included in the backing plate kits that was insoluble to the brake fluid and yet would keep the threads somewhat lubricated. It don't remember what its made of, but I remember it was supposedly as expensive as the kits if it was bought separately. We built our own spoon with a small pry bar and a torch. If you don't have a drum/ shoe reach caliper, I would recommend that you get one, it will make your life a lot easier if you preload the shoes as was suggested earlier........