Drum break locked

[Tom P]

I have a 5 Star, single axel, trailer with drum breaks. I launched my boat back in April. The trailer has sat in a driveway since then. Last night I went to pick the trailer up so I could take my boat out of the water and the driver side tire would not turn. The passenger side spins fine. I bounced the trailer back and forth, I tried driving forward for a block, and backward for a block. Finally, I put the trailer back in the drive way.

Yes, I know what I did wrong. Back in April, I should have pulled forward a little after backing the trailer in. Won?t make that mistake again.

How do I get the break unlocked?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Drum break locked

The easiest thing to try is to take the tire off and shock the outside EDGE of the drum with a hammer. I don't mean a BFH either. What appears to have happened is the shoes have rusted to the drums. Just shock the drum and a good chance it will break free. Another way is what you did trying to drive it but with a unloaded trailer not much weight to load the tire. When my buddies trailer did this same thing we just got some big friends and parked there butts on the locked side of the trailer. a few starts and stops broke it free. i would suggest #1 first.. LOL After its free pull the drums off and inspect the shoe lining and backing for separation. If they are ok, then sand the shoes and drums while your in there.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: Drum break locked

As he said, pull the tire off and give her a good adjustment with the ol 'knockometer'. If you hit the drum all around, it should free it up. This happens up here with cars that are stored outside in the winter. Pretty common.

Ian

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

Thanks - all to for the segustions. Will try today.

Tom

 

[burp]

Re: Drum break locked

....or it could be a corroded wheel cylunder which won't retract, thus keeping the brake actuated. If that is the case, you will need to back off the brake using the star washer adjuster to remove the drum.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Drum break locked

That trailer probably has a set of Tie Down Galvax drum brakes on it...if the wheel cylinder is corroded (cyl is aluminum...the piston inside can get jammed with corrosion) you can just replace the cylinder itself (www.championtrailers.com) and what I do now is put some waterproof grease under the dust cover and around the edge of the piston to keep it from corroding.

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

OK ? so the 1st course of action will be to take the tire off and bank the inside rim of the drum. If that does not work. Option 2 is : to uses a 10? jon boat. I?m going to drop it on the trailer, strap it down, and fill it with cinder blocks and water to add weight to the trailer. It?s a heavy jon boat, so I?m figuring about 500-600 pounds on the trailer with boat, blocks and water. I don?t care what happens to the jon boat. Option 1 should happen tonight. And yes it Tie Down hardware.

Tom

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

Ok so, I took the tire off and banged the &%^$ out of the edge of the drum the other night. No luck. Then, today, I removed the bearing buddy, took out the cotter pin, and removed the nut and bearings. All with the tire still on. Then with the leverage of the tire, I rocked and shook things. I then noticed that the back shoe was not stuck. Only the front shoe is stuck. I then banged the *&^!!! out of the front of the drum. Put the tire back on and tried a rocking the trailer forward and reverse. From looking in the mirror it looks like the tire will turn about 2 or 3 inches before locking. Maybe just a little play in things? Someone suggested spraying some wd40 or PB Blaster in by the shoes as a next step. Any ideas or thoughts?

Thanks again,

Tom

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Drum break locked

Ok
you have a severely rusted brake shoe.

the 2 or 3 " of movement is the rocking of the brake shoes on the anchor pivot.

As of now anything you do will ruin the shoe so being gentle won't matter.

by keeping the bearings out you have enough slop to see whats going on.

you can try pb blaster and soak the shoe if you can get to it or

if you can get a screwdriver or similar to get to the shoe smack the screwdriver against the shoe itself. try not to bend the backing plate.
Stay

once loose get yourself another set of shoes and a small parts kit for your retainer clips and what ever else is in there. clean everything off good with brake clean and install your new shoes and retainers. you might be able to get your drums resurfaced if they aren't to bad off. repack your bearings, install along with adjusting up the shoes.

try not to disturb the wheel cyl. pins to much by yanking or twisting excessivly.

if your going to replace your drums just drill a hole or two on the outside of the drum on the surface area. once through the outside and into the shoe material. stop and use a punch to shock the shoe away from the drum and replace.
lots of ways to do this.

 

[speedoflite2]

Re: Drum break locked

if the shoes are rusted on that bad youre gonna need new drums dont even waste the money turning the drum Youlll end up with warpage sooner or later and have to replace the drum then. Save a step.

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

Any thoughts on trying to add weight to the trailer? Right now the boat is not on the trailer. The trailer is a single axle, 3700lb gvw. I was thinking about putting a small jon boat (10') with cinder blocks and full of water. Total weight about 1000lb to add?

Tom

 

[speedoflite2]

Re: Drum break locked

you just need to hit the edge of the drum from the back side and get a pry bar in there to get it apart heat the drum up if you have a blue wrench.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Drum break locked

This is exactly why I switched to disk brakes. I have done this too many times in my life.

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Drum break locked

Any thoughts on trying to add weight to the trailer? Right now the boat is not on the trailer. The trailer is a single axle, 3700lb gvw. I was thinking about putting a small jon boat (10') with cinder blocks and full of water. Total weight about 1000lb to add?

Tom

There is a fine line between rust and keeping the shoe lining on the assembly.

You can try it and there are 3 results.
1 nothing
2 it breaks free and everything is still where it's suppose to be
3 it breaks free but the lining comes off the assembly.
I think personally, if it was me, i would bite the bullet and just recondition both sides.

Try not to pry from the back to much because you can bend the backing plate assemble and this can cause shoe alignment problems.

i would also replace the wheel cyl. like Lou C suggested.

Your already in there. Make them brand new

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

OK ? I used a little PB, a hammer, and a some kicking. When all was said and done. The drum was off a middle section of the shoe was in my hand. The rest off the shoe was still attached. Door number 3 won. I put everything back together and now the trailer rolls. As far as I'm concerned, the patient survived. He can roll in and out of the driveway to rehab at will. If I had to move my boat, I could with the breaks disengaged. Don't go fast or far.

The trailer is a 5start trailer with Tiedown hardware, single axle. I believe it's rated for 3,800lbs. 6 lug tires. Since I'm going to need new breaks, I'm looking into converting to disk breaks. Basically, the added expense will be a new actuator. Any thoughts? How complex of a job is this? About how long?

Thanks much,

Tom

 

[dingbat]

Re: Drum break locked

Do don't need a new coupler. Just punch a hole in the residual valve in the existing coupler and your ready to go.

I replaced my Tiedown disc with Kodiak discs last fall. Took me maybe and hour, hour and a half to do from start to finish.

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

I read the article here - http://www.championtrailers.com/DISC_BRAKE_INSTALLATION_ARTICLE.HTM about installing disk breaks. It sounds like there are two types of break lines flex and steel. Are one type of lines used for drum and the other type for disk? What I'm wondering is if I can use my old lines?

Tom

 

[dingbat]

Re: Drum break locked

Since the calipers move you need a short piece of flex line between the fixed steel line and the caliper. When changing over from drum all you do is adapt the old steel line to the short flex line supplied with the disc brake kit.

Since I boat solely in SW, I got rid of my steel lines all together and went with the new flexible lines all the way from the coupler to the caliper.

No more replacing all the steel brakes lines every 3-4 years.

 

[Tom P]

Re: Drum break locked

I don't need to move the boat until Columbus Day. So I have some time on this. The directions for the Tiedown seem a lot clearer than what's available for Kodiak. I've never done this before. Is there a big difference between manufactures? The other thing that I notices was that Kodiak doesn't seem to offer any complete kits for conversion. Tiedown does but from what I can tell, it's only for 5 lug hubs. I have 6 lug rims.

Tom

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Drum break locked

Don't get the TieDowns. That is what I put on first and i took them off after 1000 miles and put the Kodiaks on. They really suck!