Adjusting Brakes

On our brakes, which direction does the star wheel move to expand the shoes? Up or down?

 

1. Park on a flat level surface and chock the wheels. Make sure the parking brake lever is released. (if installed)

2. Jack up one side of the trailer until the tire is off the ground. Check that the wheel and drum rotate freely.* You do not need to remove the wheel.

3. Remove the adjusting hole cover from the adjusting slot on the bottom of the brake backing plate.

4. With a screw driver or brake adjusting tool, rotate the starwheel of the adjuster assembly to expand the brake shoes. (See detailed section below)

5. Spin the wheel and adjust the brake shoes out until the brake shoes drag against the drum for about one quarter of the revolution.**

6. Replace the adjusting hole cover.

7.Lower trailer and repeat on opposite side. 8. Adjust parking brake. (if installed)


* If the brakes drag or make a grinding noise before being adjusted, the brake mechanism should be inspected.

** If the brakes grab erratically or make a grinding noise after being adjusted, the brake mechanism and drums should be inspected.


Insert the brake adjuster tool and maneuver it so that the tool engages with the teeth in the star wheel. The star wheel looks like a gear with exposed teeth on the perimeter. On most trailers you would pull down on the tool handle which levers on the bottom of the hole and turns the star wheel up (to tighten the shoes again the drum). Just to make it more difficult, the star wheel is located well inside and some maneuvering is required - a flashlight will help to locate the starwheel.

Turn the adjuster until the brake locks up, i.e. you can no longer rotate the wheel by hand. This centers the brake shoes on the brake drum so that they are in the correct position.

Now back off the star wheel 8 to 10 clicks or as specified by the manufacturer. The wheel should spin freely with no apparent drag to slow it down. A slight scraping noise is normal as the wheel turns.

Repeat this procedure for all the wheels.

 

I did the first brake adjustment after the trip home from Necedah a couple of years ago, as suggested in the manual. But, recently, when I went to do it the second time, at the 9,000-mile mark, it didn't go nearly as smoothly as the first time.

However, the answer to the question I initially posed is as described above in Doug&Amber's response:
To expand the shoe out against the drum you turn the starwheel "up," by pulling down on the screwdriver or lever that you are using to engage it through the little hole in the backplate. This is true for both sides.

On the recent effort, the adjusters were much stiffer. One was even rusted tight; had to spritz it with WD-40 to break it loose. Then I couldn't tell for sure whether I was turning them the correct direction, and I was in kind of a rush. Thought I had it, but the feel of the brakes was way off, no matter how I tweaked the controller. A renewed effort with more patience was successful and they're like new.

My tips:

• Don't be shy about jacking the trailer way up so that you can really get under there with a worklight or headlamp, preferably on a creeper, and eyeball the starwheel through the adjustment hole in the backplate.
  
• Expand the shoes until the wheel won't spin at all, then back off just to the point where you can't hear the shoes making contact with the drum at all. Then, turn the starwheel again in the "expand" direction until you can just begin to hear the metallic "sing" of the drum and shoes making contact. Stop.
• Don't be afraid to lubricate the starwheel if needed. Anything that gets on the shoe or the drum will evaporate or quickly burn off when the brakes are applied.
• The directions in the manual (reprinted in Doug&Amber's post above) aren't as clear as they might be. The information on the intertubes is also erratic because a lot of it refers to automobile drum brakes that have self-adjusters. The business about adjusting by counting "clicks" of the starwheel, is not very helpful because the starwheel doesn't "click" on our setup and it's too imprecise.

At least that's what worked for me.