Foretravel Owners' Forum

Can anyone tell me about how long it takes to remove the slide pin, clean it (how?) and put it back together with the helper spring?

If you have all the tools, jacks, stands gathered up it takes about 4 hrs. per axle, maybe slightly less on the front, unless you have an extended coffee break or 3.

Pamela & Mike

Meritor Maintenance procedure:

http://www.beamalarm.com/foretravel-links/PDF/brakes-maintenance-manual-mm4m.pdf

We found a guy that cleaned the pins and installed the helper springs for us - 4 hours at $60.00/hr.  Well worth it as we did not have jacks, stands, impact wrenches and other assorted tools.  In watching him the hardest thing was removing the lug nuts on the wheels.

Good luck.  :D

Hi Scott,

Where were you to find such a good labor rate?

Jim

It may be possible to do without removing the wheels...just depends on how much access and how stuck your pins are.

We happened to be in Paulden, AZ.  I called around and found a guy in a small metal pole barn located in nearby Chino Valley.  Went over to talk to him.  He seemed to know alot about Meritor brakes as he had worked for the local shop that did repair and maint. of the local FD trucks.  I must admit that he didn't know as much as he let on as he advised that the rear pads needed to be replaced.  We were leaving in a couple of days so I ordered replacement pads for the rear and had them shipped to the next CG.  I received them about a week later and was going to have them installed in Missoula but was advised by the tech there that the originals were in great shape.  So I returned them to Finditparts. The Missoula Peterbuilt shop also purged the calipers and put the correct lube in them. (That's another story)  I think their charge was about $115.00+/-.  So I guess the hourly rate was about $70.00.  Oh and about $35.00 in fuel and 4 hours driving time.  So that brought us up to about $43.00/hour.  It was an interesting learning experience.  ;D

BTW - Our slide pins were great shape - no corrosion or pitting.  The guy in Chino Valley removed the pins cleaned them up and put them back in with the Helper Springs.

The threaded hole in the outer end of the pin can only be used with the tires removed.
However, it is possible to remove the lower pins to the inside with the tires on, but not the top pins.
The lower pins were the most damaged on my coach. 
My pins came out just using a bolt (not a slide hammer), however, Dave M posted a couple years ago about taking a long time to remove a pin which was very struck.

Duane,
I did mine this past spring.  Put a time on putting the coach on blocks, then add maybe a couple hrs. to remove clean and install the pins. 

It is an easy 2 hour job for all 8 pins, but we have the air/hydraulic jacks, large air wrench, tools, equipment and exerience to remove wheels, disassemble, examine, check for oil seal leaks, wheel bearing preload, clean, dry lube pins, reassemble, check/adjust lube slack adjusters mount wheel, torque, move to another position.
Maybe 30 min each wheel max.

Wish I were near YOU!!!

D C Budd

Me too!! :-[

My pins are being done at this time, we lubed the pins with CRC Moly dry lube from Napa.