Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Topic: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel (Read 1444 times) previous topic - next topic

Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

January 07, 2016, 01:26:39 pm

Greetings all!

Short version:

Need advice on best Florida source for good, reasonably priced parts/service to repair/replace curb side drive axel brake rotor, pads and possibly caliper. Attached is a quote from folks that found the problem, but it's likely full price with mark-up. I don't have a good frame of reference, though I know auto parts can vary WIDELY depending on the source.

Longer version:

In the process of fixing one issue (stem extension on inside curb drive axel tire was loose) we discovered the answer to an ongoing mystery. Why does the solid aluminum wheel of our curb side drive axel accumulate rust (!?) in little tough to remove patches wherever water collects. This was a real poser, I asked many people, including multiple mechanics at various shops and several service dept reps at FoT. Best guess was it was caused by the overflow from the fresh water tank (which dumps out about there).

Welp, that's not what it was.

We had made a great contact at a local shop (King George Truck and Tire) about 30 minutes down the road from our sticks and bricks in VA. They pulled the wheel off to check the tires and to fix the one that was mounted the wrong way for rotation purposes. As soon as the wheel was removed I saw the rotor... Ack. *cough* Yikes. The rotor is very deeply grooved and the pads on the caliper look like they may be completely gone.

All the other brakes/rotors seemed totally fine, looks like this one just clamped and never let go.

The inside of the inner wheel was absolutely CAKED with rust, looks like it's been there a long time, so the speculation is that this has been happening for a long time, esp given the rust on the outer rim collection that goes back to before we bought the rig. We couldn't get parts to fix/replace and given the long term appearance of the failure it didn't seem necessary to change long term plans. We were literally on our way out of town heading to Savannah and parts south to duck the winter for our very first time. :-)

So now, we're here in Orlando Fl at the Thousand Trails campground and heading to Peace River tomorrow. The owner and parts manager at KG Truck and Tire were great, and perfectly setup to handle all our suspension, engine and even transmission issues in the future. But now we're here in Florida for some time and in need of advice for where is the best place to take Shadow Beast to have the problem diagnosed and fixed, preferably salvaging and useful parts or sourcing parts from a decent price, reputable dealer.

Attached is an estimate for parts from KG T&T as well as a picture of the rotor.

If anyone has any experience in sourcing such parts and/or suggestions I'd really appreciate it. :-)

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #1 – January 07, 2016, 01:33:38 pm

Sorry, can not help with the "where to take it", but VERIFY that they are familiar with air disk brakes and have the proper clay-based lube and know how to lube and purge it.

And, if only one side's disk is bad, replace just that, but absolutely replace the pads on both sides of the axle so braking forces are the same.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #2 – January 07, 2016, 01:44:48 pm

The back side of the rotor looked fine, mirror bright and smooth. The rotor is in two parts?
Oh, you mean replace the rotor on the curb side, but replace pads on both curb side and driver side? That make a lot of sense, and an excellent point to remember, thank you. :-)

I'm *hoping* we don't have to replace the caliper itself, that sucker is expensive.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #3 – January 07, 2016, 02:13:24 pm

Rotor from napa is about$300-400. Sometimes you can find one on ebay cheaper. I have a thread with part numbers I made a while back. Pads: 200-400. I got a set for one wheel off ebay for $100 I think.

Labor is probably 2-3 hours.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #4 – January 07, 2016, 02:19:51 pm

The prices on the invoice look about right from what I've seen. The caliper is the exception. That must be the price of a new one. I had my caliper rebuilt for a couple of hundred bucks. Brakes are expensive but last a long time if maintained.

Since you are having all this done I'd have them install the helper springs. FOT says they are not needed but to me they are cheap insurance.

see ya
ken

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #5 – January 07, 2016, 02:27:03 pm

finditparts.comvshowrs the rotor 3218K167
$236.16 free shipping
Pads KIT5627PM $514.25

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #6 – January 07, 2016, 07:40:22 pm

We have been using Paul Yasbeck for our service and have been very satisfied with his work. I know several other FT owners who also use Paul. He is located in Leesburg FL, which is not that far from Orlando. Pauls cell # is 813 382 0869.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #7 – January 08, 2016, 05:03:37 am

100% agree with having Paul Yasbeck work on your brakes! As a matter of fact- anything about Foretravel for that matter.
Ed

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #8 – January 08, 2016, 07:28:10 am

X3 on contacting Paul.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #9 – January 08, 2016, 10:15:19 am

I had experience last year with having rotors and pads replaced; the price seems about right for having it done. The question is whether you want a new or rebuilt caliper. I have no suggestions for that. On my coach the nuts that hold the rotor on were very hard to remove due to rust and the fact that they are a self locking nut with a fine thread. Many turns and once loose the nut still has to be wrenched off. The mechanic earned his pay. Your coach will probably be the same. The mechanic called them pinch nuts. None of the studs broke, but that could happen. I am not a fan of the helper springs. I have them on the rear, but intend to remove them at the first chance. I installed them on the front rotors, found that the brake drag increased as one pad is held against the rotor by the spring, so I removed them. The springs were installed correctly.

Suspect your problem may have been caused by someone lubing the brake while doing the chassis, or dirt on the slide pins.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #10 – January 08, 2016, 10:37:14 am

Funny going through the same thing with the breaks on my LR here is what I have found locally (Sarasota) FL:

Rotor: 3218K167 $256.89
Pads: KIT 15625PM $288.84 (that is for 4 pads)
The Caliper they don't have in stock but the price was not cheap like $1100.00 that's the lowest price I could find.

BTW FOT wanted:
Caliper $2008.57
Pad kit $448.68
Rotor $428.57

** Sure pays to shop around **

Fleetpride Truck and Trailer Parts
941-758-8282 talk to Rob

They could ship them to you (I think) if not let me know and I can send them to you if that would help....

Good luck,
Woodie

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #11 – January 08, 2016, 10:41:00 am

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 07, 2016, 01:33:38 pm

Sorry, can not help with the "where to take it", but VERIFY that they are familiar with air disk brakes and have the proper clay-based lube and know how to lube and purge it.

And, if only one side's disk is bad, replace just that, but absolutely replace the pads on both sides of the axle so braking forces are the same.

Brett I'm having some break work don on Monday. Can you give me the name of a good product for the lube you mention?

Thanks,
Woodie

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #12 – January 08, 2016, 10:44:28 am

Woodie,

Here is a discussion of several greases that meet the specs: clay based grease

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #13 – January 08, 2016, 11:07:19 am

Had the same problem with passenger rear. I found problem when they were installing new tires.

I do not think the Caliper needs to be replaced. I had 2 local shops here in Houston that said my brake problem was the Caliper. After fooling with the local shops on and off over a year I took coach to MOT. They replaced just the pins and that fixed my problem. In talking back to these shops they did not know the pins could be replaced on their own and they said it was easier for them to just replace the Caliper (of course for more $$)

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #14 – January 08, 2016, 12:04:41 pm

My local choice in Oregon is Les Schwab because they won't do a brake job on anything, if they can't replace and update everything. Comes with a 2year guarantee. Unfortunately they don't do heavy trucks, bus's or MH.

A local truck shop that did the work highly recommended doing the same. All we had was a warped rotor and severely worn pad caused buy caliper not releasing I suspect. Told us we would be back in 6 mo if we didn't. Cost for rotors, calipers, pads, bearings (destroyed when removing hub) and seals was $3037.00. Both sides done. Parts are all meritor @ 1861.00. Labor was 1176.00.

Your caliper must have gotten VERY hot with that metal to metal braking.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #15 – January 08, 2016, 02:36:08 pm

I have been using Parliament Coach (parliamentmotorcoach.com) in Clearwater for oil change and mechanical repairs. They have a lot of knowledge about Foretravel and I find them very easy to work with. They recently did some brake work for me including replacing leaking inner seals. One of the seals that they replaced turned out to be bad and needed replacing again. They contract with Bryan Rodriquez (Freebirdmobile@gmail.com) to do work away from their shop. He came to my house and replaced the seal and was also very knowledgeable and easy to work with.

I know they are a ride from Orlando to Clearwater but you might check with them as to cost.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #16 – January 09, 2016, 10:13:20 am

http://www.josamusa.com/

I went to Josams in Orlando on several recommendations. Busy shop, but they know what they are doing.
Axle seals all around and rear rotors and pads. Rear seals leaking badly enough to contaminate rear pads. Rear inside pads almost gone from repeated hangups with pins over the years. (pins cleaned up fine)
Took about 3 days - $2700.00 as I recall with a bit more than half labor. I felt the brake part prices were fair but the axle seals more than I expected. Brought in on a Monday or Tuesday and they were done Thursday.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #17 – January 09, 2016, 10:48:06 am

I replaced my rotor and new pads due to the same problem. I did all the work myself. The problem is unlikely the caliper.

Many shops will condemn the caliper because on cars/trucks with hydraulic disc breaks, whenever there is a problem like this, the caliper is siezed...but this is the hydraulic piston that is seized and that's a totally different animal.

In most cases, it appears that the problem is from the slide pins getting pitted and bubbling and hanging up. This prevents the entire assembly from floating. My pins were bubbled up.

Also, meritor made the design change to add helper springs for a reason.

Yes, proper grease matters, but I'm not totally convinced that is the main cause of most of these dragging issues. There is a built in relief valve on the caliper that grease squits out when the brakes are retracted. The only way I see grease causing the issue is if the relief valve is gunked up and the grease can't escape after the assembly has been greased or as things get hot and expand.

Anyway, I've done all the work myself and have 18,000 miles on it since. All is well.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #18 – January 09, 2016, 01:41:58 pm

Many shops will condemn the caliper because on cars/trucks with hydraulic disc breaks, whenever there is a problem like this, the caliper is siezed...but this is the hydraulic piston that is seized and that's a totally different animal.

So, your saying that the caliper wasnt damaged by what must have been glowing red hot heat of the metal to metal contact with pad (metal) and piston. I didn't do the work, but I did see all of the parts. The caliper on passenger side was dis colored from heat.. Seems that the inside pad was doing ALL of the work.

Their opinion was total rebuild of all compromised parts and to keep things "even" ( for lack of better term).
Anyway, at that price. I went with it.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #19 – January 11, 2016, 12:51:06 pm

Quote from: Bob & Sue – January 09, 2016, 01:41:58 pm

Many shops will condemn the caliper because on cars/trucks with hydraulic disc breaks, whenever there is a problem like this, the caliper is siezed...but this is the hydraulic piston that is seized and that's a totally different animal.

So, your saying that the caliper wasnt damaged by what must have been glowing red hot heat of the metal to metal contact with pad (metal) and piston. I didn't do the work, but I did see all of the parts. The caliper on passenger side was dis colored from heat.. Seems that the inside pad was doing ALL of the work.

Their opinion was total rebuild of all compromised parts and to keep things "even" ( for lack of better term).
Anyway, at that price. I went with it.

I didn't see your failure, and thus I can't speak on it.

These air brake calipers on our RV's are mechanical devices, not hydraulic. I'm not expert and only know what I see and experienced. Take it for what it's worth, your mileage may very.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #20 – January 11, 2016, 04:16:33 pm

GREAT feedback, thanks! :-)

I've put together a contact list of suggested solutions so far.

Paul Yasbeck (Foretravel Savvy with multiple recommendations)
813 382 0869
Leesburg FL

parliamentmotorcoach.com
Familiar with foretravel
Clearwater FL

Bryan Rodriquez (Freebirdmobile@gmail.com)
Mobile contracts with parliamentmotorcoach.com

Fleetpride Truck and Trailer Parts
941-758-8282 talk to Rob
(Sarasota) FL

We're currently down in Wauchula FL, but it looks like we'll need to go to Ft Lauderdale to get our Victron inverter/charger fixed.

Sorry for the disappearing for a few days. The Victron authorized warranty repair facility has apparently changed so I didn't know if we were going to want to combine brake work and inverter work into a single trip if possible, so I hadn't started calling about appointments yet. Logistics. Such fun... :p

Still looking at locations and thinking about sequence and routes. My inclination is to head for Paul up in Leesburg for the brake work when we leave here, then plan on heading down to Ft. Lauderdale to get the inverter fixed.

Also need to research finding an Aquahot guru to get the Diesel burner to be reliable. Rudy had sent me a link to a AH forum that was a good reference at one point, but dang if I can find it now. Best guess is that RV Hydronic Heater Forum is the forum he referred me to. Anyone know if that's likely to be a good resource for finding someone that can actually diagnose the problem instead of just changing the orifice plate and saying "all better now"? The diesel burner will frequently fire once or twice after it's been off for a long time, but it inevitably starts failing after a couple cycles and then becomes so unreliable it's nigh useless in cold weather.

Off to start working on some of the other longer term maintenance projects! Thanks again for everyone's help, I'll update this topic when we get to next stages on the brake work. :-)

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #21 – January 11, 2016, 04:40:02 pm

Quote from: Tigratrus – January 11, 2016, 04:16:33 pm

GREAT feedback, thanks! :-)

I've put together a contact list of suggested solutions so far.

Paul Yasbeck (Foretravel Savvy with multiple recommendations)
813 382 0869
Leesburg FL

parliamentmotorcoach.com
Familiar with foretravel
Clearwater FL

Bryan Rodriquez (Freebirdmobile@gmail.com)
Mobile contracts with parliamentmotorcoach.com

Fleetpride Truck and Trailer Parts
941-758-8282 talk to Rob
(Sarasota) FL

We're currently down in Wauchula FL, but it looks like we'll need to go to Ft Lauderdale to get our Victron inverter/charger fixed.

Sorry for the disappearing for a few days. The Victron authorized warranty repair facility has apparently changed so I didn't know if we were going to want to combine brake work and inverter work into a single trip if possible, so I hadn't started calling about appointments yet. Logistics. Such fun... :p

Still looking at locations and thinking about sequence and routes. My inclination is to head for Paul up in Leesburg for the brake work when we leave here, then plan on heading down to Ft. Lauderdale to get the inverter fixed.

Also need to research finding an Aquahot guru to get the Diesel burner to be reliable. Rudy had sent me a link to a AH forum that was a good reference at one point, but dang if I can find it now. Best guess is that RV Hydronic Heater Forum is the forum he referred me to. Anyone know if that's likely to be a good resource for finding someone that can actually diagnose the problem instead of just changing the orifice plate and saying "all better now"? The diesel burner will frequently fire once or twice after it's been off for a long time, but it inevitably starts failing after a couple cycles and then becomes so unreliable it's nigh useless in cold weather.

Off to start working on some of the other longer term maintenance projects! Thanks again for everyone's help, I'll update this topic when we get to next stages on the brake work. :-)

That forum and the website are mainly for do-it yourself people. You can download troubleshooting guides and get parts. I used it to learn how to service my AH as there wasn't much in Los Angeles for service. I am now able to do all the work on my AH with the exception of changing the tank combustion chamber combo.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #22 – February 16, 2016, 07:17:23 pm

Wanted to follow up on what we found and our experience.

After doing some research and calling around we settled on Paul Yasbeck in Leesburg Fl.

It was a very good choice. Not cheap, but that was because we're fixing other people's mistakes and that is rarely cheap. The rotor and the caliper were both completely toast. I didn't realize HOW bad it was until I saw the new rotor installed and realized that I could tell just by looking at it that the new rotor was about 1/8" ?!? thicker than the new one. The old pad was completely stripped to bare metal and horribly mangled.

Getting that sucker out was an unbelievable PITA, and I was massively grateful that Paul was the one taking it off, it was a long day/night and ton of hard work. Turns out we had the wrong side caliper, but the difference was a single sub part and his supplier had one that was obtained and swapped out. So it did carry over into this morning, but we still managed to leave bright and early today and get a full day of traveling in. :-)

The major bonus of taking it to Paul was his expertise as an Aquahot tech. After I described the symptoms, his immediate guess was that it was probably the coil pack failing. We swapped them out and he did some testing last night after 8PM (he was determined to get everything done if possible yesterday) and then ran it overnight. He was dead right. Diesel burner was still lit this morning, fired twice while Paul was finishing up the brake and putting the wheel back together. There was no fault throughout the drive today, and it kicked in shortly after we arrived here in Brookfield GA.

The BAD news is that the transmission is leaking quite a bit and Paul's guess is that the output shaft is the culprit. So now we need to find an Allison service center and have that checked out ASAP. Hoping to get in touch with one in Atlanta tomorrow and setup an appointment to bring the beast in so they can tell us how bad the bad news is. :: fingers crossed ::

So... I'm off to do some research here on the forums about other folks experience with output shaft issues, I'm pretty sure I've seen topics about it before.

Yay for working brakes and a reliable diesel burner on the Aquahot! :-)

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #23 – February 16, 2016, 07:23:11 pm

When you contact Paul Yesbeck, you may want to try Barnett Tire in Lessburg. Sorry I dont have a number but they do lots of RV tire work and Im sure they can help you.

Re: Florida: Parts and labor for replacing brake assembly on curb side drive axel

Reply #24 – February 17, 2016, 09:12:06 am

Quote from: Tigratrus – January 07, 2016, 01:44:48 pm

I'm *hoping* we don't have to replace the caliper itself, that sucker is expensive.

Had passenger side rear hang up on me in October. Fortunately I did not need a caliper. Shop around, FOT quoted over 2 coach bucks, online from authorized Meritor parts a little over $1000. HUGE difference. There is also a rebuild kit.

I also purchased and replaced slide pins without inspection. I just went ahead and had it done. $75 for pins.

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