Fun With Dexter Axles/Brakes

[MrkofXcellence]

I was having a brake intermittently hang up on my travel trailer, I traced it down with a temp gun/back of palm temp check. After returning from the west coast, I took the drum off and was presented with a somewhat greasy mess. Thank you EZ-Lube. Someone on youtube had eluded to the corner of the brake lever getting hung up on the corner of the brake shoe. I was going to get a new lever (with a new bushing at the top pivot point), but etrailer.com had complete axle set assemblies (left and right) for $156.00. Couldn’t pass that up. So two brake assemblies and two axle seals, hopefully we’re back in business. I hand packed the wheel bearings before re-assembly then gently used the zerk to add some grease when the thing was re-assembled. I was especially glad to see that Dexter has now put a bevel on the part of the lever that was hanging up. Design improvements are always welcome. I guess Ill be doing the other axle before the next big trip. Befores and afters are below.

 

[Dborch41]

I'll often use the EZ-lube fittings to buy time between repacks, but I've always been concerned about the grease seal getting dislodged. I discovered that there is flat spot on the backing plate allowing just enough of a gap to get a peek at the seal with the drum installed. A bright flashlight is needed and an inspection mirror is helpful, but the wheel does need to be removed.

It's some nice peace of mind knowing that seal is still intact after pumping in all that grease.

 

[MrkofXcellence]

buy time between repacks

I think thats the key. The bearings had plenty of dark, nasty grease in them, particularly the inner one. I’m not entirely sure how effective that system is in actually getting new grease into the bearings, the inner one especially. Maybe its possible that that grease turned icky over the last 7200 mile trip across the country and back. That trailer probably has 20k miles (or more) on it and I had never had the drums off before. Just adjusted shoes and ez-lubed the bearings. Whats the normal repack interval supposed to be? 15k?