1994 International 4700 Conversion Begins

[scooter421]

I've been in AZ for almost 15 years and this is the first time I've had to put on "Off" to fight off the dang mosquito's! O'well, I've managed to make a little more progress regardless. I wanted to add an external air line for various reasons and I finally got it functional. I don't know if I will leave it like it is but it gets the job done. The ball valve knob has a push to release feature which is nice just in case.



Next week the truck is going in for a 3rd member swap so I can actually make it up the hill again!
As seen in Ross's post, and thanks to Oz and Ross we're getting pretty cool front bumpers next week!

 

[scooter421]

I will be checking the brake caliper temperatures on the drive to the Gear Shop Monday. I am hoping to narrow down to the culprit causing the brakes to start dragging.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Put marks on the spots you will be using to check the temp. Also I would suggest doing brake lines, hub and calipers. Just write down the reading a few times during the trip if you can. That will show which was the 1st to start rising and the others would be more "referred" heat rather than source heat.

I don't know if you have an app for acceleration but it would be good to do a 0-50 run with the old gear set V the new gear set to have some real figures to work with. Same stretch of road and preferably same temps ( especially with your brake drag issue). Inquisitive buggers like me want to know what effect the gear swap has without the seat of the pants validation.

 

[scooter421]

Excellent ideas, thanks Oz. I was thinking I should have probably blown out the lines as you had suggested by now and I was going to do it this morning. However, now I don't want to damage a fitting and I have to fix it before I take off on Monday! Going to be getting temps on the power steering pump and brake booster as well. I believe I am going to switch to DOT 4 as it is compatible with brake system anyway. I will blow out the lines and the master cylinder at that time. It is possible something is floating around in there.

An acceleration app sounds cool! It would be nice to know the details, I will have to look one up.

 

[scooter421]

I found some small hangers at the dollar store of all places that worked out pretty well. They are dollar store quality but they stack easily to get a little extra support. I think they will work out fine. Sorry, I still have not figured out how to rotate the image, they keep coming in this way.

 

[scooter421]

14 mile journey to work. Stop and go at 45 mph. All hubs and calipers around 110F. Front rotors roughly 250F and the rears were about 190F. Power steering pump, gear box and booster 100F or less.

A whopping 0-50 in about 31 seconds!

 

[scooter421]

The highway driving to the shop for the 3rd member swap proved to be good information regarding temps as well.

Nothing I temped was above 150F which is great but not helping me identify the issue! The ride home from the shop will be longer; once home, I will get on my creeper and check everything and see what I can find.

Planning on going camping in October, going to be checking brake temps on that run as well.

 

[rlrenz]

14 mile journey to work. Stop and go at 45 mph. All hubs and calipers around 110F. Front rotors roughly 250F and the rears were about 190F. Power steering pump, gear box and booster 100F or less.

A whopping 0-50 in about 31 seconds!

That's the kind of driving that I did when I found my front brakes were warmer than I liked. We pulled the front wheels, popped the brake pads out, and then exercised the pistons by pumping them out to a wood stop block. We then pushed them back in with a large C clamp. After this had been done 2-3 times, the effort to push them back in had dropped off - a test drive confirmed that the brakes were now much cooler.

 

[scooter421]

Hi Bob, what temps did you find? The 250 in stop and go seems reasonable to me after reading up on brake temps. I can certainly take the brakes and do as you did exercising the pistons, it's worth a shot. Since I am switching to DOT 4 anyway, it would be a good time to give it a try. The problems we've had with the brakes always seem to be after going down the big hills coming back from or going to the mountains. I wonder if simply scrubbing speed occasionally going down is building up just enough heat to cause issues? I don't ride the brakes at all but slowing 15000lbs is going to create a lot of heat at 65-70+ mph on a 6% grade. Looking forward to checking temps on the next camping trip.

 

[rlrenz]

230-250 is about where I am after a traffic run. Before I exercised the pistons , I could smell brakes after a long drive with stop/go traffic and 95F temperatures.

 

[scooter421]

Okay, got the truck back from the shop with the 3rd member swap and the truck rolls down the road much easier! My transmission temperature was pretty steady at 190F which is lower than usual. It was not cheap but it was a good investment and the truck seems much happier with the swap. The guy at the shop thought it was a little odd the truck had 3.54 gears in it to start with.

Now to the brake temps:
I get home and check everything I can find regarding the brakes and everything was 150F or less....except the right rear rotor and caliper. The caliper was pushing 360F and the rotor was 560F.

I was about to order a new caliper but just before I made the order I realized the right rear caliper does not say Bendix on it while the other 3 do. So, my thought is they had already tried to correct this problem with a new caliper in the past which had not solved the problem. I've replaced the flex hose to the caliper bled the lines multiple times both gravity and pressure. Opened the "T" that supplies the fluid to the rear brakes and bled the line that way. The only thing between the "T" and the caliper I've not removed or blown out is a regular metal brake line which goes over the differential housing to the flex line for the caliper. Anyone have ideas other than blowing out or removing the metal brake line for inspection and cleaning? Other than a bad caliper or possibly something in the metal brake line causing a problem, I am at a loss at to how this is happening. I guess it has to be that section of brake line or the caliper?

 

[dwh]

Gotta be. If it was pressure building up at the booster or master cylinder, it should be affecting both sides in the rear.

 

[scooter421]

Yeah, I guess I am going to remove the section of brake line this week and see what I find. If everything is clear, I guess it's time for a new caliper. I got under there again tonight making sure I did not miss a kink or something and it all looks good. Maybe there is a junk of crud stuck at either end of the brake line at the fittings. One way or another, I'll get it functioning properly....eventually.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Glad to hear the swap seems to of worked out. What ratio did you go with?

Maybe consider buying a long length of flexible brake (braided) hose to go right back to the last common point with the other caliper. this will eliminate all that stuff and then if that works start by replacing the solid pipe. Or wait until Sunday and I will lend you my flaring tool, bending pliers, air bleeder etc so it is not as much work. If you pull the brake line off just replace it. Steel brake line is cheap and you don't know the condition of the existing one.

One of the reasons I suggested the long flex line is that on the Freightliners you can just about replace any line with a bit of hose just over 4' long. If you buy it to do the testing/elimination you can keep it in the truck as a spare with a couple of adapters. (I think you and Ross are the only guys who haven't blown a brake line YET. I still have the skid marks from when mine let go). I think the last braided line I got made was about $50 locally. Can get them cheaper if you are prepared to order online and wait.

 

[rlrenz]

There's also a chance that the flexible line to the caliper is partially plugged. New doesn't always mean that it can't be defective.

If you decide to replace the steel brake line, be careful - when my passenger's side rear caliper was replaced, soggy steel lines also had to be replaced because they couldn't survive being moved to be disconnected.