MILITARY VEHICLE BRAKES By: Steve Turehet Getting down to bare-bone bottomline bbasios, there are only two main requirements for ‘any military vehiole...or ANY vehicle for that ‘matter..one: that the vehicle "goes" (preferably when you want it) and, second: that the vehicle stops..EFINITELY when you want it to! And, while its usually not a life or death matter i you ‘can’t get your MV to go, it can certainly come down to that In a hurry if you can't get it to stop. In this artiole we'l take a good general look at the brake systems of the common collector MVs. Weill learn the basios of how a vehicle braking system works, what its parts consist of, and how they do their job in bringing your MV 10, a hat. Well also.discuss diagnosing the most ‘common brake system problems so that you can {ing out for yourself what's wrong; how to fx your brakes, and how to make the simple adjustments 10 give you the most safety and all the stopping power your vehicle originally had when it rolied off the assembly line. Many MVers, though competent mechanics with good basic tools and skills, are still sometimes hesitant about tackling something as vital to safety as their MV's brakes. While I'm not ‘suggesting that a totaly unskilled person should start messing around with stuff they don't understand, it can be lust as hazardous to your hheatth to ignore possible brake system waming signs...especially when they are so EASY to ‘check out once you know what you're looking for. Ukewise, | hope to be able to show in this article that once having found your problem, ‘yourself usually doesn’ require a fully-equipped Machine shop ot a Mr. Goodwrench badge on ‘your shirt pocket. With only few exceptions, you'll find that most repairs and adjustments, ‘even rebuilds, can be done by yourself and with Just the basic tools you already own. What few speciaty tools that wil sometimes be required ‘can usually be rented. Even if you do have to buy a too! for a certain operation, ft generally ‘won't set you back much more than a dinner for the familly at Mickey Dee's. True; sometimes you'll need machining done but that’s why there ‘are machine shops, though I'd say that anyone with a fairly well-equipped garage or backyard ‘shop ought to be able to do close to 90% of their ‘own MV's simple brake work. For those folks who ask how high is up...or In this case, how "simple" Is simple...I refer you 6 back to MV issue #9 and the article on wheel bearings. Not oniy will this information be useful 10 you in performing repairs and maintenance on your brakes, it should also be a good comparison as to the degree of mechanical skil needed to do repairs or rebuilds on your MV's brake system. In other words, if you're up for servicing your ‘wheel bearings, | see no reason why you shouldn't be able to handle a brake job as well. ‘As Ive said inthe past, | personally don tke “how-to” arfioles that waste a lot of space on classroom theory, but I HAVE found that i's often helpful for a person to at least understand a Ite ‘of how and why things work. With this in mind, take a look at figs. 1 though 5 of a basic vehicle brake system. Since forall practical purposes on this planet, a liquid is not compressible you'l 66 that any force (such as your foot on the brake pedal) is distributed equally throughout a ‘confined liquid...namely the brake fluid in your vehicle's system, These diagrams should also help dispel the myth that Ione set of brake shoes on your vehicle is adjusted too slack that it won't brake as strongly as the others. Not so. Whilst may take a second longer for the brake shoes to contact the brake drum, ALL points of the system will stil. get equal braking pressure. The problem with not having your brake shoes adjusted out far enough is that there’s only 80 much travel in the master cylinders piston, therefore only a certain amount of fluid to be displaced for every stroke, 80 it the master cylinder piston reaches the end of its. stroke BEFORE all the wheel cylinders have pushed the brake shoes out against the brake drum, then there may not be enough force left to slow or stop the vehicle. Folks who have their brake ‘shoes adjusted too slack usually compensate by pumping the brake pedal. This glves the master cylinder a second (or third) stroke, displacing additional fluid and 0 making a higher pressure at the wheel cylinders. The prob with this pumping business is that it takes time..time you ay not have in an emergency. {In most cases if you find you have to pump the brake pedal before your brakes take hold (or the pedal hits the floorboards) then your brake shoes aren't adjusted out far enough. Again: having to pump the pedal is almost always a sure sign that your brake shoes are too slack. The need for ‘occasional adjustment is due to the gradual eer20D Tere Mla.2. Distribution of forces in hydroutle system sting different size ig. 1 Bavatdstribution of force pon ‘confined. guid Aro wars ce ‘VALVE ASSEMBLY Mia. Pour jare connected to « control jor. g.4 Diagram of hydrant brake ayatem,wearing down of the ining material on your brake shoes. Various factors affect how fast this wear happens. For instance if you lve in hilly country and use your MV to haul heavy loads, then naturally your brake shoe lining will wear down, quicker than i you lived in town and just cruised your vehicle around empty. Likewise, if you're ‘one of those folks who uses the brake pedal as a footrest (a definite no, no!) you'll find yourselt needing to adjust your brakes every time you turn. around. Bringing your vehicle to a slow gradual halt, instead of waiting until the last second then stomping down on the pedal with both feet, will give you much longer brake lining Ife and lessen the number of times you have to adjust your shoes. Other simple practices, such as gearing down on grades and slowing for situations where you know yout have to stop anyway, will also fengthen brake lining life and increase the interval between adjustments. Of course the choice is up to you, but being a good and careful driver will always save you some sort of hassle. Now, after wondering for some time just exactly how to write this article and keep it simple, | finally came up with the idea of using an ‘example and situation that should probably be familiar to most MVers. We're going to pretend that we're just buying an M-37, and that this truck s going to need some brake work and adjustments. We'll begin with the trouble symptoms that commonly show up in cases tke this, and 1 hope that more than a few will be familiar to you. Anyone who reads my Q & A ‘column should know by now that it's impossible ‘to please everybody. | discovered long ago in life that trying to please everyone ends up pleasing NO one! This may be why the color beige was invented. Anyhow, I chose the M-37 ‘as a general example because, noxt to the ‘ep’, i's probably the most common MV in the world, Figures 6-9 show typical brake components, while 10-10C an M-37's. (Yes, fig. 10 itself is of an M-715, but i's the best one | could find that shows everything in place, and i's almost the same as an M-37. The other figures ARE of genuine M-37 parts.) So, le’s go buy ourselves, an MV. We'll imagine that this particular example of Chrysler Corporation's finest has been sitting in a backstreet storage yard for about a year. Let's get colorful and pretend that its present ‘owner is a seventeen-year-old who bought the truck off a farmer, who never used it much himself. (It stil has its STARS!) The dude who ought it had some radical plans for dropping in ‘a 440 and slapping on a set of deuce-and-a-halt 8 axles for a way-cool monster truck to run at the tractor pulls. While | suppose that a few such individuals actually accomplish this, it aways seems as it the majority of these ambitious projects end up sitting in those baokstreet storage yards. ‘Anyway. Having some experience in these situations, ‘you attive prepared, equipped with tools, gas and. ‘water cans, two charged batteries, and other implements of resurrection, naturally wanting to fire up the beast and at least run her a few times around the Winnebagos before parting with that hard-eamed cash. In preparing to start the truck ‘you find that the brake pedal, drooping halfway to the floorboards already because of a broken retum spring, now sinks all the way down at a slight touch of your toe, and stays there. No prob, you're assured by the former Bigfoot hopeful, it did that at the farm too, all you gotta o is pour in some brake fluld and pump ita few times. Likely enough you nod and go on about the business of waking up the motor. This finally accomplished, and finding no nasty noises or ‘excessive smoke from the powerplant, you then. locate the master cylinder, remove the cap, and find it bone-cry. Should it be dy after sitting undisturbed for a year? Well, technically, no. 'm personally driving...and have been for over a year now...an International M-3-4 that had been sitting under a tree for over three years, and who's master cylinder was full to the rim when | first saw the truck, and hasn't leaked a drop of brake fluid since. But then this truck's former owner told me he'd just gone completely through the brakes and rebuilt the master cylinder only a few months before frying the IHC’s engine trying to tow a two-ton flatbed truck full of cordwood up a mountain fre-trall. But no sliding seal is perfect, and basically that's what a wheel cylinder is. Finding a vehicle ina situation such 2s our imaginary M-37's with a dry master cylinder does not necessarily msan that you have major brake problems. Remember, too that this particular M-37 has @ broken brake pedal return spring that has let the weight of the pedal exert constant pressure on the fiuid..not a lot of pressure, true, but remember, i's been going on every second for the last 365 days. Again; no sliding seal is perfect, so a gradual loss of brake fluid in a case like this could be considered normal. Even if the spring hadn't been broken, it stil wouldn't have been too unusual to find at least some fluid loss. But, a broken or missing pedal return spring willalso cause other problems, as we'll find out @ litle later. However, right now, since you don't happen to have another spring in your pocket, you fil the master cylinder with brake fluid and start pumping the pedal..and pumping...AND pumping! Not only does nothing seem to be happening in the way of brakes, but your efforts are further complicated by having to hook your toe under the pedal each strike to pull it back up in..that broken spring is causing more trouble .. Meantime, the engine goes on idling Patiently while the M-37's owner is beginning to tose his. He finally glances at his watch for the hundredth time and says something like, “well, she runs good, dont she?" Even though you're getting a litle red in the face from all that fufless pumping, you Tealize that what ho's politely saying is, do you want the damn truck or not? Being yourselt a civilized person...and really wanting the M-37 because, the brake problem asido, it DOES sound sweet..jou don't say the first thing that comes into your mind. While you're now a litle worried about those brakes, maybe you remember hearing the term, “bleeding"...usualy in a casual remark such as, “hell ll them brakes needed was a lite biaedin™, This doesn't sound too major. Since the parking brake works okay, you go ahead and run the truck a couple of timos around the yard and satisfy yoursel that you're siil getting your money's worth fora sharp M-37 (with STARS). Bucks and tile papers change hands. The rent on the storage spot is paid until the end of the week, and you return home to look up brake bleeding procedures in your old Motors Manual. Likely you'lfind that there are two basic methods of brake bleeding for non-power-assisted systems like the M-37'..."power bleeding” and"manual bleeding". ‘The former can be done by one person (if you have a power bleeder unit that is) but a quick call to an auto parts store to check out the price ‘of a power-bleeder convinces you fast that you'd rather do it the old-fashioned way. A second call to a fellow MVer gets you a simple rundown of the procedure..but you need two people to do i, and he's busy tomorrow. Then your friend adds that you dont need anybody INTELLIGENT to help, just a warm body with atleast one leg to sit in the driver's seat and push on the pedal whan toid to. Right then you see your eight-year-old son out in the back yard doing nothing more educational than swinging the neighbor's cat by the tai Body. Warm. One. Size small. Let's stop at this point in our story and go 10 over a few things. First: what's wrong with the M-37's brakes...at least at the moment? The biggest prob is that air has gotten into the system as the fluid leaked out. This could have happened whether or not that return spring was broken, While wo know that a liquid cant be ‘compressed; air on the other hand compresses just fine. If the master oylinder hadnt been ‘completely dry, the air in the system would've left us with a spongy-feeling pedal... sort of ike stepping on a plum...but it could still be pumped solid enough to activate the brakes. Even though it would probably require some frantic pumping of the pedal each time you wanted to stop, the truck ‘could have been driven slowly and carefully for a short distance. It's even possible that by adding ‘more fluid and doing a lot of diligent pumping, much of the ait would've bled itsel out. However, n this case your master cylinder was totally dry so that you actually poured new fluid in ‘on top of the air trapped in the system below, and then proceeded to force that air throughout ‘the entire system by pumping the pedal. Some. air stil might have bubbled back out of the master oylinder since air wants to rise to the highest point, but that broken spring kept the pedal from returning all the way and letting the air escape through the bypass port (see fig. #6). Of course you didn't know this, but sinoe you're now having enough trouble trying to explain to itle Johnny what itis you want him to do (and why he can’ listen to M.C. Hammer on his Walkman while doing i) without expecting him 10 toe the pedal al the way back each time, you ‘go and buy a universal retum spring and install it ‘until you can order a stock one from on MV dealer. Right move. Bleeding brakes is one of those procedures that are very simple it done correctly, but can tum into @ total circus and soreaming-match between two (former) friends if not. Seeing two people attempt to bleed brakes when they're not ‘exactly sure how it's done is a lot like watching ‘an inexperienced man and wife team trying to ‘back their camping trailer into a tight spot at an RV park. .exoellent entertainment for those with a sadistic streak. Believe me, you quickly come 1o find out how good your marriage, family-ties, (friendship is when bleeding brakes! ‘The procedure itself is simple. First, make ‘sure that the top of the master cylinder is clean ‘80 that no dit, rust, or grease gobs fallin when ‘you take off the cap. Fil the master cylinder with brake fluid. I's a good idea to replace the cap finger-tight as sometimes the air wil bubble back and splash out the fluid, and besides you don't; ‘want that dit and orap to fallin. One person will sit in the driver's seat to pump and hold the pedal. WHEN YOU TELL THEM TO! Personally, | always use kids for this job because there’ Nothing worse than having someone at the pedal who knows just enough of what's going on to try ‘and help by anticipating your next move. What is needed for this position is somebody who will do EXACTLY what you want, WHEN you tell them to do it..besides, my kids, at least, work cheap. ‘What you will do now isto first make sure you have the proper size wrench to fit the bleeder screw on you M-37's wheel cylinders (Fig. #10C). These screws are often rusted tight, 80 a heavy-jawed tubing wronch usually works best. Small Vise-Grips are permissible whon, as often the case, some clown has been there before you and messed up the sorew with pliers ‘or a Crescent wrench. Best to check that all four bleeder screws can be opened before you start. There's an etemal on-going debate {something fie which shade of OD is “proper’) among folks who should realy know better about ‘which wheel cylinder to bleed first and what order to take them in. Some excellent mechanics will tell you to start with the wheel cylinder farthest. from the master (usually the right-rear for most ‘American made vehicles) and work back in order to the cylinder closest to the master (generally the left-ront). Other mechanics, just as ‘experienced, wil insist to the death that you do the exact opposite. Well, quys, | got it from the best of sources that it doesnt matter at all WHICH wheel cylinder you stat with or what order you take them in on this kind of non-power-assisted system. (I still always start with the tight-rear and move back in order mysolt..but then we all have our litle ‘superstiions.) Anyhow, now have yourpedal-man pump FULL strikes on the brake pedal at least ten times or until he begins to feel some resistance. With your wrench ready’ on the what cylinder bleeder screw of your choice, call, "HOLD", This means that your peda-man will ‘now hold constant pressure’on the pedal. Open the bleeder screw (watch out for your eyes). “Air, ot air mixed as bubbles with brake fluid should spit out of the bleeder screw. if your pedalman was able to build up pressure, the brake pedal should now sink ali the way down to the floorboards as the air and fiuid spurt out of the wheel cylinder bleeder screw. Your pedal-man will now HOLD THAT PEDAL TO THE FLOOR UNTIL YOU TELL HIM TO LET IT UP! Close the 12 bleeder sorew firmly, then call to your pedal-man to"LET UP" or "PUMP". Rlepeat this procedure Until only a solid spurt of fluid and no more air squirts from the bleeder screw. Even if no pressure at all was built up the first few times you should siill have your pedal-man hold the pedal to the floorboards. Some air will come out of the wheel cylinder anyway. When you finally get a sold jet of fluid from the bleeder screw on that frst wheel, close the screw securely, tell your pedal-man to “LET UP", then slide out from under and top-off the master ‘oylinder with fluid again. Then move on to the ext wheel and repeat this whole procedure. Remember to check and top-off the master cylinder after doing each wheel because if you let it get low than you'll be pumping more air back Into the system and have to go through the whole ritual all over again from square one. If your pedakman has done what you told him, and when, you should now have solid brakes. Give your pedal-man a beer (Coke is optional). Ina few cases where the system is totally dry, you may have to run through the whole procedure twice before each wheel cylinder is completely bled of air. lve just described the simplest, easiest, and least painful method of bleeding the brakes on most common MVs having no power-assist. ‘Again: this two-person method is BEST. While there are ways that one person alone can bleed brakes without a power-bleeder, such as those litle plastic hose kits with a one-way valve that attach to the wheel cylinder bleeder screw, and the hose and jar method (Fig. #22) and I've used them with some success, the two-person method 's stil the best. Many of those cute litle blister-packed "EZY-BLEEDER” kits won't fi the bleeder screws of older or larger MVs, and the “hose and jar method not only wastes expensive brake fluid but the hose has a nasty habit of popping off at just the wrong time so you end up having to do the whole thing atl over again. For MVs such as the Chevy G-506, IHC M-9-4, Ford GTB, or GMC CCKW and DUKW with ‘vacuum assisted (Hydrovac) brakes, the bleeding procedure is the same except that you bleed the Hydrovac unit FIRST, and should have the ‘engine running to provide vacuum. (Don't tell me you cantt find the bleeder screws on the Hydrovac unit [Figs. 11 & 12] LOOK for them or you won't get that Budweiser!) For MVs such as the GMC G-749 and Reo M35 with airservos (Figs. 13 & 14) bleed the air-servos first and, again, you'll need the engine running to provide air. For MVs having two wheel cylinders on eachwheel (Figs. 15 & 16) bleed the top cylinder first fr the one farthest trom the axle brake line. Nothing to it, Now, let's get back to our imaginary M-37. While | said that you should now have ‘solid brakes, I didn’ necessarly mean that you might not have to pump the pedal once or twice to keep it from hitting the floorboards. If this is the case, and you're certain that all the air is out of the system, your problem just about has to be brake adjustment. Almost every MV has a different method to adjust the clearance between the brake shoes and the drum, For the actual Mechanics of how to do this on your own particular vehiole, a manual is a MUST. On our M-37, adjustment of the shoes is accomplished primarily by turning the bolts (item *T* in Fig. 408). Figure #21 shows which direction to turn them to bring the shoes out against the drum. This also applies to almost every brake assembly having adjustments of this type. But, however the shoe clearance adjustment is made on your Particular MV, it’s to accomplish the same Fesult..that our brake shoes ride as close as possible to the drum so as to reduce the wheel ‘ylinder piston travel as much as possible, yet without having the shoes so tight against the drum that they drag and heat up. In the case of the M-97, and most other brakes of this type, there's another adjustment of the anchor pins (Wtem *B" Fig, 108) but this is usually only made ‘once when new shoes are installed and shouldn't be messed with much after that. (We'llcover this when we go into rebuilding our brake system components later on, as well as the adjustments for the other common types of MV brakes such as those pictured in figures #15-20.) You can send your pedal-man home now to swing the cat some more or let him kiok-back with his beverage. Adjusting your M-37's brake shoes..in fact, just about ANY MV's brake shoes... something you cart do alone. You'l be jacking one whee! af a time off the ground with the vehicle in neutral and the parking brake off, 0 block one or more of the other wheels fore and at to keep the truck from rolling. ‘With the wheel raised clear of the ground, spin it by hand while at the same time gradually turning the adjustment bolt until you hear the brake shoe begin to scrape lightly against the drum. My personal method is to turn the shoe Cot tight against the drum, fist, until the shoe just faintly scrapes. Then, do the same with the other shoe. Again: you should just be able to hear the shoes soraping against the drum. Now, repeat this procedure on the other three wheels, then go ua step on the brake pedal. Chances are excellent that youtl have a solid pedal that only needs ‘move an inch or 80 before the brakes take hold. You might want to check over the whole system...ines, hoses, master cylinder piston rod..for brake fluid leaks, preferably under pressure it you've still got your pedal-man handy. Finding no leaks, you can now gather up your tools and get ready to drive the beast home in safely. Keop in mind that this partioular M37 was sitting for a long time and probably has rust ‘on the braking surfaces of the drums. You may have to make another small shoe adjustment after putting a few miles on the truck when the braking surtaces are polished smooth once more. ‘On the way home you notice a tendency for ‘the truck to tug to the lett (or right) whenever you step on the brakes. Then, a yellow light takes you by surprise at the last intersection and you ‘romp the pedal down hard. The truck yanks Violently left (or right) and lets out a hideous soreech tke the alr-brakes of a seri sometimes do. What's wrong now, you wonder? You recall that M-37s usually have thelr brake ining material riveted to the shoes. Could those linings be worn down to the rivets? Is possible, but usually in cases where only ‘one wheel grabs...pulling the vehicle to the side...and the screech it makes doesn't have much of a metallic scrape to it, this means you probably have grease or oll on the brake shoes. This is generally caused by leaking wheel bearing seals as we discussed way back in the ‘wheel bearing article. The remedy is to follow the procedures for servicing the wheel bearings, and since you just bought this truck and don't have any idea what condition those bearings are in or then they were serviced last, now would be good time to take care of that anyway. And, you can get a good look at your brake shoes ‘and wheel cylinders at the same time. In part ‘wo of this article we'l be taking our brake drums off to service, clean, and rebuild our wheel oylinders as well as the master cylinder, plus our Hydrovacs and air-servos too. it reader interest 0 indicates, we might go a step farthar and take a look at full-air systems. As a final note on screeching brakes; some MVs have just the right combination of brake Construction and lining materials to make them prone to noisy brakes even then there’s nothing wrong. Dodge WCs and M-37s are noted for this, trait, though early model Toyota Land Cruisers ‘were famous for it, too. Wet brakes will also sometimes squeal. if you find from visual inspection that your brake shoes are in goodshape and free of grease or oll, yet your brakes stil occasionally sound-off ‘ke fingemails ‘dragged across a blackboard, you might try replacing the return springs (well go deeper into that next time). if this still doesn't stop the noise, you may have fo get your brake shoes relined ‘with a diferent type material. t hope that this article has been some help VACUUM FOWER CYLNDER | Fig. 11. Hydrovac unit, Typical, CCKW & DUKW, Fig. 12, Hydrovac unit, exploded view. 15ston ANCHOR PN mr en Fig, 16, Two-cylinder brake. Typical f Fig. 15. Two-cylinder brake. Typical vase wowasien Fig. 17, M-35 brake, 17ogee mck wom J-axouon mm ce (tcaeke Shoe ine nm Coc TMA shoe witel cnx Boat Shoe Ue re (scab SCE tne ro 108 Fig. 18. CCKW brake. [Banjo-type axle.] Fig.19 , M-715 brake, Fig. 21. Typical adjustment for M-37 and other brakes of same type. ‘continued on next page 18