Shorelandr Trailer Brakes Stopped Working

[Fargo007]

I finally figured out what was going on. Somehow the Safety release bracket on the bottom of the actuator was getting "stuck." It apparantly wouldn't move even though the whole surge assembly would freely slide foward and aft.

Bottom line: If your Shorelander surge brakes stop working add checking freedom of movement on the safety release bracket below the surge assembly to the possible list of causes. Watch the Brake bleed video in post #12 above if you are not sure what I am talking about.

I've got trailer brake problems on my 22.

Wheels were almost red hot after coming home yesterday.

Left wheel was immovable when jacked up and spun. Right moves, but is impinged upon by the brake pads on the rotors.


ETA - I found the actuator - it's on the underside and can be seen through a round hole in the bottom. When the tire is spun and that is pushed aft with a flathead it activates.

When I lay off it the tire still spins but the brakes are definitely dragging on it.

It's not that. It's gotta be something with the brakes themselves being stuck like that.

 

[Fargo007]

Also found this if it helps anyone.

 

[Scoop]

Other than the brakes be sure to check the grease level. If you ran out of grease your hub could have overheated independent of the brakes - thi scould result in the wheel not spining if it got hot enough for long enough. Do you have a tandem trailer? Were only the wheels with brakes hot?

If the brakes were dragging it shouldn't be that hard to fix but since you said the wheels were red hot you definitely need to check the bearings/hub assemblies. Back in college I was towing a boat and my buddy who was following behind me said "Pull over, sparks are coming off you axle." Well we pulled over, the wheel was glowing red hot so we jacked the trailer up and the wheel promtly fell off! The good o'le days when I was broke and couldn't afford bearing buddies.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Scoop

 

[Fargo007]

Thanks Scoop, that's the first thing I checked - What I was doing was raising the wheel up to grease the bearings. It's good to move them around in between grease shots. And lo and behold it wouldn't spin at all!

I did grease them up anyhow, but I know now that my left caliper is shot and needs replacement. The brakes tighten, but they never loosen back up.

I'm highly disappointed in this trailer. It's not even a year old.

 

[Scoop]

Not sure if those are discs or drums, but if discs, you might get off with something as simple as the caliper slide pins are seized in the open position, and you just need to remove those, take some Emery cloth to them, put some anti seize on them, and reinstall them

No idea without being there looking at it with you, it could be a number of things, hopefully we hit a lot of the ideas for you to check out and one of them works out well for you. Fingers crossed

Does anyone have a good video of how to remove and clean shorelander disk brake caliper pins as stated above? I am looking for some specific instructions on how to do this. My pins are not seized but they are not moving freely and I think they may be intermittently sticking? Trying to get the rig ready for a road trip and the brakes once again are acting up.

Thanks.

 

[Scoop]

Disregard above request. I Figured it out. CLeaned and lubed the caliper pins, gridned the rust off of and smothed the edge of the brake pads did a good thorough bleed and I everything is fully working. The only tricky part was using the allen wrench to remove the two bolts holding the assembly in place. Due to the tight area you can only get about 1/8 of a turn at a time and it was painstaking. I gave it a shot of PB blaster last night and also used a Craftsman Pneumatic puNCH set just to vibrate on the side of the bolts to loosen it up and it seemed to work. After 5 years in and out of salt water I was able to remove the bolts. Pictues below. I recommend tapping or using some kind of pneumatic devide to virate any bolts that may be rusted in place - seemed to work great.

Below are the two 5/16 bolts that need to be removed and the pads and pins just after removal and prior to cleaning and lubing.

Brakes are now working great! Truth be told I think it was mostly the thorough bleed.

FWIW - 7/16 wrench to bleed the brakes.
Caliper bolts - 3/8 but once broken loose I was able to use a 9MM with the angled end to make it easier.

 

[drewkaree]

Usually just some brake or carb cleaner gets off the old anti-seize. Looks like yours was gummy/old, so that will help. Generally, pulling the pins and relubing seems to keep problems at bay with the car, but your trailer sounds like it's a bit more of a hassle.

I'm not sure if it specs what type of anti-seize, but I had to buy copper anti-seize for a truck, but there may be issues with the salt water and the copper. Nickel anti-seize is also available, but someone more knowledgeable than me should chime in about whether that's good for this application or not. I'm fresh water only, and I only use these products where specified, as I don't know enough about interaction with metals to trust I'm not doing harm.