Electric Brakes now not working well after bearing change

Have you checked what voltage you are getting to the brakes? Maybe you have disturbed an electrical connection when doing the bearings.
Don't you hate it when this sh---- happens just before you are ready to hit the trail?
Had dramas with the van water tanks the night before we left on our last trip.
Yeah Grrrrrr!

Cheers
Pop

Can't shed any light on the brake issue, but I never redo bearings just before a big trip...

Always do a small weekender etc before the big one.....gives you time to do any adjustments or make sure no heating issues etc show up..

I had a similar problem with my caravan brakes. You will probably find that there is still a very fine film of grease on the magnets, drums and linings. It is the magnets gripping on the side of the drum that provides the force to the shoes.

Washing in solvents such as petrol will dilute the grease but will not completely remove it. A number of manufacturers make a special brake lining cleaner which should be better than petrol. You could find that you will get a better result from washing everything with hot water and detergent. Once you do this go for a good drive and pull the over-ride brake lever on to get your brakes really hot so that they burn off any residue.

I did this on my caravan and used an infra-red thermometer gun to check that wheels on both sides were braking evenly, that is both sides were getting equally hot.

Good Luck

Triton man
The use of brake cleaner spray on all friction related surfaces ie MAGGOTS, drums and linings should eliminate friction issue.

The earths for the magnets should not be earthed to the vehicle as standard. They can be, but a direct, from both earth wires to the trailer plug earth is essential so proper, reliable, trouble free, braking can occur.
The earth of the 7 pin base on the vehicle should have a definite earth to chassis and also definite to battery negative. Any of these which are not making a complete circuit will reduce brake magnet strength, no matter how strong the pulses to the magnets are. Just testing at the vehicle 7pin base is an indicator of Controller performance but it has to get to the coils in the magnets and that all important return to battery for it all to work properly and effectively.

Ross M

Degreaser is one of the worst things to use on brakes, most degreasers will leave an oily film .... this is to add a bit of protection but also it helps in dissolving grease and oil.

The other problem with degreaser is it can penetrate the brake material compound causing damage.

Best thing to use is proper brake cleaner that has a quick evaporating rate and will remove all oils.

Are you brakes adjusted right and how much drag have you got when you spin the wheels?

A film of grease could well be the issue, but you might take heart from the following. My van manufacturer did a 'first free service' on our van's hubs a few years back (4 x 12" HD hubs).... don't know who actually did the work but they grossly over-greased the bearings .... after a few hours of driving to home, I checked the brakes to find virtually nothing there ! The grease oozed out of the back seal and it got into the braking area - all over the magnets and shoes - one real mess. At home, I spent hours cleaning it all up and washed the shoes in degreaser (not ideal of course). The point is, the brakes did eventually come good after a few sessions of manual braking while mobile and getting them quite hot......

Hi... Triton man...
This issue is the mother of all trailer probs because of the nature of the beast, getting electricity with current from one end of your veh to the other, plus the actual mechanical action of the braking mechanism...
A couple of things I would look at in order of ease...

(1) Redo all yur earth fitttings on the chassis, physically remove n clean with course emery n scratch up the contact point on the chassis to shiny new metal reattach terminal and spray with a protectant that leaves an anti rust/corrosion barrier.

(2) Check yur connecting male/female pins for tightness and cleanliness then open them up n check the wires/terminals for corrosion (remembering electricity + water n metal not a good mix) n finally check the tightness of them little screws that secure the wire into the terminal...

(3) Did you readjust the brake shoe clearance? If so that has been found to be a factor as the mechanism needs a proportional amount of clearance to actually activate... If you have adjusted them up try backing them off to where they were when they worked...

(4) If you have disassembled the brake mechanism recheck for correct placement of parts... Also the brake shoes!! The system could be employing a leading and trailing shoe... Looks similar but is different, designed to have a self energizing (jamming) effect, swap em around n suffer the consequences...

(5) I suppose I should have included this one first up but it does require a degree of competency to get accuracy... As close as possible to the magnets measure voltage and current (amps)... The current is the most important, the magnets should be drawing no less than 3 amps possibly more at full tit... Now that's from memory so I will stand corrected on that point...

Good luck n keep us posted... Tommy.

Thanks to all contributors. Can't be a winner all the time. Have tried all posted suggestions to no avail. Better half wisely suggested a VISA card will fix it and at this point, I tend to agree. Will call the local brake specialist and try to get it done this week.
i WILL respond byt the end of the week as to how this pans ot so... WATCH THIS SPACE.

Thanks again, you guys are great.

Triton man

Hi triton man
I had similar problem and have found solution
Reading lots of forums the info can lead you up the wrong path
--wrong size wire--I don't think so when same wire has been used before with no problems
--incorrect brake adjustment has very limited effect on actual brake performance
--installing the axle the wrong way is a possibility but hand brake levers would have to be operated from the rear of the trailer,not likely
--rule out incorrectly adjusted bearings (should be addressed anyway)
--all voltage and current is either there or not(mostly)

I recently purchased a new electic braked axle to replace my unbraked item
Considering I have caravan and tandem trailer fitted with electric brakes by myself that work perfectly with plenty of power on the same vehicle using the same wire off the same roll (fairly light speaker wire) I was quite perplexed when my new axle on single trailer which is wired up exactly the same exhibited problems you describe
To cut a long story short and after lots of testing I decided to do direct comparison/measurment with my other known to be good brakes

It became apparent that there was a larger than normal gap between the edge of the drum and the brake backing plate

After removing the brake drum/bearing hub from one side ,of course the magnet was pushed out to the end of its 'wear' travel by the very light spring doing its job

I popped out the plastic plug at bottom of backing plate and took a measurment to face of magnet that should be well and truly touching the inner flat face of brake drum to backing plate. (approx 65mm)

I reinstalled the drum/hub assembly adjusted bearings and then took similar measurment from backing plate to inner flat face of drum. (approx 80mm)

It would appear that there was a 15mm gap where the magnet and drum would never meet

The magnet must be in contact with the drum for brakes to work

Hand brake operation is not affected by magnets

The axle I purchased was the correct length (face to face)where wheels bolt on but plates that were welded to axle to mount backing plate with four bolts were positioned
Too far from ends of axle

I could have made a spacer and fitted longer bolts to rectify the problem but I'm slack and just took the axle back. Problem solved