atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

LInks only work for members (wish less sites did that).

The OP said the source material is on
http://www.autoshop101.com/autoshop15.html
http://www.autoshop101.com/autoshop31.html

Which looks to have quite a lot of nice PDF's for me to grab based on their names lol. Sounds like most people there are just saying tie the arm up to the frame for max rear brakes. You'll be wearing your rear bakes around 4 times faster though (2:1 front vs rear to 1:2 based on that thread). With the help of that booster, the front line pressure is probably a null point, but adjusting and retesting your brakes isn't a bad idea. You probably never get snow down there, so unlikely you'd have to deal with slick conditions like that.

No probs on the timing of replies, life happens, and life never stops. Replying some time down the road is better than never hearing back .

schil01-camper

I was able to get some time to attend to the camper brakes this afternoon. I installed the replacement (new) master cylinder, a Beck Arnley 072-8522. It replaced the Centric Parts 130.44717 new unit that failed on me. In the process I had to completely remove the re-manufactured booster because it was getting really rusty already! So much for their "rust inhibitive coating". I used a wire brush to remove the rust and put a few good coats of rustoleum spray paint primer grey on it. It's all back together and bleeding was easy.

I took a closer look at the back brakes and the proportional valve. Good news and bad news. Bad news is that I'm going to have to do the rear brakes pretty soon. One side has a leak somewhere (likely the piston). I could see this though the inspection and adjuster holes. It has wet pads that are maybe 3/16" to 1/4" thick. I think this side has not been working due to the small leak for some time because the other side has less than 1/8" of pad left. This side is bone dry but it has a kinked metal brake line that I really should replace.

The good news is that the proportional valve actually seems to work. When I set the valve to "max to back" and do a quick stop from ~7 mph (not a good test I know) I get the dry rear wheel to lock first. Fronts will lock too but only after the dry rear locks. The wet rear tire won't lock. If I adjust the proportion valve to reduce the pressure to the rears then the fronts will lock up first. This seems to indicate that the valve is doing it's job and I'll be able to adjust it to the appropriate pressure once I re-do the rear brakes.

I don't have jack stands that are strong enough to hold up the camper at the rear axle. I'll have to borrow some or get some and then tackle the rear axle. That's going to be a chore as the rear brakes will need a complete refresh and part of that process will be greasing (or replacing if necessary) the rear bearings. The descriptions I've read make it sound like a not so fun experience.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

rear bearings are somewhat a PITA to do, need a way to get the bearing cups off and them have to use a press to get the bearings back on..

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Don't know much about your rear axle bearings/ brake setup. For the brake booster, did you paint it after the primer? Of my understanding, primer attracts moisture and with out a coat of paint, it will start rusting under the primer.

Interesting to hear you can actually adjust the brakes so the rear can lock up before the fronts. Good sign that the brake booster is big enough for ya =).

schil01-camper

You could be correct here but I didn't have any other immediate options. It's going to be much better than it was, but yea, I should have put a top coat on it. I had a 2.5 hour window to get a new master cylinder installed and I had to throw the booster re-work on top of that. Having just done all of this recently it was quick easy work. My neighbor had the paint as I didn't have any proper rust preventing paint available. Anyway, better that it was, but not ideal. The larger booster certainly does seem to work better and I have more grab now.

Yea, the rear end job is going to be a PITA, but I'm committed now. I don't think the bearings or rear brakes have had attention in a long time so I've ordered all of the wearable parts (bearings, races, seals, wheel cylinders, brake shoes, new drum, etc). I've got a press to get the bearing races in and out. Everything should arrive within a week and then I'll get her up in the air and see what I'm in for.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

I'd be interested in some photos of the brake setup. Would be awesome if the whole spindle setup just bolts to the axle with 4 bolts and a bolt on "upgrade" for normal axles. Probably a little too much wishful thinking though lol. My dad would love to get duels on his T100, but the stock width wouldn't work well for the T100. He's probably going to just throw a Dana 60-80 in the rear some time even though it would probably bit a bit wider than ideal.

For the jack stand situation, if you have more than one pair, you could double up. Say you have 1.5 ton ones, 2 per side (4 total) would be around 6 ton it could handle safely. Front ones would probably have more weight on them though vs the rears. Pretty sure they are rated like just about everything else that's safety related. It will probably handle 2-3 times the weight, but it's been tested to safely handle their rated rate for basically forever. Of course with this setup, I wouldn't be crawling under the rear end till you got a bigger set of jack stands just to be on the safe side. Harbor Freight seems to have pretty good jack stands for a fair price, my dad has the larger size (3 ton, 6 ton? not sure), and he's used them on his Ford F250 7.3L Diesel truck before. His jack stands even have a bar you can slip in for an extra lock.

Anyway, good luck with the rear brake work, sounds like it will have the best brakes in it's whole life once you're done with it =).

schil01-camper

I'll take some pics as I do the axle job. Can't remember if the attached diagrams of the axle set up was posted in this thread yet, but the attached shows the 1-ton dual wheel full float axle set up, but not the brake details.
I ordered a pair of 3-ton stands. My neighbor has a pair too. I think I'm ready to go once the parts arrive.
There are some pics of the hub in this thread:
http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/in...c/7103-brakes/
A blog with brake rebuild info/pics:
http://daysofexploration.blogspot.co.../04/third.html

schil01-camper

It's taken quite a while for me to gather enough information to make a post here. I wanted to get it all finished before reporting. The axle job wasn't bad, but it took some time. New bearings all around plus replaced differential fluid. For the brakes I replaced the pads and wheel cylinders along with the rear rubber flex hose. I cleaned out the proportion valve as well as I could and wired it up high to "max to rear". The rear rotors had almost no wear on them and it looks like this is the first time they have been changed since new 82k miles ago. The lack of wear overall on the rears suggests they were just not doing much.

I did a lockup test on the drive way and I can only lock the fronts. Rears won't lock. This is with the prop valve on 'full to rear'. When I first did a lockup test I believe I was able to make one of the rear wheels lock up, but I'm skeptical of my observation there. The second rear was 'wet' with brake fluid inside the drum from a leaking cylinder so it wasn't even working that well. I'm going to rate my previous assertion that I had a rear lock up as a reference point as maybe not true. Or perhaps I picked a crappy set of brake shoes with not much grip? Hard to say because I bought fairly generic pads others with camper had used from Rock Auto. Spec only says: "Brake Lining Material: Organic, Asbestos-free friction material". Could have done better I suppose. I am stopping very well and I have lots of power under the pedal with the new booster.

One observation I made was that after a 15 mile run I felt all of the hubs and brakes and they were all roughly the same temps, perhaps suggesting that I'm getting somewhat even breaking. I did a 1 mile run around the neighborhood with brake on plus giving it gas to put some heat into the brakes. Same result - about the same temp all the way around. Assuming I've finished bedding in my rear pads and the heat is not from too-tight shoes then this suggests that i'm getting some stopping power out of the rears even though I can't lock them up.

So now I think I'm ready for camping season. New head on there plus timing chain, water and oil pumps, tuned up motor with new vacuum hoses, new (stock) air filter, new plugs and wires, timed to stock setting, new header, new complete exhaust with resonator, cat, and muffler, brakes, all done now of course along with the rear axle. Plus I got my cruise control working. Now that I'm only driving in 3rd gear at 3600 rpm at 63mph (no overdrive on the auto trans) I can hold the hills and have enough power to move along. As soon as I kick on the overdrive it totally sucks and loses power. 3rd gear high rev and I'm good to go (and stop now too).

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like good work on the rear end. I think it's the "semi-metallic" that I normally buy that's affordable with a good bite. The new shoes won't have as good of stopping power as the old ones at first because they need to break in to the drum surface, and also wear to the same arch. Once broken in you might be able to lock up the rears, but it is a lot of weight on the back. Biggest thing is keeping the fronts locking up first, so all should be good if you have good brakes and the fronts lock up first .

Overdrive is probably a questionable thing to use with the wind drag of a motor home. The weight doesn't really kill you except on hills, it's the wind drag that makes it drink gas like crazy, and not much to do about that with a motor home. I've heard people trying to claim 30mpg out of their Toyota motor home v6, but I just don't see it, when a Camry car v6 gets probably 25mpg, and the pickup v6's get closer to 15-20mpg.

Anyway, it sure does sound like you're ready for camping. Hopefully the seats are pretty good in it, I have a 86 pickup with a worn out bench seat, and the bar in the lower back really hurts after an hour drive.

schil01-camper

I've been trying to determine if the rear pads are properly seated and giving max braking power. Time will tell, but likely grab will improve somewhat as they settle in.
I discussed the whole auto trans thing and overdrive in this thread at the toyota motorhome site:
http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/in...-in-overdrive/
Yea, OD just can't keep up. I wish I had understood that when I first got the motorhome. It took my a long while to figure out that my issue with 'power' was just the OD (turn it OFF!) and had nothing to do with the engine... Well, live and learn.
Seats are OK - not bad really. Ready to go!

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Yea, pretty much everyone I talk to says the 22R with an automatic is a dog, no power. Not to complicate things, but you could regear your rear axle to a lower ratio so overdrive works better. Wouldn't effect mpg really, but you'd have an extra gear to use while taking off, so taking off would be a little faster and such Since it's a motor home, probably best to just leave it as it is though. If you drove it every day, then the gearing swap would make more sense.

2500rpm at 62mph isn't too bad, my manual T100 with 4.10 gearing does around 3000rpm @ 70mph, but that's a 5 speed stick and a v6. What it probably could really use is a lock up torque converter and overdrive being a little lower geared, but if you were to do that, I'd say to just throw a 5 speed manual in it. The 22R engine isn't a speed engine, but it has quite a lot of pulling power. It acts a lot like a tractor engine, might not be able to go too fast, but you can put a house behind it and it will pull it lol.

Anyway, not sure when, but most cars didn't even have overdrive in the past, so not like it's going to hurt anything as long as you keep your fluids in check and don't mind the engine reving out a bit more than other modern cars/trucks. Might be shocked that it might get better mpg with over drive off since it struggles so much in overdrive. A couple benefits do come from a lower gear when moving a lot of weight, engine oil pressure is higher, and the torque converter is slipping less, so it makes less heat. The trans should run a little cooler overall.

If you have any probs, or have a destination near Michigan, I have an A43D trans from a 2wd pickup I'd sell to ya cheap if you wanted a spare around =).