[Richard]

Look at the slack adjuster. On top will be a square post, about 1/4” if IIRC. On the side will be a little pin that you have to pull out to back the slack adjuster off. Otherwise it will only turn one way.

I use a pick with hook end to slip under the release pin, so I have both hands free.

If you have the Meritor pads, they will seem impossible to install. It will appear the ears are just too wide to slip into the caliper. That’s when the A Ha hit me. A close exam of the ears on the pad showed them to be tapered, and the caliper is tapered in the area where the ears ride. Start with the thick one, push it down into the caliper where the cutout well is located. While holding it down into the caliper, slide it sideways. The purpose of that taper is to keep the pad in place. The non OEM pads I bought were lacking that slight detail.

[Jack Houpe]

Thank you for the millionth time.

[Jonestead]

I second Jack's gratitude and feel compelled to raise,

[rvguy]

Nice write up. Glad you caught the rotors on the front. I did just redue all of mine due to this same issue .  Beware that bottom 30mm calper mounting bolt can be a pain in the a__ to get off, you got to either have a skinner socket or do alittle grinding. Just a fyi

[Richard]

Laughing, cause I put the impact hex on the grinder to make it skinnier for the clearance.

[Jack Houpe]

By the way these are the easiest brakes I have ever replaced. Ingenious engineering.

[Richard]

The fronts, the Knorr Bremse/ Bendix Sn7 are even easier. You don’t have to swing the caliper away from the disc.

[pairodice]

Thank you for this write up and all your invaluable information Richard!!! The mechanic here said he knew how to remove the brake pads without removing the calipers… I hope he is correct and knows what he is doing… when we return from our trip I will be pulling this all apart (after buying the tools to remove the wheels) and doing the bearings and other items Richard listed.

[WillieG]

Richard, an excellent Post and very informative. I’m taking notes and making a notebook with various parts numbers because I believe my drive and tag are very similar to yours if not the same. I really lucked out an old contact from high school with a 30 year heavy equipment mechanic and has shop at his house. He can fit quad axles in for service said he’s willing to work on mine in the spring,as he’s filled up  on side winter jobs ,getting quad axles and other heavy  equipment ready for spring work

[whited44]

Tag axle.

The hardest part was figuring out what the heck this brake setup was. Meritor 1560. Be aware that later than 99 used the Knorr Bremse in the tag. 

The manual.    http://graphicvillage.org/meritor/mm4.pdf

Again easier than a car. You only have to remove the top slide pin and rotate the caliper down on the lower slide pin to remove and replace the pads. Notice the different thickness from side to side on the pads. 

I had a little complication, in that one of my tags felt growly when rotating by hand. This is why.



Here are the bearing and race numbers

All Timken part numbers HM212049, HM 212011, HM 218210, HM218248

The seal is Scotseal SKF 46300.

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And to close this out with what I would do differently.

One I thought I was being careful with my hands but obviously not enough. Everything about this job is heavy and has the potential to pinch you.

I would pressure wash everything around where I was working to remove some of the road grime.

I would have gone to the Prevost parts guy first. I was just surprised that so much of the wheel ends on my Newell were the same wheel ends as on a Prevost.

Don’t even think about doing this at home without some method of lifting the parts you remove.

Hi Richard.  I’m going to replace my axle seals and bearings in the tag.  If I’m doing both sides how many seals and how my of these bearing part numbers will I need??  Thanks