Brake lock up LXI

[davidbrady]

Thanks for the report Al. Now that we have two documented cases of LXi tag axle slack adjuster failure resulting in dragging brakes and excessive heat its probably a good idea to add this to the list of "known" LXi issues. (There are probably more undocumented cases).

My failure occurred in 2005 when the coach was only 3 years old. I bought my coach and immediately drove from Florida to California and I fought tight brakes on my curbside tag axle the whole way. It was obvious the wheel assembly on that axle location ran hotter than all the others. When I returned to my garage and disassembled the brake assembly I could see that the SA was over-adjusting itself to the tight side. Al's failure appears to be more sudden and catastrophic.

Tommy, the air pressure loss test is a good one for testing slack adjuster functioning. Start the engine, build up full air pressure (let the air drier spit), shut down the engine, and apply full service brake pressure. The air pressure drop at the front/rear brake pressure gauge should be less than 7 psi. In my case, with my LXi, the pressure drop was considerably less, only 2.5 psi with each full application of the service brakes. Although this test may not identify a tight adjuster, the fact that you have loose adjusters is reason enough to pay them some attention.