Electrical Starcraft 17.58-3 OB | Electric brake cable broken close to wheel | How to pull off wheel

Jared01

Active Member
Oct 28, 2016
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Hello,

Whilst on my recent trip, 2 out of the 4 electric wires going to the brakes broke. I twisted them together and taped up as a temporary measure, but they broke less than 1cm from the wheel so there is not much wire to join them together.

I was thinking of taking the wheel off and re-joining the wire inside the wheel.

I am after some advice as to what is involved in taking the wheel / hub (I think it is called) to repair.

I have no worries in removing the wheel and also have a torque wrench to tighten them back to the correct torque.

Alternatively if I buy a cordless soldering iron, and some heat shrink, I could repair them that way too if easier.

I will post up a picture shortly.

Thanks in advance!
 

Jared01

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Oct 28, 2016
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One wheel has hardly any wire left to join onto if I was to solder or crimp them together. Tossing up what is involved in taking the wheel off. Not sure if bearings get removed and if I could stuff something up or not.

Better sort the wiring out as only caravan braking is from one side :-(
 

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Jared01

Active Member
Oct 28, 2016
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Would be good if I could pull some green cable out of the wheel but doesn't feel like it wants to come out. Not sure how the rubber grommet fits in.

Guess taking the wheel off would give me the best repair
 

WHHEMI

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Jan 18, 2016
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Bearings will need to come off with the hub, if you can solder and heat shrink in place I would be doing that, then cover with some split tubing to protect it, also check that you have enough cable to allow for the suspension down travel.
 

mikerezny

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Sep 11, 2016
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Probably not what you want to read... If it was just a 12V light I would do whatever was easiest. But these are your brakes and I would be much more pedantic. Hence I wouldn't be trying to do a connection to those short wires. No matter how you do it, it will be quite tricky and in that hostile area, error prone. My thoughts would be to pull the hub off, inspect the wiring to see if I more satisfactory join or complete wire replacement could be thoroughly done. If not, I would bite the bullet and get a new brake magnet. If you have an accident and an assessor sees a handyman attempt associated with the brakes, it might be grounds to refuse a claim. I am as tight as, with regards to spending or wasting money, but with gas and brakes I err way over on the side of caution. Just my 2 cents worth.
 

mikerezny

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That reminds me. I was looking under the Penguin last week and noticed the cover sleeve of the brake wiring had slid past the metal clamp. After looking at your pictures, I am off to get that sorted before I have a broken wire down in that area. Thanks for the clear pictures.

cheers
Mike
 

Drover

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Nov 7, 2013
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I know I have a link somewhere about doing your wheels but I will look later..........firstly get yourself some good quality High Temp bearing grease, then you will need a pair of long nose pliers, soft end hammer, rags, a very big shifter, jack, sunday paper, small takeaway tray (for pins. bolts etc), bottle of metho and 3 jack stands and Google removing van wheels.

It will be way better to replace the wiring not try and join when it's broken so close to the backing plate.

Put a jack stand under draw bar, take weight off jockey wheel.
Loosen wheel nuts slightly, chock wheels except for the one your working on,
Jack up said wheel, place jack stands under chassis rails on either side, let handbrake off.
Remove wheel.
Knock cap off hub and remove the split pin, nut and washer, put in tray.
Lay out an open newspaper.
Pull/knock hub off axle spindle, outer bearing may fall out so catch and place on newspaper, inner bearing will be held in place, don't get grease on drum and lay drum on paper...
You will now see you brake shoes and the bits you require to repair, a liberal wash with metho will remove the brake dust and leave no residue, brake dust is not good for you so don't blow it out.
It should be an easy job to replace the wires, even splicing them and insulating with heat shrink, don't worry if the magnet falls off just put it back on the arm.....

Replace it all in reverse once you have the hub on tighten the hub nut firm, put the wheel on and tighten the nut up tight so wheel won't turn, then back off till it spins nicely and no clunk is felt when you grab wheel at 1200/0600 position and try to move it, rotate it 180 deg and do it again, if good spin it all a few dozen times , do the shake again and replace cap............lower check wheel nuts, once youve finished doing your wheels hook up before you go away and do a few Kms and check the wheel bearings again with the rock the wheel method, if they clunk just tighten up a bit more this settling is normal, your wheel should spin freely but firmly, at should rotate at least 3 times ...................you may have to stuff around a few times..........always check wheel nuts regularly and bearings should get a shake about every 5000kms on a trip.

Hope this makes it workable for you.

PS: if there's bugga all grease in bearings you will have to nead some into them by hand but I'll save that till later if needed...

Here's a link, http://www.withoutahitch.com.au/caravan/how-to-re-pack-trailer-wheel-bearings/ if the inner bearing looks nice and greasy and there's is no oily/grease around the backing plate then leave it alone the seal will still be okay, if you pull the seal off you must replace with a new one.
 
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Jared01

Active Member
Oct 28, 2016
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Dam, sounds like a big ish job (for someone who has not done it before) to take the wheel off to get to the wiring.

I feel a bit unlucky (somewhat) to have this happen, but then again the wiring is so loose and exposed, it is in some was no wonder it can happen.

When this happened during my recent trip, I thought about what would happen if I had an accident, as I temporarily repaired it.


I will consider my options, soldering and heatshrinking it being the easiest option, pulling the wheel off and doing the same with the wires inside being the second otherwise will phone my caravan servicing agent where I always go and describe and get a quotation from them.

Thanks for the advice.
 
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Drover

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One of the things most vans have is crap shielding on brake wires, usually exposed to anything flying around under the van and a must do mod ASAP so your not alone, run thru shield tube, zipped to back of axle set so out of harms way allowing enough play for wheel movement. Some of the set ups on new stuff is shocking.
But if unsure seek a trust worthy mechanic, if possible ask if you can watch as this us something that could save a holiday. Bearings need to be done on spot if they are dodgy, they won't wait a few hundred kms.
Good thread question.
 
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Jared01

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I phoned my trusty service centre (which happens to not be a Jayco dealer) and described the issue.

They will take the wheels off, repair the wiring and put it all back together for $65 which I am more than happy with.

For that price, I will not bother to do any repairs myself.


Once I get it back I will look at doing some mods to the wiring (like you said above Drover) so it will hopefully not happen again.

Anyone who has done some mods, care attaching a photo?
 

Drover

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Hell at that price I would be tempted to let them do it, I actually hate doing bearings and brakes, messy mongrel job really............
 
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Jared01

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Took the caravan in to get the issue fixed on Tuesday.

Whilst taking the caravan cover off I found that a third wheel had the same problem.

All fixed now (for $100). Will definitely look into improvements so it does not happen again.
 
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