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Dodge W200 General Dodge W200 M880 New Drum Brakes (rear) Dodge W200 Dodge M880 New Disc Brakes (front) Dodge General Bleeding the Brake System Dodge Dana 44 Power Wagon Dodge W200 M880 New Front Wheel Bearings, The nightmare of a Dodge Driver
Dodge W200 M880 Power
Wagon General
Working on the brakes and bearings is a difficult
and heavy job, before you start it's a good idea to read your favourite
technical forums about these subjects and do not hesitate to ask for more
specified information if you have any doubts, an other good idea is to
buy a good manual, the Haynes is a general manual for Dodge Power Wagon
M880 W200 models and is a good one for common jobs at your truck, but for
work on the brakes and bearings the best manual is the original military
version which tells and shows exactly what to do, so buy this manual and
be sure that you also the changes and appendixes, there is also a cd version
in pdf. above
New
Drum Brakes Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200
Because my drum brakes
were worn and they already were turned off once, this is the consequence
of lots of mud baths and after the event a long trip home, I renewed the
drums, also take a look at your rear wheel bearings, I only had to clean
and grease them, take a good look at your manual so that your rear wheel
bearings have enough clearance, do not tight them too fast, when you mount
the new brake shoes disassemble first one side, so that you can always
can take a look at the other side (mirror image) to see if it is mounted
the correct way, of course it is a good idea to remove all rust and protect
it for the eternal, it is a lot of work but finally your rear brakes will
work better than ever, you can even spray the little springs (for example)
with Owatrol and after that spray them with an industrial paint, the dirt
will then less stick and that makes it easier to clean them. above
New
Disc Brakes Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200
During our last mud event
we really got stuck in the mud and the slots in the disc brakes were completely
filled with mud, which, on the way home, caused sparkling brakes so crooked
front brakes, still a lot of miles to go to get home we used the parking
brake of the rear brakes (which also did not work very well with all the
mud in the drums), so this was a wise (expensive) lesson, same as with
the drum brakes I removed all rust and protected all parts, I also protected
the new disc brakes and sprayed industrial paint on it, with a little patience
you can reach every slot with a small pensel or with an electrical paintbrusher,
on the long term this is recommended because the dirt will stick less,
I also immediately replaced the front wheel bearings, because I had greased
them periodically for years they were still in a good condition, unfortunately
I was only able to remove one of them without damage, the replacement of
the front wheel bearings is an other difficult job that will be described
in an other chapter. above
Bleeding
the Brake System Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200
On the technical Dodge
Power Wagon forums is a lot of information available how to bleed the brakes,
with the experience of other friends with 4x4 trucks I knew that if your
truck stands still for a long time this will not improve the condition
of your brake fluid, because it attracts water, this can be dangerous,
because the brake system was already removed from the Dodge Power wagon
truck and we have replaced the stock brake lines and used extended flexible
stainless steel brake lines for the connection to the axles (see chapter
suspension
lift), we decided to read the forums detailed, the best idea to bleed
the brake system came from Gerhart,
(Gerhart also describes here the installation of rear disc brakes)
he used (methylated) spirit to clean the system, just fill the Dual Master
Cylinder with spirit and bleed the system as if it is brake fluid, when
you do it right finally only spirit comes through the bleeding screws,
read your (military) manual, you have do this with the help of an
assistant, now repeat the whole process with brake fuid DOT 3, the whole
job was done in a few hours and resulted in a perfect brake test, the brake
analyzer at the garage pointed almost zero difference between the front
brakes, according to the inspector who inspected or truck we did a good
job, this made our day! above
New
Front Wheel Bearings, the Nightmare of a Dodge Power Wagon W200 M880 Driver
There are innumerable websites
and forums that describe the replacement of the front wheel bearings, but
it is a good idea to read a lot about it before you start, (for example:
do not let the caliper hang or be supported by the hydraulic brake line
and another example: don not remove the 6 small retainer bolts from the
retainer, because then it is very difficult to remove the outer bearing),
it started already with a big problem, I had to turn off the big outer
axle shaft castle nuts, but my truck was already lifted fom the ground
and most of the parts were already removed, so I could not use enough force
to turn them off, I also could not find the right wrench I tried every
big tool I had but nothing worked, finally after days of searching I bought
a 1 5/8" wrench but this was actually still too small,
I had to machine and grind every tooth of the wrench, this took hours cause
it is pretty hard metal, but finally it fitted, the nuts did not move,
nothing, I just saw the truck on the blocks moving, so I had to build a
construction to keep anything stable (see last picture), I used pieces
of metal frame and wood blocks, I screwed the whole construction together,
drilled holes to the frame which exactly fitted to the nuts of the hub
and rotor assembly, then I placed the "home made" wrench over the
castle nut and with a huge hammer I carefully hit it, well it moved and
little by little the nut was turned off, so now the other side........,
(I removed here a lot of terms of abuse, some very nasty... #@#%!!)
To remove the hub and rotor assembly use a good puller with at least 3
arms, to remove/pull the old bearings and to mount new bearings was
not so difficult, I used a big bench vise, big sockets of different sizes
and a lot of inventive home made pieces of synthetic and metal attachments
and adaptors with drilled holes, finally the job was finished and no clearance
any more, I learned a lot of this project and next time we,ll see.........
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