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Hyster brake adjustment question

SShep71

Hot Rolled
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Location
San Diego, Ca
Gentlemens, and Ladies.
The forklift is a older Hyster S30, S/N A10D13777, monotrol.

Due to a lack of parking brake, I did the brakes on my forklift yesterday. I cut the drums, replaced the shoes, and cleaned the backing plates/hardware. I did not remove the backing plated from the machine as I did not see a reason to at the time. The question I have is about the "cam" style adjustment on the backing plate. I have done a significant amount of drum brakes in the past, but I have never come across this type of adjustment before. I under stand that the cams are to be adjusted from behind the plate with the bolt head, however the front adjustment is not accessible. It is completely blocked by the plate that the uprights mount to. There is no access to the system once the drum is on, and there are no access holes in the drum.

The entire system is reassembled and there is still no parking brake, the manual doesn't give any information about how to adjust the brakes shoes, or the parking brake. The parking brake adjustment on the lever is at its max, and there are no visible issues with the cable system, from what I can see the cable adjustments are already at their max. Is there a method for adjusting these shoes that I missed somewhere? I have searched and I cannot find anything relevant. I do not want to pay the forklift guy 600.00 (yes that is the quoted price) to come to my shop and adjust the brakes. Thanks for the help
 
There are lots of possible systems,and a picture will be needed......Ive done brakes on lots of old Hysters,and they are the truck systems of the fifties and sixties......The cams are turned out to locate the shoes closer to the drums,but there should also be an adjustment at the "toe" end of the shoes......The ones Im familiar with on the H60 and H80 etc ,are simple Bendix duo servo with a screw adjusted at the toe end.....Once excessive travel of the shoes is eliminated ,the handbrake will work.
 
John,
The Bendix is the system I am most used to as well, the cams do move the shoes however it is not in the standard fashion of cams at the top. the cams are 1/3 down from the top of the shoe and there is no adjustment that I can see at the bottom. Just a locating block the tang at the bottom of the shoe locates off. I will take pictures of the manual and post them up, I am not taking this apart again if I don't have to at this point. I want to have a better idea of what to do before I break open the seals again. I am positive the cams are the solution, however there is only access to the rear cam, the front cam is not accessible.
 
Could you take some slack up on the cable between the backing plate and the handle. Like a tensioner on a car.

Cut the side out of a 3/8 or 1/2 inch nut and slip it over the cable right by the crimped on ball end of the cable as a spacer, at the attachment point on the handle. If that takes up enough slack figure out a way to keep it on or fabricate a spacer out of copper to crimp on.

The cable stretches beyond adjustment range
I'll look at mine tomarrow. Really need a picture or diagram to study the issue.
I need to fix mine also. This spacer is what I had in mind for mine. I'm also out of adjustment limits. I believe it's a cable problem. Not internal. The internal pre adjustment in important though.

You may have to back up the adjustment on the handle to get the spacer in there. Then adjust.
 
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That sounds like a solid plan B for my issue. I just ordered a replacement cable of Ebay, whenever it gets here I will put it in and see what happens. I am just sick of having to jump off and put a small 2x4 behind the wheels when I park it outside my shop (there is a slight slope). I took some pictures of the manual for a reference. It makes things a little clearer than any picture of the actual forklift.
 

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I was able to get the brakes working, there is no adjustment to the parking brake outside of the small amount of threaded cable end. I put on a new parking brake cable and still no brake. So I looked back to the adjustment, on the backside of the backing plate there is a hole to slip a 5/8 socket through for the rear adjustment cam so that one was easy to adjust. The front however, does not have a recess for a socket. It has a bolt head that protrudes inboard (towards opposite wheel) on the backside of the backing plate (it is a 5/8 wrench). There is only 3/4" clearance between the mast and the backing plate, so it is hard to see (on mine at least). I slipped a log combination wrench on the adjustment bolt head and turned the brake shoe out to touch the inside of the rotor. With both shoes adjusted out, still no parking brake...lots of "adult words"!!! So there is no more adjustment left in anything, and I still had no parking brake.

Refusing to admit defeat, I started to think about the function of the parking brake cable, and all that heroic stuff. I was able to derive a solution. The parking brake clamping force is created by the tension the parking brake system experiences when the brake is applied, the brake system tension is based on the distance from the cable end at the hand lever, the actuating arm on the lever assembly, and the displacement the cable goes through when the brake lever is engaged. I thought about what [Mllud22] had said about a "spacer" so I made a spacer up then shimmed it until the parking brake engaged. I removed the spaced and additional shims, measured the thickness of the spacer and shims, then transferred that linear distance to the bracket which holds the cable end in space, away from the lever. I moved the bracket for the cable end away from the actuator lever the determined distance, re-drilled the hole pattern for the bracket, mounted the bracket, installed the cable and voila', parking brake fixed. I know this may not be the most adherent method to fixing the brakes with regard to Hyster's design, but for me, for now, it will work. I beats the hell out of chasing the forklift down the slope every time I get off it and don't put a wheel chalk in place. Just an caveat, I did this fully knowing there is something else going on preventing proper operation, I am not suggesting ANYONE else follow along with my process. I considered all the different variables and ways this could go bad, but for me this works temporarily. Consider this a "don't try this at home....or at work...or in general" type of addition.
 
I'm not familiar with your exact setup, but I've never seen a set of forklift brakes that were easy to adjust. Most have almost zero room on the back side to adjust, and require a special wrench to adjust, but you can usually modify a wrench to work.

On top of that, parking brakes can be a pain to keep operational. On several of our lifts we've installed Mico line-locks. These work great, but aren't safe for long term parking, because if you have even a small leak in your system, the brakes will eventually bleed off over time. We use the Mico locks for day to day operations, getting on and off the lift, but if left sitting for a couple of hours, we still chock the wheels.
 
H60xl brake bleeding problem.

There are lots of possible systems,and a picture will be needed......Ive done brakes on lots of old Hysters,and they are the truck systems of the fifties and sixties......The cams are turned out to locate the shoes closer to the drums,but there should also be an adjustment at the "toe" end of the shoes......The ones Im familiar with on the H60 and H80 etc ,are simple Bendix duo servo with a screw adjusted at the toe end.....Once excessive travel of the shoes is eliminated ,the handbrake will work.

Hi John. I'm having an issue with keeping my brakes on h60xl hyster. I have changed both wheel cylinder and still no brakes so I change the master cylinder. And now it's worse than with the old one. Thanks for any help.
 
No access ? Working on forks is a nightmare?.....where have I heard that before?.......The cams are the only adjustment in the parts diagram.....can you get at the cam hex with a long thin wrench?.....If not ,youll have to take off the wheels/drums ,adjust up the cams &shoes until you have to force the drum back on....Shouldnt be too difficult if there is no lip on the drum...(just machined)....Incidentally ,also note the lower U shaped retainer for the shoes ,and also be sure the handbrake struts go between the shoes ,and dont fall out of place ...or the shoes wont expand with the lever.............OOPS..two different posters .....anyhoo ,likley you have the duo servo brakes with a screw adjuster at the bottom of the backing plate ...with an access slot......If the star wheel is stripped of teeth ,off comes the wheel /drum ........have you got a parts book like the previous guy ?....put up pics of the brake assy.
 
Hello Sir,
You can send me the first page of this manual?
I have a Hyster Forklift and think use this brakes shoes.
I want find a complete manual parts..
 








 
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