When the brakes are applied, circuits send compressed air from the storage tanks to front and rear service chambers that push the brake shoes into the brake drums, thus slowing down the vehicle. Semis ...

The hardest part of disassembling the brakes is usually removing the drum. Some drums and most backing plates have inspection slots near the bottom (sometimes covered with a rubber plug or a steel ...

A quality drum brake rebuild using performance shoes and new small parts can make an incredible difference in braking power. Note that the shoe with the shorter lining (called the primary shoe) always ...

Most modern cars stopped using drum brakes years ago, adopting disc brakes for their improved performance and heat resistance. Those sound like pretty good reasons, so you'd think they'd be just as ...

S-cam drum brakes are the most common air foundation brakes on the road. They are a familiar sight to every wheel-end technician in the North American trucking industry. The right preventive ...

Though a decade ago it was far from the case, nowadays, the likelihood for a technician to work on a newer truck with air disc brakes (ADBs) is about the same as one with drum brakes. “Almost half of ...

The following was published in CCJ's Air Brake Book, 11th edition, sponsored by SilverbackHD. CCJ's Air Brake Book is a complementary industry resource, courtesy of our partnership with SilverbackHD, ...