Kodiak Disc Brake Grease Cap Failure and Resolution

[jbeletti]

While moving sites in Goshen in June, someone mentioned they heard a clunk in one of my wheels. Nancy heard it more recently. Then I ran into Pat Poole who told me about a clunk he had and what it was. For him, it was a broken Kodiak Grease Cap on one of his brake hubs. Like me, Pat also has 8k Kodiak disc brakes. MORryde sent him a replacement set of Oil Caps and he recently had them replaced at a shop in Oregon - about a 1 hour job.


I spoke to MORryde about my clunk and they agreed to send me a set of 4 new Oil Caps. The old ones were white plastic (ROTOR/HUB-8-WHTPCAP), so I assume they were PVC. The new ones are clear Polycarbonate - aka Lexan (ROTOR/HUB-8-PCAP) - Oil Caps.


Yesterday, at the Wisconsin rally, with an impact wrench borrowed from Dave Hromek (cookie) and the assistance of LevelUp to lift the coach off the ground a inch, Dave helped me remove two tires before he had to take off, then Walter West helped me remove the other two tires.


We did one side at a time. Probably took a half hour per side - 1 hour in total. Once the tire/wheel was off, I removed the broken cap, rubber o-ring and any other bits from the wheel center cap, then with a finger, backed out the broken grease cap threaded part from the brake hub spindle and added the new clear oil caps. Note that the 8k grease or oil caps take a 2-3/16” socket. I didn’t have one of those so I snugged them up with Channel Locks. 20 - 30 ft lbs is the spec.

Below are a couple of pictures and here's a link to a gallery with all of them.

 

[Bones]

While moving sites in Goshen in June, someone mentioned they heard a clunk in one of my wheels. Nancy heard it more recently. Then I ran into Pat Poole who told me about a clunk he had and what it was. For him, it was a broken Kodiak Grease Cap on one of his brake hubs. Like me, Pat also has 8k Kodiak disc brakes. MORryde sent him a replacement set of Oil Caps and he recently had them replaced at a shop in Oregon - about a 1 hour job.


I spoke to MORryde about my clunk and they agreed to send me a set of 4 new Oil Caps. The old ones were white plastic (ROTOR/HUB-8-WHTPCAP), so I assume they were PVC. The new ones are clear Polycarbonate - aka Lexan (ROTOR/HUB-8-PCAP) - Oil Caps.


Yesterday, at the Wisconsin rally, with an impact wrench borrowed from Dave Hromek (cookie) and the assistance of LevelUp to lift the coach off the ground a inch, Dave helped me remove two tires before he had to take off, then Walter West helped me remove the other two tires.


We did one side at a time. Probably took a half hour per side - 1 hour in total. Once the tire/wheel was off, I removed the broken cap, rubber o-ring and any other bits from the wheel center cap, then with a finger, backed out the broken grease cap threaded part from the brake hub spindle and added the new clear oil caps. Note that the 8k grease or oil caps take a 2-3/16” socket. I didn’t have one of those so I snugged them up with Channel Locks. 20 - 30 ft lbs is the spec.

Below are a couple of pictures and here's a link to a gallery with all of them.
View attachment 38998 View attachment 38999

I like the disc brakes.

 

[porthole]

Jim, somewhere on the forum I had brought this up. I have the clear poly caps, as well as 4 spares in the trailer.
The caps are very easy to break when man handling 95 pound 17.5" wheel and tire combos.

I got little rammy putting the wheel back on (using a tire spoon) and cracked a cap. Fortunately I heard the rattle before finishing up and pulled the wheel back off to see a cap similar to what you have. And fortunately when I had the IS installed, I bought 4 spare caps.

Moral of the story is - be careful slamming heavy wheel and tires combos onto plastic caps.

 

[mrcomer]

I am surprised MorRyde isn't using oil bearings. I see that this Is what DRV uses with their disk brakes.

 

[porthole]

I am surprised MorRyde isn't using oil bearings. I see that this Is what DRV uses with their disk brakes.

Because they leak. DRV has gone back to grease. Although, the cure to these hubs leaking appears to be something as simple as taking a paper clip and poking a hole through the boot. It is believed that the lack of a vent is what is causing the weeping issue on the DRV's with oil bath hubs.

When my IS was installed I discussed this with Ben at M/R and the general consensus was, no real advantage and increased potential maintenance, and M/R just doesn't do oil baths.
Since that time it has always been my intention to try the oil bath route. I have the seals and Lucas's oil bath specific lube for the hubs.
And that's as far I have gotten

After seeing what my hubs looked like at 4 years and 20,000+ miles, I have no desire to do that work.

 

[jbeletti]

Duane, great warning on putting the wheel back on. Hope I didn't tap my caps.

I plan to obtain 4 more caps and a 2-3/16" socket as I'd like to properly torque the caps next time my wheels are off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jmgratz]

Jim B, I presume you don't have the never-lube bearings?

 

[jbeletti]

Jim B, I presume you don't have the never-lube bearings?

Correct Jim - as I never specified what I wanted, I got standard bearings. Given the choice, I may have went with Never Lubes, though I hear they can be trouble at times. Not that I even maintain these myself. I hire it out (or get a new coach).

 

[porthole]

Choices:
Kodiak brakes with standard GM brake pads and standard wheel bearings
Dexter with proprietary brake pads and never lube bearings

Standard bearings are the preferred bearings with heavy trailers.
Never lube really means can't lube.

 

[jmgratz]

Choices:
Kodiak brakes with standard GM brake pads and standard wheel bearings
Dexter with proprietary brake pads and never lube bearings

Standard bearings are the preferred bearings with heavy trailers.
Never lube really means can't lube.

We had the never lube on our current and previous Landmarks. Drove the previous Landmark for 5 years without issue with the never lube bearings on them. I think Mor-Ryde would recommend not to install them on our 16400 pound Landmark if there was an issue. When we asked about it they said no problem.

 

[porthole]

Guess it depends on who you talk to at MOR/ryde.
When our IS was installed, as well as a few others on here, MOR/ryde (Ben in particular) recommended against them for heavier trailers and used a pallet bin of failed never lubes as an example.

Never lube - never fail - it's all in the name.................

 

[Mrsfish]

When we got our IS/disk brakes this summer, Gary was politically correct and told us they 'preferred' to use regular bearings as the never lube were not always reliable and they did sometimes fail and IF they failed the damage was HUGE. The 'never lube' led to don't examine by most owners where standard bearings need to be monitored. Since I was already worried about 'how do we know if our never lube are okay' it was an easy decision for us, even if it added another maintenance item to the list.

 

[jnbhobe]

Guess it depends on who you talk to at MOR/ryde.
When our IS was installed, as well as a few others on here, MOR/ryde (Ben in particular) recommended against them for heavier trailers and used a pallet bin of failed never lubes as an example.

Never lube - never fail - it's all in the name.................

I've seen that bin a few times at Mor/Ryde too!!