[Richard]

Here is the info I collected while redoing the brakes on all three axles. I will post the most important info and links first, and then more detailed info and pics relative to each axle. 

Key info. You can use this info to cross reference and utilize other sources. The parts are pretty common.

Front brakes
Knorr Bremse SB7 series. Pads are easily available with just that information. I got mine at NAPA. 
Front Rotor Meritor M44DII37415 Sourced at Find It Parts
Oil Seal Scotseal 46305 Plus Sourced at Prevost 

Drive Brakes are 16.5  diameter Q Plus, 7 inch wide. FMSI 4707Q. Again, bought at NAPA
Drive Drum.  Webb 66884.   NAPA
Oil Seal Meritor 1205 V 2492 Sourced at Prevost

Tag Disk Brake is Meritor ADB 1560
Pads were Carbomet MD268 sourced at anythingtruck.com EDIT: Although the brake pads fit, I found out after a few years that they had small but important machining differences in the way they fit. The correct pads are https://www.finditparts.com/products/395...kit15626pm

Tag rotors were fine and not replaced, although both the rotor and the pads are asymmetric leading me to believe they were severely worn before I read the manual. 

I was intimidated at finding the parts because I knew of other gurus who had paid dearly to have truck shops find the parts. My strategy, since I had the time, was to remove everything on one side to hopefully aid in identifying what I had, and finding the parts. I bought everything I could from NAPA so I could compare the old part to the new before paying. This stuff is heavy and freight back and forth will kill you if it’s not right. Tom, had also planted a seed some years ago when Leo had replaced one of his rotors. Leo said just like Prevost. That led down the path of sourcing from Prevost since they have a branch less than an hour from me, and a very helpful guy at the parts counter. 

First chuckle at my expense is that you must forgive my typing errors. Did you know that the tires are heavy enough to break your finger?

[Richard]

Front Axle

Do you think it was time for service?
   
   

Here is the manual. 
https://cumberland-companies.com/wp-cont...Manual.pdf

There are a couple of things to be aware. First, you can remove the brake pads without removing the caliper. Easier than a car. While you have the brake pads out ensure the caliper slides freely on its pins. If it doesn’t you have some work to do. Mine did. 

Second, although my slack adjust system was very similar to what is described in the manual, it is different enough to throw a curve ball. Mine would not back out as described in the manual. And I could not find any mechanism to allow it to back out. It would tighten down, but not back out. I took it apart, and found a way to retract the pistons. As you can see from the pics there are two shafts with geared teeth that are connected by a small chain. At the base of that shaft, it’s mounting plate fits into a recess in the caliper. That recess has a tang the prevents the base from rotating. If you will simply pull both those shafts out of the caliper, then you can improvise a tool for retracting each piston. If you have to use this improvised procedure take a straight edge and ensure the pistons are aligned relative to one another. It is possible to cock them, which would cock the pad. Not ideal.

If you need to remove the caliper, the bolt heads are 30 mm and you will need a 1 inch impact gun. Thet are put in with loctite.

And if you need to remove the caliper, remove the two bolts holding the air brake chamber instead of unthreading and twisting the air brake line.

           

[Richard]

Obviously, I had to replace the rotors. Trying to resurface them with a side grinder was going to take a while  . 

A couple of tricks I used. One, the hub rotor assembly must weigh 200+ lbs. I used a lift table, thanks @"Latitude 28" for the idea, to remove and reinstall. 

Second the tone ring for the abs is located on back of the hub. It is NOT obvious that the tone ring is a press fit, and should be removed prior to replacing the seal . It was a three hour job to remove the seal before I learned this. It took five minutes on the other side, after I tapped the tone ring out of the way. This is no way to install the new seal without ruining it with the tone ring in place. The ID of the tone ring is slightly smaller than the bore where the seal fits.

You can search google for the proper way to reinstall and load bearings. But I caution you to pay attention to the washer behind the spindle nut. It has square shoulders that just barely slip over the spindle when the nut is tightened. It would be very easy to tighten the nut and think all was good when the washer was actually stuck on the shoulder on the spindle. Pay close attention to this.

   
   
   

[Richard]

Drive axle. 

I noticed that one of the rear seals was weeping hypoid oil onto the brake shoes. That does not increase the coefficient of friction, but hypoid mixed with brake dust makes a permanently staining paste. 

Nothing fancy about replacing the seal other than it was the first time I pulled an axle. Again the bearings have to be removed to get the hub off. 

The brake shoes can be a huge pain if you approach like car brake shoes and try to disengage the springs first. The trick is to use a long lever, lift the shoe and remove the pins at either end. Then you have have enough slack to disengage the springs. 

Of course you have to loosen the slack adjusters and readjust with the new shoes. 

Although my drums were not bad, I replaced them anyhoo. 

Manual. http://graphicvillage.org/meritor/mm4.pdf

[Richard]

Tag axle.

The hardest part was figuring out what the heck this brake setup was. Meritor 1560. Be aware that later than 99 used the Knorr Bremse in the tag. 

The manual.    http://graphicvillage.org/meritor/mm4.pdf

Again easier than a car. You only have to remove the top slide pin and rotate the caliper down on the lower slide pin to remove and replace the pads. Notice the different thickness from side to side on the pads. 

I had a little complication, in that one of my tags felt growly when rotating by hand. This is why.
   
   

Here are the bearing and race numbers

All Timken part numbers HM212049, HM 212011, HM 218210, HM218248

The seal is Scotseal SKF 46300.

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And to close this out with what I would do differently.

One I thought I was being careful with my hands but obviously not enough. Everything about this job is heavy and has the potential to pinch you.

I would pressure wash everything around where I was working to remove some of the road grime.

I would have gone to the Prevost parts guy first. I was just surprised that so much of the wheel ends on my Newell were the same wheel ends as on a Prevost.

Don’t even think about doing this at home without some method of lifting the parts you remove.

[Tfrazier]

Wow Richard, great set of work instructions. Honestly, this is not a job that I would take on by myself. But kudos to you for seeing it through. Take care of your hands.Tony

[rheavn]

Very nice "how to" writeup! Thanks for taking the time.

[Richard]

Well,

I don’t whether to be happy that I took the time to list the part numbers, or sadly dumb because I didn’t take the time to do what I knew to do. On this years tour, I noticed on a safety walk around that the hub cap on the driver tag was hot to the touch. I had replaced the bearings on the passenger side as detailed above but did not change the driver side because they felt ok.

They still felt ok when rotating the wheel, but I ran a magnet in to the hub through the oil fill port and I did not like the metal shavings that came back out.

Amazon got me the bearings and seal in a few days, and I changed them in a KOA in Greensboro NC. I figured better here than the side of I 40.
       

Lesson relearned. If you change the left headlight because it burned out. Change the right one two. Tag bearings take a beating on our coaches.

All is good, but the mechanic is tired.
   

[AlanJohnson]

This is a good write-up, thanks Richard. It helped me get my tag brakes changed.

I do have one question. There is a wire that follows the air line down to the brakes (or hub). It looks like a 1/4" air hose, but it appears to have two leads inside. it. My wire is broken (for once I didn't do it). It appears to have been broken for a while... so I'm guessing it is "optional". But I would rather know what it is supposed to do and if I need to repair it. It looks like it won't be the easiest thing to fix as the inside looks more like the inside of a spark plug wire.

Thanks,
Alan

[encantotom]

alan, my guess is that cable is the ABS cable. if it is not functional, you should have an abs light on your dummy lite panel up front.

i have had to repair one of mine.

tom