adjusting surge on disc brakes?

[Bait O' Eggs]

I have stainless disc brakes operated by a surge on the tongue.

My brakes wore out prematurely in my opinion and I am wondering if the brakes dont come on to often and the surge needs stiffened up :shrug:

The entire mechanism looks like this

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c175/baitoeggs/trailer5.jpg

when I bend up the side of the cover behind the reservoir I see a bolt and spring :whazzup: :whazzup: is this an adjustment to make the surge activate easier and harder? Should I be adjusting this?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c175/baitoeggs/trailer9.jpg

I have ordered all new calipers and brake pads, I have not tried to operate the surge by hand to bleed the brakes. I see no other way to operate the system to bleed the brakes short of buying a vaccumn or pressure system. How hard will the surge operate to bleed the system with the bleeder valve open? Or is there another way to bleed the system without other equipment?

[MattPark]

There should be no problem bleeding the brakes by hand. There are even bleeder bars sold that make it much easier.

Were your brakes originally discs? Surge brakes with drums have a check valve in them that needs to be removed, but if your system was disc originally it should not have it.

Did the calipers slide freely? Was anything bound up? Did the pads wear evenly?

[Grain of Salt]

dumb question, but what is the rating on the surge acuator?
I have one but it is much bigger and rated for 800 tongue/ 10,000 for a 7200 pound load

[Beer Waggin]

Roy-
No clue about the bolt.

We just put all new brakes and lines on Badfish's trailer. He has a pump and we tried to use it. Maybe these work when you already have a full line with a touch of air in it.

We pumped the tongue by hand and emptied the reservoir twice before we had all four calipers bled. It didn't seem that tough and I was the guy pushing. Maybe took all of 10-15 minutes.

[Moldy Mike]

BOE,
:twocents: I have a set up much like yours. I was having trouble with my disc brakes heating up really hot. I am sure this could cause premature wear. I wonder if yours may have been "dragging"? I fixed mine by lubricating the plunger (the trailer tongue) that actuates the master cylinder as shown in your picture. Mine were staying on because the mechanism that applys and releases the hydraulic pressure was sticking and not letting the brakes fully release. Just a thought. Good luck. Fish ON!! MM :twocents: