Brakes with grease on them

[hmcfly]

I have grease on my brakes, can I shoot brake cleaner on them to clean them up or do I have to buy new brake shoes?
thanks

[nineoaks]

You can probably clean them with Brake Cleaner, but sounds like you have rear seal /s that are bad and will need to be replaced.

[pdonoghu]

We had the seals on all our axels go over time. Had our shop rebuild the axels with all new seals. You can try brake cleaner, but will likely get better results removing all the parts and using a commercial parts washer. I suggest you replace all the seals, check the bearings, and lube the bearings while you've got it apart. Also check the magnets, if the assemblies are full of grease, may or may not be salvagable.

[dougs2]

I repacked all of my wheel bearings last fall, found 3 of the 4 brakes had grease in them. My local shop guy advised to just use a lot of brake cleaner and wipe them out pretty good so that's what I did along with new seals of course and they seem to work ok actually better than ever. I think those seals were bad from day 1.

[hmcfly]

Well I broke down and bought new shoe for them, with the price of of a hole plate ,brakes and electric magnet for $75.00 per axles and the seals were $15.00 so I don't have much in it. I just glad that I can do this myself and not have to take it in to get a $1,200 bill.

Thanks for all the replies

[VCToyhauler]

We've only had 7-8 trips on our 2015 Voltage 3800, purchased new, maybe 5K miles, when I was having some additions done, and asked them to check my brakes just in case, proactively - I thought. All 6 brakes were toast, and the seals had gone and allowed the grease to go everywhere.

Fortunately, the bearings were still good, so I had them cleaned and packed with my grease (I make my own.. inquire within and then all new brake shoes of course.

I was surprised and was not expecting the brakes to be that far gone. Like you say, it could have been tragic. PLEASE EVERYONE with one of these ~20k lb units - the brakes on these things need to be watched closely, and no assumptions made.

The heat is the issue. The stock bearing grease they use cannot stand the heat, and just gets out and all over the brakes. (my grease has a higher heat tolerance, so I should not have that issue, but will still keep an eye on those shoes.. they are thinner than automotive drum brake shoes too, for some reason)