Brake Question

Haulinhorse

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Purchased a nice 88 F250 7.3 IDI with low miles to use to haul the horse trailer. Apparently when I switched over to the other fuel tank,sediment or something caused a problem with fuel pump/filter. Had that fixed....BUT the mechanic says "oh by the way, you have compression brakes and it will not pass PA Inspection!!!! Are they illegal???? The thing was passed in December of 2018( I did not own it then) he said they have not been allowed for years!!!! What the heck am I looking at?
 

Philip1

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As far as I know there was never any compression brakes available for these engines. The closest thing would be an exhaust brake which is on the exhaust pipe.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Maybe I'm a little ignorant on the subject, but what are compression brakes? Is this the older style brake controller that has a brake line that runs to it?
 

Philip1

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Maybe I'm a little ignorant on the subject, but what are compression brakes? Is this the older style brake controller that has a brake line that runs to it?
Compression brakes are also known as Jake brakes or engine brakes and uses the compression stroke of the engine to slow the truck down by dumping the compressed gas at tdc into the exhaust
 

franklin2

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Is he talking about surge brakes on your horse trailer? If that is it, he is correct, they are not legal to use, even though lots of boat trailers use them and all u-haul trailers use them. No one ever worried about it before, I guess Pennslyvania is worried about it. What makes them illegal; Federal law mandates all trailer brake systems be able to be applied separately from the tow vehicle brakes. Can't do that with surge brakes.

This should not affect the truck only the trailer inspection.
 

Haulinhorse

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Is he talking about surge brakes on your horse trailer? If that is it, he is correct, they are not legal to use, even though lots of boat trailers use them and all u-haul trailers use them. No one ever worried about it before, I guess Pennslyvania is worried about it. What makes them illegal; Federal law mandates all trailer brake systems be able to be applied separately from the tow vehicle brakes. Can't do that with surge brakes.

This should not affect the truck only the trailer inspection.
This is just on the truck...the trailer is good. The thing that gets me is it passed Pa inspection in Dec.2018 and my mechanic said that they have been illegal for years???? Once I get the full details from mechanic, I should know more. May need to contact previous owner too!
 

IDIBRONCO

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Compression brakes are also known as Jake brakes or engine brakes and uses the compression stroke of the engine to slow the truck down by dumping the compressed gas at tdc into the exhaust
I'm not up on bigger trucks very much and I've never heard them called compression brakes. Only Jakes or exhaust brakes.
Haulinhorse, instead of treating the mechanic's word as gospel (no offense intended), why don't you call the DMV?
 

Haulinhorse

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I'm not up on bigger trucks very much and I've never heard them called compression brakes. Only Jakes or exhaust brakes.
Haulinhorse, instead of treating the mechanic's word as gospel (no offense intended), why don't you call the DMV?
Yep...will do....always try to gather as many "hymnals" before I sing!!!!!
 

Randy Bush

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I would say the OP needs to get a little more detail from the mechanic or another one on just what he has on the truck then go from there.
 

Selahdoor

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And before you contact THEM... Ask your mechanic for a detailed explanation of what he means by "compression brakes"...

Post that explanation here, please.
 

DaveBen

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Do as Selahdoor says. Too much guessing going on here.
 

Haulinhorse

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Thank you for all the input! Will be getting the full report when mechanic gets back from vacation...hmmmm.if he gets back...lol. ;)
 

chillman88

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Wow yeah that's kinda fuzzy on the details.

If he means jake brake he's full of it and you need to go elsewhere. To the best of my knowledge jake brakes were never even produced for the IDI.

If he means exhaust brakes that doesn't make sense but I've seen some odd laws before.

If he means the trailer brake controller runs off the hydraulic line from the master cylinder that would at least make a little sense. They always seem to leak a little bit.

Anxiously awaiting the response from your "mechanic"
 

IDIBRONCO

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If he means the trailer brake controller runs off the hydraulic line from the master cylinder that would at least make a little sense. They always seem to leak a little bit.
I bought a truck from a guy once that had one of these in it. He told me that it worked great. I asked how it could work with no brake line hooked to it? When he told me that all he did was to manually move the lever over, I just laughed. I didn't remove it, but I didn't try it either. Moral of the story: I know of at least one that didn't leak!
 

chillman88

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I bought a truck from a guy once that had one of these in it. He told me that it worked great. I asked how it could work with no brake line hooked to it? When he told me that all he did was to manually move the lever over, I just laughed. I didn't remove it, but I didn't try it either. Moral of the story: I know of at least one that didn't leak!

Well.... I guess it technically did work lol!

I have a NOS one to put in to see if that fixes my leak. Just haven't gotten round tuit.
 
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