EX-brake help

[Burner]

I have a US Gear exhaust brake and all the parts... ... . but I don't want to use all of them. I would like to use the built-in feature (06') for activation of the US Gear brake. I do not know how the Pac-Brake item is added to the truck. I was thinking that I could use OEM parts to make the aftermarket stuff work. Us Gear has a switch to activate as well as a micro-switch on the GO pedal. It would be really nice to have the OEM computer working with (talking to transmission) my exhaust brake.



Can anyone help me? Would some type of manual help?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

I have a BD exhaust brake and wanted to do the same thing on my '03. The guys from BD sent me a new wiring diagram to hook it up but when I went to hook it up I found out that the wiring schematic that they sent to me was backwards. So I went and found the pacbrake wiring schematic and the jake wiring schematic and compared them. They are pretty much identical. So I wound up wiring it up just like the pac and it works great. I ordered the ECM pins and a shifter mounted switch from TDR member jelag.



You can get the wiring schematics/installation instructions from both of the respective companies websites. Not sure how it will work with the auto trans but I'll bet someone else does.



Jeff.

 

[Burner]

ooops :-laf

 

[Burner]

Thanks Jeff.

The 06' trucks are set-up from the factory to run an exhaust brake, even with an auto. I believe the ECM and trans programming has a lot to do with it. The system has a signal in it... but where, I do not know? All I can find is a fuse (31 I think) labeled Ex-Brake. What I don't understand is why it's in the same bank as the heated seats.

 

[Burner]

I would like a manual, a detailed manual. Who has them and how much should they cost?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

A manual as in a service manual? Go take a look at www.hemitruckclub.com and click on the link at the left side of the page that says '06 manual.



Jeff

 

[jelag]

go to the PacBrake wiring diagram on their web page..... use the wiring diagram for the C14045..... This is the PRXB for the 06... .



If you have any problems... or don't understand how a relay works or how to wire one..... don't make connections to the ECM until you fully understand the circuit... applying 12V to either of the pins on the ECM can do damage... .



If you have any other needs... . we can try to help... . give us a call from 8-5 M-F on the west coast... . 800. 445. 4696



If you have the current wiring diagram for your US Gear exhaust brake we can look at it and advise... .



Hope this helps...

 

[Burner]

WOW, thanks Jim.

 

[Burner]

ok, I called US Gear and they WILL NOT help me with this... that's a bummer. They want their system to be Independent, period.



If anyone has figured this out yet... PLEASE lead me to water. :{

 

[Augie]

The 06' trucks are set-up from the factory to run an exhaust brake, even with an auto.

The 06's autos are set up from the factory to work with the factory exhaust brake i. e. Cummins/Mopar any other brand requires mods and some technical expertise for proper software interface with the ECM/48RE.

 

[Burner]

Thanks Augie, that's what I was looking for..... help with my set-up. Do you know anyone that has or can do this?

 

[RMachida]

Were you able to come up with a wiring diagram for your existing e-brake? It should be pretty straight forward.

 

[RankRam]

The 06's autos are set up from the factory to work with the factory exhaust brake i. e. Cummins/Mopar any other brand requires mods and some technical expertise for proper software interface with the ECM/48RE.

Then could you please explain why my Pac-Brake has been working perfectly for over 10k miles on my 06 48RE?



I'm guessing you were told by D/C?

 

[jayhawktrailers.com]

US Gear brake

Before you go to the trouble, I would get a different brake. I have one of the "heavy duty" US Gear brakes on my own truck, and our shop has installed a few. Just not very impressive. We MAY have just got some bad ones(five), or maybe they just aren't that good. We saw the US Gear guys at SEMA last year, and the convinced us, but we can't get the actual brake to hold much back pressure. We also tried to get the PAC swith to work on a brake, but to no avail? I don't exactly recall, what with the brake not really working either way. I have called their tech support, and aside form acting like I'm slow in the head, they are friendly.



Also they changed ownership a few months ago, or sold the brakes? , what ever that means.



Today, I drove a 03 with an older "small" US Gear brake. It worked excellent, but necked down the exhaust on this truck.

 

[RMachida]

If you look at the wiring diagram for the your e-brake, the signal from the ECM basically needs to activate a small relay to replace the throttle switch. The ECM goes from floating to ground when the brake is activated and this can be used to activate the relay. In addition, you need to add a switch providing ground to the ECM to activate the e-brake function. The on-off switch for the US Gear is just that, on and off. You could get a switch attached to the shifter from a number of vendors to activate the ECM, this would be seperate from the US Gear on-off switch. The ECM pin locations can be found in the installation documentation on the Pacbrake website and probably on the Jacobs site as well.



To me, this seems like a lot of trouble and from my own experience with both US Gear and Pacbrake, the Pacbrake works much better. I would agree with stude above. I even have one of the older fixed-orfice models and not one of the new PRXB models which I hear work much better. I had a US Gear on my 91 Ford and it worked well enough for me to consider an exhaust brake an essential accessory for any diesel truck.



Hope this helps...

 

[Burner]

I wonder if the difference lay in the Torque Converter? If the pressure is too great, will the TQ just not hold it? I thought that the TQ for the 06' had revisions as does the ECM. Also, I wonder if the valve was set properly? I think the by-pass valve can be adjusted.



One thing that does bother me, having the brake directly behind the turbo, is over-spool or "zinging" the turbo. It would seem that having a brake soo close to the turbo would cause it problems. I also didn't like having more stuff on the belt, something else to break. I hear the pumps (vacuum) go out around 60k on avg.



Oh yeah, the Integration of the US Gear will not happen. They were sued some years ago for causing a problem... I don't think they did. Hence, US Gear is a totally Independant system in order to avoid that problem again. ... ... ... . I would not have know had I not called them.





Thanks for all the input! I'll dig up some of that info and see if I can get it to work.

 

[jayhawktrailers.com]

BURNER I don't think you can get it to work without the computer module that comes with the US gear. The reason being there are 2 hot wires that needs to be activated. The large gray wire going into the electric cylinder on the brake, is the "hit" wire the white wire is the "hold" wire. When you activate the brake the hit wire (gray) will pull it closed The computer module under the dash will activate the white wire to then hold the cylinder and then will release the power to the large gray wire. I'm not say you couldn't make it activate the us gear module, but you couldn't wire it direct to the cylinder. FYI the electric cylinder on this brake works just like the fuel shut off on a 12valve with a P7100 inj pump, maybe using some 12 electric componets will allow you to figure it out. I'm just not sure how the dodge factory wiring does the e brake, so I could be totaly off base. But like we mentioned in the previous post were not impressed with their performance so far maybe we'll get a fix for us gear, if we do I'll post it. I had a Pac on my 01 and it held back great, I just had a ton of failures w/ their vaccum valve and they would only send us a instruction shet on how to clean the valve. The valve would work for a week and quit again

 

[Burner]

Why would a US Gear be less effective than a Pac-Brake or jacobs? US gear will hold more load and is adjustable not to mention it's all electronic. I've been in a US Gear equiped truck and it worked MUCH better than the Jacobs?

 

[jayhawktrailers.com]

Wish I had an answer

We installed a couple US Gear brakes on Friday, neither of which have significant hold back. I told our customer I would not charge them until we get this resolved, but doubt the answer will come from US Gear. Hopefully someone on this board has an answer? I suspect the solenoids on the side of the brakes are no good. I am calling US Gear again today, but they always say "adjustment". The long and short of our problem is this: If we adjust the brake to actually come on, the second it gets any real pressure, it just pops back open. I can adjust the arm so as to not close the butterfly completely, and the solenoid will hold. But little pressure. Maybe we just have some defective units, BUT we have called US Gear over 10 times.



AND, I just called again, they say ADJUSTMENT. I asked if they were going to be at SEMA again this year. No luck, he said probably not. I would like to have them show me how we are adjusting them wrong.



I am going to adjust on this sucker one more time, and will repost.



Also, in theory, these brakes should work better because they don't have orifices in the butterfly. But only if it will close AND stay closed.

 

[RMachida]

Why would a US Gear be less effective than a Pac-Brake or jacobs? US gear will hold more load and is adjustable not to mention it's all electronic. I've been in a US Gear equiped truck and it worked MUCH better than the Jacobs?

The "all electronic" part is really a limitation in my book as they mention in their instructions to (not cycle the brake more than 6 times per minute to prevent tripping the circuit breaker. The US Gear model shouldn't be any less effective than the others and the one on my Ford worked fairly well. The only negative was tthat it was inline and would get covered with mud and ice.