|
|
Post by mullett471 on May 16, 2007 21:04:25 GMT -5
should have put this in here in the first place !  can anyone provide me with some detailed pictures of the connections(air & electrical) between the tractor & trailer for US & Australian trucks and which ones do what & what colours they should be?? i know about the uk/european ones but am unsure of the US type. also have they changed over the years? would the modern connections be appropriate on older trucks from the 60's-70's? thanks, Liam. |
|
|
|
Post by dieseldoc on May 17, 2007 22:23:54 GMT -5
I will try to do this with out to much confussion, some times I've been known to get to technical. I read your post and ran out to my service truck and got these parts for photos. These parts are brand new and don't reflect what they would look like once exposed to the elements. First up are the gland hands on the back of the tractor. These are threaded on to the ends of the coiled air lines. There are 2 colors, these being red and blue. The red is for the parking brake release on the trailer. You push on the red octagnal shaped knob in the tractor and this sends air through the red air line on the back of the tractor in to the trailer to fill the trailer air tanks and realease the trailer parking brakes. The blue glad hand is for the trailer service brakes. This air line has no air going through it unless the brake pedal is applied or the johnny bar is pulled in the tractor. All the colors are for is so the truck driver hooks the correct air line to the correct glad hand on the trailer. But they can still be hooked up either way; God knows I've been on enough $150.00 + service calls for trailer brakes that won't release and all it was were the air lines were hooked up wrong. These first 2 pictures show a service glad hand (Blue); the emergency will look identical except it will have a red tab on it. This style glad hand will always be found on the end of the coiled air lines that come off of the back of the tractor; but you will also see this style on trailers also.   This next picture shows an emergency glad hand for a trailer; again the service side will look identicle except it will have a blue tab. This style glad hand bolts to the front of the trailer and the air line that goes to the trailer air tanks would attach at the bottom of the glad hand.  Next up is the trailer electrical cord aka 7 way cord. There are primarily 2 different colors of these, black and green. When the green one came out about 15 years ago the color meant that the tractor and the trailer were wired for trailer anti lock brakes. I think this has kind of gone by the way side now as most trucks are wired for abs on the trailers. The cord ends are the same reguardless if the trailer has abs or not. Here are the pictures.    I will try to get picture of the connector on the back of the truck and the front of the trailer that the 7 way cord plugs into tommarrow. The only truck manufacturer that does thing different with the 7 way cord is Volvo and they didn't start this until they come out with the VN 670 & 780. They in there infinate wisdom decided to hard wire the 7 way cord on the tractor end into the tractors wiring. hope this info helps. |
|
|
|
Post by mullett471 on May 19, 2007 22:59:55 GMT -5
thanks dieseldoc,it certainly does help ;D could i be so forward as to ask how do the glad hands connect to each other? do they push fit,twist together? could you supply a pic of them connected? thanks for your help,it is much appreciated  |
|
