Brake magnet retaining clip?

[howlin4you]

Long story short, my electric brakes have never worked right. I've gone through the trailer and right now am fighting with my Ram dealer because I'm pretty positive the factory brake controller in my 2013 1500 is a piece of junk. One thing I came across I'm not sure of though. On the Dexter Axle website I found an instruction sheet for replacing brake magnets that shows a retaining clip holding the magnet on the arm. I don't have those on any of my brakes, should I? Seems unlikely they'd all be missing since new but stranger things have happened I guess. It's a 2015 X23B with 7" brakes.

This is the document I was looking at -

[RedHorse1]

What holds the magnet to the arm? It could be a design change, maybe to a rivet.

[howlin4you]

Nothing holds the magnet to the arm, they slip on the arm and I assumed the brake drum itself kept them from falling out. It's been like that since new and this is my first experience with electric brakes so I thought it was normal.

[howlin4you]

Found the answer to my question, it is right from Dexter in the diagram. I've never had those clips, I distinctly remember pulling the first drum off and thinking it was odd that the magnet fell off and was hanging by the wires. When the other three did the same thing I thought it must be normal. I even took the trailer back to dealer and had them look at the brakes, they found some wiring issues but I still never thought they worked right. The dealer must not have removed the drums. I can't believe something like this could be missed in production. Now I've got to find a place to buy those little clips and I wouldn't be surprised if everything works perfectly. I don't know whether to be happy I found something or pissed off that I've wasted so much time trying to find something so obvious.

[us71na]

Why not contact Dexter and ask for the part after explaining your situation. I would bet they would send you the parts free of charge and possibly next day air if you ask since they are safety related.

[howlin4you]

Haven't had time today but contactIng Dexter is on my list for tomorrow.

[mike837go]

What do you do to keeps the magnets on the arm as you are reinstalling the drum?

The spring should pop the magnet off, making proper re-assembly impossible.

[howlin4you]

The springs didn't pop the magnets off all the way. I was able to set them on the arms and put the drum on without them falling off. I thought it was a strange set up but again this is my first experience with electric brakes and when all four were like that it confIrmed in my head it must be normal. I also had it back to the dealer for them to look at the brakes and had assumed they took the drums off. I've had all 4 apart a few times now without realizing this piece was missing. I found them locally, installed them already, and will test drive later tonight.

[rdlouks]

While the clips should have been installed from the factory, I do not believe having them in place will change the operation of your brakes.

[RockyMountain]

For what it's worth, I pulled one apart today on my 2015 x23b and also didn't find a clip. I'd love to hear about anything you discover that improves brake function. I've read in other forums that the 7" brakes in the 2015 model are an outlier and that models before and after have 10" brakes, although I haven't been able to verify it yet. Anyone know? If true, it has me wondering if strong braking function is really achievable.