most of the gas/lp trucks had the park brake handle, hard to miss it
some of their models (usually electrics) had what they call a seat brake, the whole seat assy was mounted on a special bracket bent in an L shape and it went down in front of the battery to a pivot joint that connected to a rod that ran to a motor brake unit.
Since you did say this is an S30A then it shouldn't have the seat brake.
So yeah, pull the floor plates so you can see down into that area behind each wheel and see if you can trace where the cables run to. If the handbrake lever was removed then it would be a sure bet they are ran and zip tied to something either under the dash or down in the frame area somewhere.

Just sent some

Yeah, I don't have a lever, I did try to trace the cables but couldn't figure out where they went, too tight underneath the thing, I do have a small T handle that is on the right side of the floor board that runs to a pin that sticks out in the front, do you have any idea what that is for? Any chance that you could send me a picture of the brake lever on yours? My cell is 605-261-5912 you could just text it to me. Thanks for all the help, I am hoping to start using this thing soon, but would like to make sure it is all good before. Thanks Jay

In mine there is a parking brake lever on the right side. Very easy to find. To do the brakes you should of had to remove the parking brake cable. If there is a parking brake cable trace it and see where it ends. I think maybe someone removed your parking brake lever....

I just got my machine back together over the weekend and so far so good, I have good brakes now, but I am having trouble locating the parking brake, do you have a parking brake that is a lever or where is the parking brake on one of these? Thanks Jay

once the shoes get soaked with oil it is very hard to get all of it out and if you try and reuse them the oil embedded inside will ouze out when they get hot and you'll be right back in the same boat with no brakes because of oil coming out of the shoes and getting on the drums.
Years ago we tried many methods to try and reuse the shoes but once the oil gets in them it ruins them, we even tried boiling them but that broke down the bonding and also weakened the material considerably and the shoes fell apart after a short period.
It is always a better idea to go ahead and get new shoes period... it's not worth the time and trouble to attempt to try and save the old oil soaked ones, you'll never get ALL the oil out of them.

As long as there is plenty of material left a good cleaning and light sanding should be fine. Mine were soaked with brake fluid also. I replaced the wheel cylinders and also the wheel bearing inner seal. Parts numbers are included in an earlier post.

I finally got time to tear into this, I did get the drums off and the brake shoes are soaking with oil, not sure if it is hydraulic fluid or brake fluid, I have tried to locate some replacements, but no luck, do I just need to have them relined, or do you think that I can just spray with brakleen to clean them up? Did you try to locate new ones or did you just clean yours? Thanks Jay

Thank you, looks like I better get to work. Jay

You have to remove the axles in order to get to the hub nut. Luckily the axles just slide out with no retaining clip in the differential. Once the axles are out you can get to the hub nut, remove it and the outer wheel bearing and the drum/hub slides right off (if the drum is very worn you may need to do a bit of prying. Its very similar to doing front drums/brakes on an older car. Then you can get to the brakes. But if you can't get the wheel off the drum the whole assembly is very heavy.

Thank you very much, just so I understand, I do not have to pull the axles, if the wheel is not frozen to it, or do I have to remove the axles to get at the brakes? Jay

Hi Jay,
Its not too difficult.
1) You first need to get both wheels are off the ground. You actually don't need a jack for this. Simply tilt the forks as far forward as you can and place a block of wood under each upright. The blocks should fit snugly. I used a piece of 4x4 cut the correc length for this. Then tilt the forks back all the way and the uprights will fulcrum off the blocks and raise the wheels off the ground.
2) Remove the wheels from the hub/drum. I was unable to remove my wheels as they were frozen on. This made the rest of the steps very, literally, heavy.
3) Drain the transmission. The tranny and differential use the same oil, 80/90w gear lube, so you need to drain the tranny to drain the differential.
4) Remove the nuts holding the axle shafts in place and remove the axles.
5) Remove the hub locknut, lockwasher, etc
6) remove brake drum/hub
Now you can disassemble the brake shoe assembly. In my S30 I had two bad/frozen brake cylinders which I had to replace. The shoes were greasy and required some brakleen and sanding to correct. I could of got them relined but decided not to.
7) reassemble is the reverse. Cleans and repack the wheel bearings while you are there and also install a new grease seal.


In step 2 if you couldn't get the wheel off the drum/hub I suggest you do it now as its a **** to finish the job. Its much easier to bleed the brakes with the wheel off the brake drum. I had to use an acetylene torch to heat the studs red hot and then a sledge hammer and block of wood to hit the center of the hub to knock it off the wheel.

I've also repacked the seals on the tilt cylinders and lift cylinder. Not too bad to do.

Here are some common part numbers cross referenced for easy ordering. I got them all on Amazon.
My model
A010D14749Y serial num
S30A

Front brake cylinder Wagner FD-7228
or Dorman W7379 Drum Brake Wheel Cylinder

Alternator Remy 20039 Premium Remanufactured Alternator

Wheel bearing inner seal # 450737N or National Multi Purpose Seal 450737

Hope this helps.
Kevin

I just purchased a S30A that needs brakes, I see that you did yours, can you give me any pointers as to how you did it and what is all involved, were you able to get parts? Do I need a manual to do it? Thanks Jay