Boy I put a lot of work into this old Baker. I loved it though. I did figure out the brakes, sort of. In the end I was able to get the brakes to work well enough to get down the hill of my driveway (not much extra margin) but then I hit my next problem, the forklift won't go back up! It only has a forward/reverse and not a high/low lever. Apparently, the military purchased a number in this configuration intending that they be used on level ground. My forklift won't climb much of a hill so I am going to have to sell it. I am super disappointed!!! Want to buy a forklift :)

For all those doing Brakes on a Baker FJF-040, here is what worked the best for me.

There is no external adjustment. You need to take off the entire drum assembly by splitting the gear reduction housing (halfway between the drum and differential. This will drain a good amount of AT fluid so be prepared. One big pain is the nut on the parking brake shaft located on the back side of the housing. I used a stubby 3/4 wrench and lot of patience to get this done. Keep in mind that in order to learn what I know now, I had to do this process 3 times on each side. Yes 3 times at about 4-6 hour a side. Hopefully you will only need to do this once per side.

Once the housing bolts are out (leave one in loose at the top) I used a jack to slowly apply upward pressure on outermost portion of the hub to split the seal. Removing the large backing nut that you will see inside this assembly, allows you to pull out the drive shaft/hub/drum assembly. Now you can access the shoes, etc. There is an adjuster (friction, adjust with hammer) inside as well but in my case, one of the seals was leaking so I needed to replace the shoes not just adjust them.

Once off I used a rotary wheel (grit covered brillo pad??) in my drill press to take of all oxidation on the inside of the drum even where the shoe does not contact. This is so you can slip the shoes back in as tightly as possible. Reassemble the shoes at tight as you can. You will not be able to turn the drum by hand and that is okay. Re-attach everything (the nut on the parking brake shaft may need to be reinstalled before the housing bolts are fully tightened). Bleed the brakes (I replaced all of my lines, master and slaves). It is possible that there is air trapped at the top end of the lines, so I also bled the lines by loosening a fitting at the Tee. Even after all this the bottom end of the brake pedal was softer than I wanted. It was breaking fine on flats but hills were an issue. In the end I have lost all respect for the guy that designed these brakes and I think the bore on the master cylinder needs to be a size larger.

I purchased the slave cylinders, shoes and seals from The Burns Company. I think these were referenced by the PN from the military docs. As I recall, I spoke with them and they were very knowledgeable. They had stock; prices were fair. Would definitely recommend. I purchased a parking brake return spring from McMaster Carr (96605K34). I also purchased some O-rings from McMaster for the shaft seal on the parking brake. Not sure which one ended up fitting best. Lastly, from McMaster you can get the felt seal strip (PN 8762K811) that goes on the housing and seals to the drum. Cut to length. It worked well.

I also did EVERYTHING else on this truck (new carb, fuel pump, fluids, filters. Flushed the cooling system, replaced hoses. Plus, many other little things. I really like this truck (hate the brakes). I am sad that I can't use it and have to let it go. Good luck!