M44-Series 2.5-Ton 6×6 Truck Brake Vent Modification

This page contains excerpts from PS Magazine (a monthly magazine published by the US Government for Army personnel involved in maintenance) which describe how to perform a necessary brake vent modification on M44-series 2.5-ton 6×6 trucks such as the M35 cargo trucks or my M109A3 shop van. I used to have a couple of pages with many PS Magazine excerpts with 2.5-ton and HMMWV tips, but they are no longer necessary now that you can download individual articles from 1988 on at the PS Magazine web site. I kept these particular excerpts here because the vent line modification was published in 1983, and is not yet available on the PS Magazine web site. It’s a very good idea to check the PS Magazine index for other articles which may apply to your truck. For example, there’s an article in issue 542 (January, 1998) which describes a necessary brake light switch modification which replaces the old hydraulic pressure actuated switch, which could blow out and leave you rolling without brakes!

File	Size	Issue/Page	Description
BrakeVentCheck.jpg	105k	PS 555 (Feb 99), p5	Checking for brake vent line modification
BrakeVentFix1.jpg BrakeVentFix2.jpg	122k 59k	PS 364 (Mar 83), p18-20	Brake vent line modification

Here are more detailed descriptions of the parts needed for the M44A2-series version of the modification. I have not performed this modification yet, so please comment if you find any mistakes.