Bob,
In answer to your question:
The info you were looking for is this:
“Safety of Use Message” in reference to the M151 series Jeeps. It covers all models. It is dated Jul 1990. Problem: Brakes supplied under contracts DAAE07-87-C-0839 and DAAE07-86-C-0755 are not in conformance with technical and quality requirements. All brake shoes made on those contracts according to TACOM should be turned in to the DRMO.
What this doesn’t tell you is that the problem relates to a big mess with the contract and quality testing there in. Below is more info on it:
In February 1986, Midwest entered into contract DAAE07-86-C-0755 to sell 31,516 jeep brake-shoe kits to the United States Army. The contract required that the brake shoes be welded together with long strips of weld material known as fillet welds. In late March 1986, Midwest requested permission from the Army to "plug weld" the brake shoes instead of fillet welding them. Midwest prepared and submitted to the Army a document marked "Request for Deviation/Waiver MID-0755-1." Among other things, the deviation request added to the contract a quality-assurance testing requirement, presumably (though it is immaterial) to ensure that the plug welds would be as durable as the originally specified fillet welds. The quality testing requirement in Midwest's deviation request reads as follows: "Add: Test per Method I or II (attached)." Midwest then attached pages from a deviation request submitted in connection with a different contract several years earlier, as well as schematic diagrams depicting the two required testing methods. The attached pages described both the testing specifications and the frequency of the required testing:
1. Slot Welded assembly to be tested to verify that it shall withstand, without failure or cracking, a shear force of 5,000 pounds applied at both ends of the assembly in the tangential direction of the table at points of application. Test sample size shall be three out of the first ten; and thereafter, one out of every 250.
2. Each Slot Welded assembly to be checked to verify that the surfaces of table and web shall conform within 0.005 inches from the ideal. The frequency of inspection will be changed when a level of confidence is established that Midwest Specialties, Inc., has met the required design condition on a repeated basis. The Quality Assurance Representative [a Defense Department contracting employee] can then establish a random sampling check.
The Army approved Midwest's deviation request and issued a contract modification incorporating the terms of deviation request MID0755-1. The Army's approval document states that the "purpose of this modification is to incorporate deviation #0755-1 (DD Form 1694 attached)," referring to Midwest's form request for deviation. However, this document did not actually attach Midwest's deviation request. In January 1987, Midwest entered into another contract (# DAAE07-87-C-0839) to sell 2,552 additional jeep brake shoes to the Army. The Army then approved Midwest's request to plug weld and test these brake shoes under the same terms as the first jeep brake-shoe contract.
The problem is that Midwest then skipped the testing for the most part, and in late 1989, the brakes on an M151 jeep apparently failed when the welds on one of its Midwest brake shoes failed. This started an investigation, and later a Law suite against Midwest that they seem to have lost from what I have seen.
For what it’s worth the plug weld assembly technique is the same as used on about 95% of all brake shoes made today. With the lining installed it gives the appearance of only a tack weld holding the shoe web and flange together. Below are some photo examples of what has been referred to.
Above is the fillet welded type of Mutt shoe
Above is a view of a plug welded Mutt shoe
Above is another view of a plug welded Mutt shoe
Above is a 5 Ton plug welded shoe
The long and the short of it is that
I WOULDN’T SELL THESE IF I THOUGHT THEY WERE UNSAFE!!
jeff