I drank 7 last evening thinking about doing it But it still aint done. I'll try again next week without the beers

 

lol, nice write up, I love posts like this.

 

good write up.. I just did a set on a 2001 the other day.. to help in removing the calipers you can partially compress the calipers prior to pulling them off by putting a large "C" clamp on the rear solid portion of the caliper and the brake pad (there is a small round window on the outside). this will help getting the calipers off.

Gerry

 

Well, mine went easily. While doing it I thought about taking the rotors down to Napa and having them turned (just to make it the real deal) but didn't. Very easy maintenance.

 

Some people I know say that you should turn them every time that you change the pads, some don't. I think that it's six to one, half doxen o another... I only turn them if they are grooved or glazed.

 

Did the rear brakes a month or so ago... Easier than the front. Only thing different that I noticed was that the driver side brake caliper slid out from the top first (or bottom, I can't remember) and the passenger side slid out from the other side. I think that I changed my tune on getting the rotors turned, the front brakes has a slight squeek to them after I changed the pads, and I had the rear ones turned, they do not squeek. Only mishap... did not have beer for the rear brakes. Got it done in less than 30 minutes, tho...

 

Thanks for the post. Yet another one I have saved to disk for the "service manuel" that I started keeping in the trailer. I drank a beer to salute your hard work.

 

Changing or turning front rotors requires removing the caliper adapter which is held on by two bolts. The bolts require 250 ft/lbs per factory service manuel. Not fun removing for the first time. hope that helps

 

Evidently you are reading a different FSM than I have. My 03 and 04 FSMs say front caliper mounting bolts at 130ft-lbs, the rears at 100.

 

130 ft/lb has LD for light duty while the 250 ft/lbs has HD for heavy duty. go to the torque specs part of the section( section 5 page 8), you will see it there. You just have to know how to use your service manuel. The part your reading on page 5-22, if you look at the picture (fig 38) it does not match, its a picture of a 1500. hope that helps.

 

Great writeup.
Personally, Iv replaced several disc sets myself and found the hardest part was locating the tools to giterdone.

 

Very interesting. The 03 manual appears to not distinguish between HD vs LD on caliper bolt torque, while the 04 manual does. Makes me wonder which, if either, number is correct, and in what TSB that correction is in.

 

Just wanted to bring this back to the top. This really helped me out. I had never done brakes on a vehicle that had caliper adapters, so this helped a lot. I fubared up a little bit, but, all in all, it went fairly smoothly. Thanks bro!
Scott

 

No prob, scott. Glad to be able to do something like this...

 

Did I read that right only 40,000 miles and replacing the front brakepads? I have 180,000kms or 118500miles and I know that they will go another 10,000 miles I guess that exhaust brake really does help. and if I keep the truck for about a million miles it will pay for its self.
Jim O