Crabjoe

Funny thing... I was going to do the fronts so I went and bought the front pads... Well, when I looked, they were still fine so I figured I'd just peek at the outer pads in the rear and they looked good. That was yesterday.

Today, after towing 12K lbs for 300miles, I go to park the load and I hear a screech in the rear brakes. I'm like "CR@P!" I still gotta get home which was another 150miles away. Well I took it easy and just got in with almost no screeching from the rear brakes but now I have to do them.

Now, before I do them tomorrow, I'd like to know if I need any special tools like torque bits or maybe one of those odd looking ends for a wrench to back out the E-brakes. Can someone tell me if I need anything special other then some metric sockets and extra large C-clamps?

Thanks all!!

timcasbolt

Pretty sure you'll need a special tool to push the pistons in.

westcoaster

??? I didn't use one. The C clamp seamed to push them in pretty easly as well....

Crabjoe

Do I need a supersized torq bit or will my metric sockets work? I'm sorry to say I never replaced my SAE sockets when they disappeared because everything these days seems to be metric.

Thanx

kelley15

The rears come off just like the front. Usually you can wear out two sets up front before the rears go. Caliper sticking? It happened on my left rear brake.

HayHauler1

I put rear brakes on my wife's truck today (my old truck b4 the CTD). It has 179,000 miles on it. It is a 1997 Ferd F-150. Only one of the shoes was worn badly, but not down to the metal. I never replaced the backs in 179k miles, but replaced the front pads so many times I can't count. P.S. the back brakes are drums. I couldn't believe that the rears didn't wear any faster than that.

Hay

Crabjoe

Rear drums take forever to wear because the self adjust feature on them rarely work. On my Jeep, I manually adjust the rear drums every month. Rright after the adjustment, there's a noticeable difference. Even with me making the adjustments manually, I only had to do the rear drums once and that was at 100K miles. The fronts were getting done at 20K increments, more often if I used Raybestos, so I only use Bendix now.

timcasbolt

I haven't had to do rear disc pads on a Dodge yet. A friend recently told me that you need the special tools for any vehicle equipped with rear disc brakes. He bought a kit at the auto parts that included a threaded rod, a bracket, and several adapters to suit all common pistons. The goal is to push and turn the piston at the same time. Something to do with the e-brake function of the piston. Hope someone can clarify this.

ROOSTER108BM

I checked my service manual and it shows no special tool to compress pistons on rear caliper. Rooster

ROOSTER108BM

Actually,the parking brake is a drum in hat design(set of shoes in the hollow back of rear rotor) that operates independent of the caliper.Just use a c clamp or piston compressor if you already have one.

Crabjoe

BINGO! That's want I wanted to hear. That's the way my Ford is setup. It makes doing rear brakes a breeze!

I've got this stupid little tool that fits on the end of a rachet to crank caliper pistons in and it a PITA! I've had to crank in the pistons on Honda's and a VW and I was ready to pull out my hair.

Thank the load Dodge was smart enough to go with the separate drum setup for the emergency brakes. Now off to auto parts store for rear pads.

kelley15

Still seems strange the rears wore out first. If only one side of the rears are worn ,you probably had a sticking caliper at some time.

Crabjoe

For those that want to know how hard it might be to do brakes on these trucks ... Here's the short on it.

From the time I started it took me about an hour to do the an axle. I did both front and rear.

Tools required are really just a 13mm wrench, large C-Clamps (1 will do but 2 is better and I recommend a 8" or larger). It's nice to have Jack stands and a large flat head screwdriver but not necessary. I recommend jack stands for safety.

1st, block the vehicle with whatever you can find so it does not roll off on you when you jack up the front or rear.

Next, I used the jack that came with the truck to lift a tire, then put a jack stand under it. Make sure you loosen up the lug nuts before getting the tire off the ground.

Take the tire off then grab the 13mm wrench. On the back side of the caliper, you'll see 2 bolts (top and bottom). Easy to see because there's a rubber boot on them to keep the dust out. Now, take those bolts out.

Next is to take the caliper off. On one side, you have to start at the top, but the other side, you start on the bottom. If you look carefully, you'll see. If you have that large screw driver, use it now to pry that top or bottom side out. If you don't have a large screwdriver, use the lug wrench that came with the truck. That's what I used because I was too lazy to look for my large screw driver.

Once you have the caliper off, remove the old pads. They slide off the clips and I gave them a tap with the flat end of the lug wrench to get them off. Now that you have the old pad off, just install the new ones. Mine slide right on. I didn't even need to tap them.

Since you've got you new pads install, it's now time to compress the pistons in the caliper. The easy way is to use a clamp for each piston, but if you only have one, use one of the old pads to compress both pistons in at the same time. You can't do them separately because when you compress one in, the other will push out.

With the pistons pushed back into the caliper, it's time to reinstall the caliper. Remember how they came off and just reinstall in reverse. Make sure that you push the sliding thinga-ma-geeg out away from the csliper because if you don't it will hit the mount for the bolt and you won't be able to get the caliper back on. If you're wondering what the thinga-ma-geeg is, it's the metal sleeve with the rubber boot that you took the 13mm bolts out of.

With the Caliper back on, just reinstall the 13mm bolts and you're done.

I don't know about you, but this was one of the easiest brake pad changes I've ever done. The hardest part was taking the tires off then on. 8 freaken bolts is a PITA if you're not working with air tools. Also, I used a liberal amount of antiseeze. Not on the lug nuts, but on the hub because it took a few kicks to break the rims free from the hubs. I can't believe how well that little but of rust holds. The worst is I didn't expect to have any problems with it because I had the tire rebalanced 6 months ago.

BTW, the front is done identically to the rear. Just the pads and calipers are a little larger, but it's still the same C-clamps and the 13mm wrench. You'll go faster if you use a small 13mm socket wrench, but you might have to go with a 1/4" wrench for top bolt in the rear. The front has plenty of room for a 3/8" socket.

Pooter

Anyone have any tips for removing the rotors? Are they floating rotors?
Im needing to change out the front rotors/pads on my truck, they look like they have too much of a groove to be resurfaced...

I did the brakes on my old 97 2wd, but its a hub/rotor assembly and I replaced the whole thing....
Im not quite sure on doing the new 3rd gen brakes on a 4wd...

ROOSTER108BM

Yes the front rotors are floaters.Just remove caliper and the rotor will come right off.....ROOSTER