At 55K miles, my front brakes were just about gone. The rears still had a few thousand miles on them. But, as long as I was at it, I did them too. Disc brakes are easy to work on.

When changing to a differant type of pad, it is essential that the discs be resurfaced. I have a brake disc hone, so resurfacing the rotors was pretty easy to do without removing them from the truck. You can also use a 120 grit sanding disc, but it's a little more difficult to get a good surface that way. Certainly not impossible, though.

I have a 16" C clamp that I picked up somewhere along the line. That giant clamp made it a simple procedure to compress the pistons before pulling the caliper off the caliper bracket.

The sheet metal sliders were in excellent shape. I used a wire brush to polish them up, and then used a little lube to put them back together.

The brakes never squealed at all. They were quiet from the day I bought the truck. But I used some Permatex Disc brake Anti-Squeal (blue goo) anyway. Hey, it can't hurt.

The whole job only took a few hours. And that includes driving to the parts store for the new pads, and the bedding in procedure.

I was going to use Performance Friction carbon metallic pads. But I couldn't find them locally. So I used the Duralast Gold pads, front and rear; $76 total. And they have a lifetime warrenty. If they ever wear out, I just take them back for a new set.

After 600 miles, I gotta say I'm impressed. The new brakes are much better. Very smooth, quiet, and effective. The truck won't quite stand on it's nose, but braking distance is markedly decreased. Much better than stock. I wouldn't be afraid to use them again.

We'll see how long they last. If I only get 50K miles, that's OK. New pads are free.

 

I've read that it's not a good idea to compress the pistons back as it may damage the anti lock system. Hope this didn't happen.

 

You can, but you have to go slowly. 1/4 turn, every 5 seconds, is fine.

 

Id it advisable to re-work the disk surface if I am putting on the same brand of pad that was on there initially? Can I just scuff them a bit?

Thanks

Scotty

 

X2 on the Duralast pads........have given me good service and long mileage.

 

You have to compress the pistons, there's no other way to do it. Wih antilock brakes, you don't want to back flush the fluid - that's where the problem comes from. You connect a hose to the drain port, and when you compress the pistons the fluid goes out to the bottle and not back into the system.

That's good practice anyway. You never want to push the old fluid back up into the system. It just makes your job of flushing the lines that much more difficult.

That's about right. Move slowly so the fluid can follow the path of least resistance - out of the caliper and into the drain bottle.

If you're using the same type of pad - and I mean same pad maker and part number - there's no need to touch the rotor surface with anything.

As pads work, they deposit a certain amount of material onto the rotor surface. So it's not so much pad vs. rotor, it's pad vs pad material. Sometimes pad materials are not compatable, that's why you have to resurface the rotor; to remove the old pad material and make way for the new.

 

O.K. I can go with that. I thought you were pushing it back into the system.

 

Dumb question: I thought I was getting indicator squeal for the last week and a half, brakes still felt fine, went quiet with pedal pressure, but it turned out to be metal to metal on the left outer pad, inner pads have the indicators.

I need a new disc on the driver side, just slapped some pads on for now.

So here's the dumb question finally: is it OK to put the indicator pad on the outside, so it actually warns me next time, or is there some difference? It all looks totally symmetrical. Or is there some other problem that the outer is wearing faster (slightly, inner only had about .5 to 1 mm left)?

 

The inner and outer pads should wear fairly evenly. Not exactly, but pretty close.

If you look at the caliper, you'll notice the pistons are only on one side. To work correctly, the caliper slides back and forth in those SS bits in the caliper mounting bracket.

If the outer pads are wearing much faster than the inner pads, that usually means the caliper is not sliding back and forth like they're supposed to. Replace those SS sliders, they're very cheap.

If you're re-using the calipers, clean the slider area really weel with a wires brush or sand paper to make it really smooth.

Don't forget to add a little grease to that area, too.

 

You mean the sliders that the small mounting bolts go through, with the rubber boot on each side? Those are like new, well greased, slide easily.

I think I just need to learn the indicator noise. With one wheel fixed, the other has a really minor squeak sound. Not much of an indication, in my opinion, but I'll be more careful next time.

 

Not the guide pins. They're well protected and last about forever.

Look at the caliper mounting bracket, where the caliper comes in contact with the bracket. There's two slider attachements - looks like either SS or chrome plated sheet metal. The calipers slides back and forth on those shiny bits. If they're not shiny any more, replace them. I think they're about $6 at autozone.

 

Thanks, that's it, they look like rusty exhaust parts from my 78 slant six half ton. I'll put all new on when I go back in and replace the disc.