I have owned a truck with disk brakes before, but used to do my own banded brakes. Yea, I know, I am moving up.
Anyway, How difficult is it, what are the pit falls and are there any special tools?
Any help is apprecaited.
THX
Lefty 2972
As long as your rotors are OK this job should be like “falling off a log” for you. Jack the rear up at the banjo, put stands under the axle, remove the wheels, and everything is staring you right in the face. Two bolts (accessed from the inner sides of the calipers) and the calipers come right off. Pop the pads out, hang the calipers from some baling wire, clean things up, and install the new pads. GM has had lots of problems with rear rotors on trucks. I think it may be because they saved a fraction of a cent on each rear rotor by not alloying in very slight quantities of some other metal(s) which would have reduced the propensity for them to corrode. Note that the fronts corrode almost not at all, while the rears may be disasters if you live where salt is used on the roads. Now if will be needing rotors, too, pop the clips off the wheel studs, back the parking brake cable adjustment off until loose, and coax them off. You may have to “massage” them with a hammer for an hour or two if they don’t slide off easily. The parking brake is a band with shoes that work on the inner “hat” section of the rotors, and has a tendency to hang up when you attempt to remove them. If your rotors look good, though, and aren’t pulsing your brake pedal, just plop in the new pads and you’re almost done. If you can’t get the calipers back on the pads may be a bit too thick. In that case put them in a vise, grabbing them only by their metal backing plates. Then carefully sand them with a belt sander, being sure to retain the bevel on the leading edges. The only “special” tool I use is an old “C” clamp to push the pistons all the way back into the calipers. Crack the fittings to bleed the brakes, top off the master cylinder, and you’re ready to rock.
Lefty,
I just did this this weekend.
It is as DR. Bruce describes.
Note: Impact gun to remove bolts that hold on caliper brace are “nice to have”
Also note, the “stock” or GM pads and rotors are not high quality. (My pads were cracked at 30k - this car is not abused…)
I replaced with Stainless Steel Brake’s kit-- rotors and pads for front and rear at Summit for $400.00-- excellent product!
If you do the fronts, in the future, you will need a TORX bit- 55 size.
When bleeding brakes, remember to not let the fluid run low! ABS unit will get airlocked.
-Matt
You’re not going to be able to squash the pistons back into the caliper on the rear with a C-clamp.
The caliper pistons are threaded, and self-adjusting, for emergency brake use and this means you will need to buy, borrow, or make the tool used to rotate the pistons while they’re pushed back into the caliper bores.
Any piston with a slot or notches means it must be rotated while compressed.
AutoZone, O’Reillys, etc. have a free loaner tool program and this tool should be part of it.