Just to get back to another facet of the original post, I had a whole set of sockets of the /32 spec, thinking 17/32 = 14 mm, because I misplaced my mm socket.
9/16" is roughly equivalent to 14mm
@db4690 close but no cigar!
Well, I said âroughly equivalentâ
I didnât say itâs the same thing
So, yeah, itâs âclose but no cigarâ 
I might add 9/16" is a common socket size . . . 17/32" is not 
I was referring to the common hydraulic floor jacks. When I jack up the car with this type of jack to install jackstands, I usually have to get part of my body , arms at least, under the car to install the jack stands. If the failure mode for a floor jack is always a slow decent, no problem, Iâd have plenty of time to move my arms out of the way. But if a hydraulic floor jack failed completely, and the car came crashing down unexpectedly, might not have time to move my arms out of the way for that.
Quote: âJust to get back to another facet of the original post, I had a whole set of sockets of the /32 spec, thinking 17/32 = 14 mm, because I misplaced my mm socket.â
I made this chart to help me compare mm & sae. Got it hanging on my box. Anyone is welcome to download it. I laminated mine.
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No problem. Even if a jack experienced a fast failure, a car typically has about 5-1/2" clearance, perhaps 4" with a flat tire. Unless you have arms like an offensive lineman in the NFL, the worst youâd suffer is a bruised arm. In a weird extreme case, perhaps a cracked arm bone. The real danger is a car lowering itself onto your upper body, whether slowly or quickly. Most deaths from cars coming down on people are by asphyxiation. The weight of the vehicle makes filling your lungs impossible while at the same time trapping you under the vehicle.
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This posting, one on how different jacks kill you, pretty much lays out exactly what is on my mind when I am planning to buy a floor jack of sufficient quality for an extended family and neighborhood.
I moderate several low traffic boards. My goal as moderator is to allow many different opinions. Person 1 posts his opinion. There will be different opinions, and this is good. Sometimes wide social consensus on an issue is just flat wrong. And, history shows it was totally wrong.
That wrong consensus would never have been changed without some amount of free expression. Freedom of speech was correct.
So, my view is each person expresses their opinion, and ideally explains it, and then later readers can make up their minds.
An example of a different idea being useful was the idea of using a small, light hydraulic jack on the highway in case you need to change a tire. It canât be more dangerous than a scissors jack, IMO. I would still carry the original scissors jack, âjust in case.â
Also, I cannot emphasize to much how much safer I feel with two aluminum tire/wheels under the car in suitable locations while working under there. My tires are 235/60R17, (Yes, I am aware this is one size up from original) and the new one, a second spare, Euzkadi brand, sits 9-1/2 inches high unloaded. (I simply do not wish to drive any distance with one of those bicycle tire spares.)
It is very hard to find my tire size in Mexico, and in the North a city of any size can be hours away. So, I toss in the second spare already mounted. Around home I donât bother. It took me two weeks to get the Euzkadi, not far from where I live.
If I can get into Tehuacan I can get a tire right away, if I am willing to pay $180 for Michelin or Pirelli. Since tires usually die a violent death from road hazards, I choose not to buy a long life tire at great expense.
We certainly digressed. After family from Mexico City leaves, I gottaâ change the back brake pads, too. Oh, I do hate those scissors jacks!
Mr. Irlandes, no offence but let me make a statement that may not be correct. Personally I would be reluctant to purchase any tool to be shared that could cause injury. Now if you plan to be present when it is used that would be better. I have tools that I will use for you but will not loan. I also have a neighbor that could destroy a bowling ball in a sand box. Of course I live in the U.S. so we have 2 lawyers for every person.
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As for your rear brake pads . . .
Can you simply push the pistons in?
Or is it the type where you actually have to wind the pistons back in, with the special tool?
If your parking brake uses the brake pads, itâs almost certainly the latter
Volvo, you said it very well. In the US, you have to constantly worry about someone suing you for falling down on your property. In Mexico, if you fall down, it is assumed you were careless.
In the late 90âs, my wife and I went to the border, only 15 miles from our house. In the parking lot at the border, my wife got too close and tripped over my feet. The insurance company later called up demanding we help supply information so they could demand the parking lot pay their health insurance costs. I told them she had got too close and tripped over my feet, and we would not be helping them at all.
I was surprised they did not sue me for having large feetâŠ
In the USA if something happens to you, it is assumed someone else is at fault, somehow. Think about if if this sounds strange. In Mexico, you are assumed to be responsible for yourself, which does make more sense to me. If you did file suit in such cases, the judge would soon have that case off his calendar.
I remember some years ago, someone made a replica airplane, from maybe WWII, and they were flying it around the world. When BMW found out they had entered the USA, they ordered the airplane shut down. They did not wish to be sued by anyone who got so much as a broken finger nail on an airplane with their motor on it. That is totally sick.
But, in any case, that also reinforces my desire for a quality floor jack.
Even if no one can sue me, I want to make sure they have use of a quality jack.
DB, good question. On the front, what I had to do was use a big C-clamp, and put the old brake pad over the part to be pushed in, so no damage on the boot or whatever they call that part. Worked great. I havenât touched the rear pads yet, once company goes away that will be priority. the manual and Youtube videos imply the parking brake assembly is not affected. I hope that is true. I will find out, but also will run some more videos and look again at Sienna Chat, now that you ask me that question. If I need a special tool, it is better to have it when the car is drivable. I had worried about that, but the videos didnât really mention it.
Yes, just thinking about it, it would seem logical that the parking brake assembly will have to be adjusted for bigger pads, just as the caliper does.
Yeah, I better look again. Thanks.
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I think I need to get into those rear brakes. Chiltons does not mention adjusting the parking brake to change the rear pads. A work sheet someone posted says adjusting the parking brake is OPTIONAL and it refers to adjusting after putting in the new pads.
So, there must be a design function which lets the pads be changed without loosening the parking brake. And, i have not found a rear assembly break-out anywhere.
The work sheet says one adjusts the parking brake with a straight screwdriver, so if it needs adjusting I apparently do not need a special tool.
However, i will see when I get to it and will post the results. We do have house guests these days due to the holidays so I am restricted. Not just in time available, but because my wife asks me to drive them someplace which means I cannot disable the car for repairs. Thanks.
The parking brake is brake shoes that operate by expanding into the drum of the rear brakes to keep the wheels from turning. The rear brakes you plan on changing are the brake pads in a caliper setup. There should be no need to do anything with the parking brake, other than verifying it works, unless youâre installing new rotors. Then you just need to make sure the shoes are adjusted properly to the new drum in the rotor.
If used properly, if not used for emergency braking, and if rust is not present, the parking brake shoes should last the life of the vehicle.
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That certainly agrees with what I have been reading. Thanks. I had no idea what I was facing, but it sounds as if the rear pads go in just like the front ones.
My parking brakes are almost always used. I live in a mountain village and my sun port is one of the few places that is not steep. I forget now what I measured some of our streets in a thread long ago on the steepest street in the USA. By memory seems like 13% but I canât remember any more.
A wise practice for you based on your description of your local terrain.
But as long as the vehicle isnât moving when theyâre applied, thereâs no wear on them. The pads (linings) should last forever. 
Thanks, TSM. Somewhere years ago, I learned that on a steep hill it is technically possible to have the transmission locked up so you canât get it out of park later. So, on hills, I try to always set up the parking brake before I put the transmission into Park and let up on the regular foot brake.
All over town, on hills are big rocks laying in the street. Local vehicles simply do not have the brake capacity to hold the vehicle on hills, so someone runs out and shoves a big rock behind a wheel. To make it worse, of course, most cars here are manual transmission and you can be sure the people here donât know how to maintain parking brakes, if they ever worked correctlyâŠ
One man supports his family by setting up a taco place near the town market every night. He has a heavy concrete step in front of his house, on the 13% hill. He runs the front wheel of the pickup into that heavy concrete step to keep it from running away.
Straight down the hill from him lives one of my âloved onesâ. She is almost 19 now, but when she wasnât much more than a toddler she ran across the road and hugged me around the knees, and called me grandpa. I donât know why, but she sure did. All these years her whole family has accepted me as her grandpa, including her grandpas, and she still hugs me much the same, except now she is tall enough to give me a regular hug. If that pickup ran away, it could conceivably take down her house. Perhaps not, the only way to be sure is to see it happen. No, thanks.
That is absolutely true. When the car is put in park, a device called a âparking pawlâ is engaged to lock the drivetrain and keep it from turning. When under a lot of load, it can wedge itself to where it canât be pulled out of engagement without breaking something. It is absolutely a good practice to use your parking brake on hills. I would recommend engaging the parking brake BEFORE putting the tranny in P to support some of the load that the weight of the vehicle would otherwise place on the parking pawl.
That is exactly what I have always done. It is good to know my memory is not always a total failure. 
Hereâre some photos of some parking pawls. The reason to use the parking brake becomes obvious with the pictures⊠they really are worth 1,000 words.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=parking+pawl+images&qpvt=parking+pawl+images&qpvt=parking+pawl+images&qpvt=parking+pawl+images&FORM=IGRE
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I think you understate the issue. Those photos are worth hundreds of thousands of words.
I did visualize something of that order, but had no idea of the dimensions involved. That is not a lot of steel to hold a two ton vehicle. Cool!
I have always wondered if the PARK would stop a runaway car if the brakes failed. Looking at the shape of the parts, I would say not. They would be going by their slot too fast to fall in. They would have time to destroy the transmission, though in such cases the transmission failure is probably not worth mentioning if you are going to destroy some large trees before you get stopped.
As I said earlier, for once I got something right, heh, heh.
Here in Mexico, if you got the pawl bound up as it says on the illustration, you would need to round up half a dozen Mexican men and they would move it far enough by hand to let you release it. These guys are strong.