gijoecam
Village Idiot
- Joined
- May 31, 1999
- Messages
- 8,298
- Reaction score
- 20
- City, State
- Trenton, MI
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 98 ExSport, '00 F-150
Well, long story short, I pulled the rear brakes apart on my '98 Sport, and discovered that in addition to the pads and rotors being thrashed, the shoes on the parking brakes were completely non-existant. I'm not talking about 'worn out' , I mean, not there!!! Well, technically the shoe's backing plate was there, but the friction material was completely gone. I've never seen a parking brake do that from LACK of use, LOL!!!
Has anyone else ever come across that?
The long story is that they had been making some slight noise for the last year. Every tire rotation (i.e. every other month) I was inspecting them myself making sure everything was OK. Everything seemed to be in place every time, so I've just lived with it. Then, on the way to work yesterday, some moron in front of me decided that I was following too close (which, for the record, I wasn't) and instead of tapping his brakes, he stabbed 'em, which, of course, means I stabbed mine, at which point the inboard rear pads on BOTH sides vaporized. Rivits to rotors don't make for nice sounds from the brakes.
Needless to say, the snowball started the avalanche!!! I need new pads and rotors on the rear. OK, I can live with that. While I'm doing it, the fronts are due in short-order anyways, so I figure I'll do those as well. Since I'm going to be in there anyways, I may as well do the brake hoses as they're almost 8 years old with 97k on them, so how much life could they have left? Since I'm doing the pads and hoses, new (rebuilt) calipers are only another $16 per corner, so what the hay? That'll leave me with all new parts from the hoses out, right? (All with a lifetime guarantee, of course)
Well, I also discovered that I need the parking brake shoes too.... that also means new hardware. The easiest way to replace the parking brakes is to pull the axle shafts, so there goes three more quarts of synthetic gear lube down the oil pan drain.
Then, since I've got to pull the axle shafts anyways, may as well replace the axle shaft seals while I'm in there. The bearings felt great, so there's no need to monkey-around with them, I guess.
Oh, and to do all this, I needed some tools: Tube nut wrenches, a second set of jack stands, a spring puller, a 1/2" breaker bar, a couple of adapters, a MityVac bleeder kit..... so $250 lighter, I left Sears.
All this because of the freakin' brake pads!!! I'm almost ready to buy an air compressor and air ratchet.... almost, but not quite.
-Joe
Has anyone else ever come across that?
The long story is that they had been making some slight noise for the last year. Every tire rotation (i.e. every other month) I was inspecting them myself making sure everything was OK. Everything seemed to be in place every time, so I've just lived with it. Then, on the way to work yesterday, some moron in front of me decided that I was following too close (which, for the record, I wasn't) and instead of tapping his brakes, he stabbed 'em, which, of course, means I stabbed mine, at which point the inboard rear pads on BOTH sides vaporized. Rivits to rotors don't make for nice sounds from the brakes.
Needless to say, the snowball started the avalanche!!! I need new pads and rotors on the rear. OK, I can live with that. While I'm doing it, the fronts are due in short-order anyways, so I figure I'll do those as well. Since I'm going to be in there anyways, I may as well do the brake hoses as they're almost 8 years old with 97k on them, so how much life could they have left? Since I'm doing the pads and hoses, new (rebuilt) calipers are only another $16 per corner, so what the hay? That'll leave me with all new parts from the hoses out, right? (All with a lifetime guarantee, of course)
Well, I also discovered that I need the parking brake shoes too.... that also means new hardware. The easiest way to replace the parking brakes is to pull the axle shafts, so there goes three more quarts of synthetic gear lube down the oil pan drain.
Then, since I've got to pull the axle shafts anyways, may as well replace the axle shaft seals while I'm in there. The bearings felt great, so there's no need to monkey-around with them, I guess.
Oh, and to do all this, I needed some tools: Tube nut wrenches, a second set of jack stands, a spring puller, a 1/2" breaker bar, a couple of adapters, a MityVac bleeder kit..... so $250 lighter, I left Sears.
All this because of the freakin' brake pads!!! I'm almost ready to buy an air compressor and air ratchet.... almost, but not quite.
-Joe
