Brake Help

[Fredbgt02]

So ran into a snag on what was supposed to be a simple job of replacing rear pads. the driver side caliper must have been frozen for some time as the inner pad was down to nothing and the outer pad was ok, pins were also frozen too.

long story short i went ahead and ordered 2 new calipers that come semi-loaded, so the have the pins, boots, caliper bracket and all the other hardware. i ordered 2 because God knows what awaits me on the passenger side. my question is for the rear do you need any special tools to compress the piston back into the caliper? or would a c-clamp be fine?

 

[joegr]

... my question is for the rear do you need any special tools to compress the piston back into the caliper? or would a c-clamp be fine?

Yes, you do need a special tool.
No, a C-clamp won't do it.
The piston has to be rotated as it is pushed in. You may be able to borrow a tool from an auto store. If not, here's one.
http://www.harborfreight.com/disc-brake-pad-and-caliper-service-tool-kit-pc-69053.html

 

[Fredbgt02]

Thank you, I believe the auto store I purchaced the calipers from rents them so I'll make sure to get it. Do they require any special type of bleed procedure or will one of those hand pump vacuum ones cut it?

 

[joegr]

Hand pump or even just a piece of tubing and a helper pressing the brake pedal.

 

[1LoudLS]

Hand pump or even just a piece of tubing and a helper pressing the brake pedal.

after I changed out the rubber lines for a SS set, I also wanted to flush out all of the old fluid too, so I just used about two feet of clear rubber tubing and a two liter soda bottle. I drilled a hole in the cap just large enough for the tubing to be pressed into, then just slip the tubing over the bleeder valve, as long as you have the tube positioned going up a little bit before going down to the bottle, you can clearly see when all of the bubbles are gone, and when the old dirty fluid is gone and the fresh clean fluid reaches it.

 

[Fredbgt02]

Thanks for the help guys, here is an update. So I went with the method I know best which is having a buddy pump the brakes, the new calipers, hardware, brackets, rotors went on without a hitch.

We started bleeding the rears beginning with the side furthest from the MC, and by the time we finished there was absolutely no air left and the reservoir never went below the max line but for some reason the pedal still feels a little soft and seems to be engaging further down than before. Is there some particular procedure on these cars like there is with the cooling system? The front brakes are new also, minus the calipers as they were fine, but new pads, rotors and all hardware.

 

[joegr]

... Is there some particular procedure on these cars like there is with the cooling system? ...

Not that I know of. I haven't had any problem with it. I did install speed bleeders to make it easier to do, and I do like to screw the bleeder down while the pedal is still being depressed, to avoid the possibility of any air being sucked back in around the bleeder threads.

 

[Kumba]

and I do like to screw the bleeder down while the pedal is still being depressed, to avoid the possibility of any air being sucked back in around the bleeder threads.

This. One teeny tiny little air bubble will make the pedal feel like complete and total crap on this car. Have someone get in the car and gently push down on the brake pedal. Tell them to watch the pedal and tell you when it's 3/4 of the way to the floor. Then open the bleeder just a little so that the pedal doesn't drop all at once and look for bubbles. When they tell you it's 3/4 of the way down, close the bleeder and have them pump the pedal a few times then rinse and repeat. That's the bleed procedure I was taught years ago and still works the best but requires bribing someone with beer.

Since you said the master cylinder never got low I am assuming you didn't inadvertently pull air in through the top too. If you did there is a whole nasty bleed procedure for the ABS and all that that requires a special Ford thing.

 

[Fredbgt02]

yeah i was carful to keep the resivior full as bench bleading a MC is pain, my buddy that was helping is just as anal as i am about following procedures so he kept his foot down. the only thing i could think of is would the fronts require bleeding if only the rears were worked on? my assumption was no so i did not bleed the front as the wheels didn't even come off on the front and that was fully redone before i put the car up for the winter.

 

[LS4me]

I've found that having the engine running makes bleeding much easier........ I don't know if it's an ABS thing or what....