adun015
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2008
- Posts
- 283
Just an observation/comment of mine as I have had to begin a major brake job on the front disc brakes of my '85 p-30.
We had began a first outing to shake the "bugs" out and man did we find a bug. It seems that the front caliper had developed a "grab" on the rotor which was causing a pulling of the front end as well as hot brakes. The call was made to find a repair shop to no avail, so being a fair mechanic and having some great wisdom at my disposal I began to tear into it.
Found that the Passenger side rotor ( also the same side it was pulling to for quite some time ) was sticking and grabbing. An intial phone call to mechanic (brother in - law) and a couple of tests later he confirmed that either the caliper was bad or the brake line was bad. Only way to confirm which it was would be to put it back together lower it off the jacks and crank it up to get the pressure back up in the lines. I decided not to do that as I had spent around an 1 1/2 hr's getting it up and removing the front tires. Another call to the parts house and found that I could replace/repair all part for less than $250.00. This included new brake lines, calipers and brake pads and turning the rotors for both sides.
I have completed the tear down, brake rotors turned and cleaned all the bearings. Waiting on the brake shoes & brake lines, both special order, and then put it back together again. My intial subject line repair or replace was if in doubt replace. The brake lines appear to be good but they are 25+ years old so replace. The good thing was that the rotors had never been turned and are very heavy duty, just turn and put back on. The calipers appear good but for just a little over $45.00 both sides are new ( remanufactured ) to the vehicle with a LLT warranty.
Also every mechanic I have ever talked with says if you replace one caliper replace both, if you turn a rotor turn the other, replace brake pads do both sides. This is for consistency and the fact that if one went bad chances are likely that the other one will in the near future. It is also just good sense to do the job right so you don't have to go back again for a very long time.
It is a very labor intensive task but I am sure I am saving around $1k or more by doing it myself.
This also made me realize that unless something happens ( cross fingers, please don't ) I will be tearing into the back brakes when the weather cools. I have not had any apparent problems but better safe than sorry. So when you have down time tear into those little nagging things that you always think " I need to look into / fix that when I get a chance".
We had began a first outing to shake the "bugs" out and man did we find a bug. It seems that the front caliper had developed a "grab" on the rotor which was causing a pulling of the front end as well as hot brakes. The call was made to find a repair shop to no avail, so being a fair mechanic and having some great wisdom at my disposal I began to tear into it.
Found that the Passenger side rotor ( also the same side it was pulling to for quite some time ) was sticking and grabbing. An intial phone call to mechanic (brother in - law) and a couple of tests later he confirmed that either the caliper was bad or the brake line was bad. Only way to confirm which it was would be to put it back together lower it off the jacks and crank it up to get the pressure back up in the lines. I decided not to do that as I had spent around an 1 1/2 hr's getting it up and removing the front tires. Another call to the parts house and found that I could replace/repair all part for less than $250.00. This included new brake lines, calipers and brake pads and turning the rotors for both sides.
I have completed the tear down, brake rotors turned and cleaned all the bearings. Waiting on the brake shoes & brake lines, both special order, and then put it back together again. My intial subject line repair or replace was if in doubt replace. The brake lines appear to be good but they are 25+ years old so replace. The good thing was that the rotors had never been turned and are very heavy duty, just turn and put back on. The calipers appear good but for just a little over $45.00 both sides are new ( remanufactured ) to the vehicle with a LLT warranty.
Also every mechanic I have ever talked with says if you replace one caliper replace both, if you turn a rotor turn the other, replace brake pads do both sides. This is for consistency and the fact that if one went bad chances are likely that the other one will in the near future. It is also just good sense to do the job right so you don't have to go back again for a very long time.
It is a very labor intensive task but I am sure I am saving around $1k or more by doing it myself.
This also made me realize that unless something happens ( cross fingers, please don't ) I will be tearing into the back brakes when the weather cools. I have not had any apparent problems but better safe than sorry. So when you have down time tear into those little nagging things that you always think " I need to look into / fix that when I get a chance".
