question about rear brakes

[Rushman04]

hey, i have a 1992 grand prix se with the gt package on it. i love the car ever since my parents bought it brand new. I finally have it now. But over the years the rear brakes have been replaced and it is usually replaced with new calipers and pads. They sound like the pads in the rear need to be changed but i don't want to buy new calipers. I have done a search on the fourm to see if the question was asked and it wasn't clear. The calipers are almost brand new only a year or two old. I was wondering if it was possible to do a normal brake job on the rear brakes. Iam trying to do this before my parents come home in a couple of days and give me crap about it. Ill take all the help i can get.

[Robby1870]

Yup, you can change just the pads, easy as pie

[1990lumina]

Whenever the brakes pads on my Lumina are replaced the calipers are usually replaced because the damn things keep seizing.. and sometimes the rotors also as a result of the rear brakes doing shit all to stop the car..

 

- Jeff L

[SigEpCutlass]

unless the calipers are not working properly or seized than you can just change the pads. do your parents have a problem with you messing with the car lol

[Rushman04]

yea my parents always think iam going to screw something up since iam not proffesional but i keep fix things on the car and they are surprised each time. I love proveing them wrong.

[slick]

Pads are an easy fix. If there gone for more than 2 hours, that *should* give you plenty of time to do them.

[digitaloutsider]

yea my parents always think iam going to screw something up since iam not proffesional but i keep fix things on the car and they are surprised each time. I love proveing them wrong.

Fuck 'em. This is how my friend's parents are and they constantly make him go to the shop for the SIMPLEST repairs (break jobs, idler pulley, etc). Get yourself a cheap Haynes repair manual and prove them the fuck wrong. A brake job is pretty easy, anyway.

[Stevo]

When you pull the rear pads. Pull the sliders from the calipers as well. If the slider boots are in top shape (without any tears in them) clean them up, the slider and inside the slider housing on the caliper. Make sure these are clean of rust and other contaminents. Then when they are all cleaned up. Put some grease on the sliders and the cleaned boots and put them back together. Depending on where you live you should at least do this every 6 months so as to prevent seizing.

[roughtracing]

you will a special tool to turn the caliper piston in so you can install the new pads if you try to use a c-clamp to push the caliper piston in you could reck the caliper

[SigEpCutlass]

you will a special tool to turn the caliper piston in so you can install the new pads if you try to use a c-clamp to push the caliper piston in you could reck the caliper

 

not true. Get a thin piece of wood and use it in combination with the C clamp. That's what I did the last time I changed my pads. My calipers work just fine. Granted I have different & larger brakes in the rear of my cutlass, so someone correct me if I'm wrong for the older models.

[roughtracing]

if the parking brake uses the caliper piston to apply the parking brake you can't use a c-clamp using a c-clamp could brake the parking brake mechanism

[GPdriver1986]

I used a c-clamp on my rear brakes, it works if the clamp gets a grip on the piston it'll turn it back in. I know this seems impossible but it actually worked for me. I also recommend getting the improved slider kit at GM, not sure the part number but it costs around 30$, it will help the rear brakes alot since the stock aluminum ones stick. If not be sure to take them out and clean out the rust inside and use a whole bunch of anti seize. If you don't know where the slider is (I didn't know), its that rubber/metal thing on the caliper, if it doesn't slide it needs to be cleaned and antiseized, otherwise your brakes will suck.