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rear brakes for the first time i a while


luminal67

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So I replaced my rear pads and rotors yesterday. Damn, did I forget how much I hate these. I even bought that square tool for turning the piston in, what a waste of $8.00. It turned out to be totally useless. I just went with the C-clamp instead.

 

I had some interesting pad wear also. The left side was fine, probably had 15,000 miles left. On the right side, the outer pad was metal to metal on the rotor and the inner pad was only a little worse than the left side pads.

 

What would cause this pad to be metal to metal? The caliper works alright.

 

-Brian

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So I replaced my rear pads and rotors yesterday. Damn, did I forget how much I hate these. I even bought that square tool for turning the piston in, what a waste of $8.00. It turned out to be totally useless. I just went with the C-clamp instead.

 

I had some interesting pad wear also. The left side was fine, probably had 15,000 miles left. On the right side, the outer pad was metal to metal on the rotor and the inner pad was only a little worse than the left side pads.

 

What would cause this pad to be metal to metal? The caliper works alright.

 

-Brian

 

The caliper might not be working alright. Possibly one it is off keel causing the pad on right side to constantly touch the rotor, which would result in excessive wear. OR, the left side might not be making 100% contact with the rotor. Hard to tell though, because even in 100% working ability w-body brakes suck!

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if you used a c-clamp you probably ruined the piston.

 

also the sliders love to seize up on those calipers, what i am saying is that they are junk.

 

i put no less then 10 rear calipers on my car before i got smart and just went to the 94+ stuff.

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I even bought that square tool for turning the piston in, what a waste of $8.00. It turned out to be totally useless. I just went with the C-clamp instead.

 

You killed the piston. If the square tool wasn't working, it was bad in the first place.

 

I've done it three times, two with the square tool. It works fine.

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the piston would twist out, but it only twisted back in to the point where I twisted out from. It probably is bad, i don't know. And the sliders worked fine, no seizing going on. they were replaced about 50,000 miles ago, car has 165,000

 

I would highly suggest the 94+ swap also. It was real easy on my dad's car. once i had all the parts i was done in about 2 hours

 

I know I've asked you this before, but You did enable the parking brake right? did you replace all the lines and pedal or just the rear lines? and did you go with the 94+ brake hoses or use the old ones?

 

Thanks, I may pick up some 94+'s from the J/Y tomorrow.

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you don't need to replace any of the rear lines, your existing ones work just fine, as do the hoses.

 

as for the parking brake some people claim to have made the old cables work, i myself saw no real way, so i just installed the parking brake cables from the car i pulled the calipers from.

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as for the parking brake some people claim to have made the old cables work, i myself saw no real way, so i just installed the parking brake cables from the car i pulled the calipers from.

 

How much of the cables? All the way to the pedal or from the equalizer back? Do they route the same?

 

Pics would be awesome

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The parking brake works on my dad's car which i did the swap on.

 

What you need:

RH&LH Calipers and Brackets 1994+ First Gen

Mounting Bolts to Knuckle (they are very different)

1994+ Parking brake cables (only the rear ones, from the adjuster back)...these are only two parts

Rotors (New)

Brake Pads (New)

Brake Fluid

Slide Pin Grease

Banjo Bolt for 94+ caliper (can reuse)

Crush washers for banjo bolt (new)

 

Step 1:

Jack car off of the ground, remove wheels, remove bolt for brake hose to strut, loosen and remove banjo bolt (fluid will leak so be ready). Remove parking brake cable from caliper. Remove caliper, rotor and also splash shield (held on to knuckle with two very small bolts). By this time i'm sure your family will wonder if you are crazy.

 

Step 2: Remove existing parking brake cables form car (only from equalizer back). Re-install bolts that hold the cables in where it crosses ahead of the gas tank, otherwise you'll have a leak. Save the equalizer and spring if you don't get new ones with your 94+ cables.

 

Step 3: Either remove your auxiliary spring brackets that are on your rear lateral links OR do what i did and make a 3/4" knotch in the corner with a cut-off wheel for caliper clearance. (If you have a 94 Lumina you may not have this issue, its what I ran into on my dad's 1990 FE3 car)

 

Step 4: Cut mounting bracket on brake hose off carefully with cut off tool (don't get it too hot). You will also have to straighten the metal part of the line near the banjo bolt so it will mount to the 94+ caliper. You CANNOT use 94+ brake hoses because they drop off of the body behind the strut and the earlier version mounts ahead of the strut. You may want to get new hoses because yours may be rusty or brittle (and possibly crack).

 

Step 5: Now we're in the home stretch....install the 94+ rotor and use one of your stock lug nuts (put the hex toward the rotor) to hold it in place. Slide the mounting bracket over the rotor and secure it with the mounting bolts. Make sure to torque them to the factory specs (I assume you have a Haynes manual). thoroughly clean the slide pin surface (will be closest to the strut) and apply fresh SLIDE PIN grease. Slide the caliper on to the slide pin and install the abutment clips and brake pads. Finally install the bottom bolt through the bottom slide pin (captured in caliper). Make sure the boots are not leaving any of the pins exposed. Install brake hose using the 94+ banjo bolt and new crush washers.

 

Step 6: Bleed system. I use a glass jar and some vacuum line for this job. That way, you can easily see that you got all the air out. Have someone inside pump the pedal and don't forget to check the master cylinder. Start with the right rear first.

 

Step 7: Install 94+ cables.

100_0394.jpg

that is a picture of how they route in a 94 car. Route them how you please, using this as a guide. The place where the old style cables clip into the frame doesn't work anymore. I used quite a few zip ties. Adjust the cable how you please. If its an automatic car, you should not be able to pull away with the parking brake on and the car in drive.

 

Crack a beer and enjoy more reliable brakes! My dad's car is a Non-ABS car and it stops straight and true without having premature rear lock up even on dirt.

 

Also another good thing to do would be to look at your front rotors and make sure the inboard side (toward the engine) does not look like this.

100_0349.jpg

 

For parts, whitebox rotors are ok, although I highly suggest you use the NAPA Tru-Stop pads (about $22). Expensive pads in the rear won't do much for you.

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Nice, that will help me out tons if I ever go ahead with the swap.

 

I also noticed something weird at the J/Y today. The rear calipers on a particular 89' regal were the same as the ones on a 95ish Cadillac STS. I couldn't get a picture but they looked similar to the 94+ brakes except it looked like there was only 1 bolt holding the caliper to the bracket. There looked like there should have been 2 bolts, but where there was supposed to be another one, there was a rubber nipple or cap. weird. Any thoughts?

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Nice, that will help me out tons if I ever go ahead with the swap.

 

I also noticed something weird at the J/Y today. The rear calipers on a particular 89' regal were the same as the ones on a 95ish Cadillac STS. I couldn't get a picture but they looked similar to the 94+ brakes except it looked like there was only 1 bolt holding the caliper to the bracket. There looked like there should have been 2 bolts, but where there was supposed to be another one, there was a rubber nipple or cap. weird. Any thoughts?

I looked into this too. they use the same pads but different rotors! AND the left and right calipers are mounted on opposite sides, IIRC otherwise basically the same caliper.

 

the nipple/ cap is part of the slide. only one bolt holds it on. if you removed them, beneath the nipple is one of the slides.

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I need to do my Rotors and pads on the rear apparently the person before me put pads and rotors on or something to that effect and left the strut to total shit :( So I think it pretty much waxed everything :(

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It was very weird. If I see another one, I will get pics of both.

 

I went to the J/Y yesterday to see if I could figure the brake thing out on the 89 regal. It either was a mistake by the J/Y labeling the regal as an 89, or it had an upgrade or I'm on crack.

 

So I looked around more. It turns out the brakes on the regal are the 94+ style, and the ones on the caddy are also the same. I double checked sunday. BUT, I didn't check to see if the parking brake was setup different. I would assume no.

 

I guess I will have to be making more trips to the yards around here soon.

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When i did mine last week i ended up replacing both calipers on the rear. I just replaced the one on the rear driverside the last time i did brakes but it was still under waranty so i just went to my work and swapped it out. If i got to do it next time and they are seized up i'll be convinced that the 93 and ealier wbody rear calipers were design to be a 1 time use and then dispose of it kind of deal.

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