Sunday afternoon, I went out to do my brakes. That was when the
problems started. Actually, the forst part went smoothly, got the truck
on the jackstands, got the tires off. Discovered I had *two* nails in
my tire [that had a slow leak] and sprayed a touch of white paint for
the tire shop on them. Inspecting my front end, I was surprised to note
that I had 30% pad left on all of my pads but one - where it was obvious
that the lining had cracked and started to eat the rotor. After that,
I whipped out my handy-dandy 8" c-clamps and after a couple of turns,
remembered to loosen the master cylinder cap. A few more turns and my
pistons were bottomed out, and my calipers were ready to unbolt.
Zzzzzip, Zzzzip, goes the air ratchet and out come those pesky little
pins, which were dyrtieeee, Yuck. A couple of taps from my 1lb deadblow
and off the Calipers came, without any problems.
*side notes:* The "Lisle" brand 3/8" metric hex socket set *does*
contain the elusive 7mm hex bit that is otherwise absent from most sets.
The "Great Neck" (autozone tool brand) 7mm hex bit is about 5mm longer
than either the Lisle or the Craftsman bits.
Anyway, *now* is when the fun began. First, I noticed that there were
no retainers on my rotors, but they wouldn't move. Uh-Oh. Grabbing my
Trusty FSM, I verified that there were no hidden attachments or special
procedures, so I grabbed my trusty 1 lb dead blow hammer. I gave my
pass side rotor a couple of gentle taps, nothing. A couple of more
spirited raps with old faithful, and still no movement. Uh-Oh. A bit
belatedly I remembered to haul out the coathangers and wire up the
calipers out of harms way. With hope in my heart, I shuffled over to
the drivers side and, after dutifully wiring up that caliper out of the
way, gave it a few experemental taps. No joy. Uh-Oh. Back to the
passenger side. After belatedly remembering to chock the rear wheels,
and verifying the jackstands were secure, I began trying a little harder
to remove the offending rotor. No joy. Uh-Oh. At this point, I
decided that something wasn't right, and grabbed my can of miracle -
make it all better juice - PB Blaster. After liberally hosing down the
studs and center section, I peeled off the gloves and went in search of
liquid refreshment. 10 minutes later, I gave the passenger side a
couple more experemental whacks... No joy. Uh-Oh. More PB Blaster.
After a couple of minutes I decided to try again, and beat so hard I
actually broke my dead blow hammer, sending lead shot spraying across my
driveway and into the neighbors yard. Oh well, I don't like them much
anyway. Well, a constant maxim of mechanics eternal " when all else
fails, get a bigger hammer", so, here I come with my handy 3lb Sledge.
Tap, tap, tap, whoops, catch the caliper, re-wire it more securely, tap,
tap, tap, no joy. Uh-Oh. More PB blaster, tap, tap, tap, dammit,
twist wire holding caliper togeather lots tighter, tap, tap. For a
change (cause the arm was getting tired, I switch sides, more PB
Blaster, tap, tap, tap, tap, whoops, catch the other caliper, re-wire it
more securely, tap, tap, damn this thing ain't movin... More PB
blaster, sit down, peel off gloves, decide to call someone for advice.
Hmmm, who can I call? Tried Mike, got his "user out of area" message.
Called Josh. Josh is a good friend, he took time out of his busy
afternoon to try to assist me. He was absolutely hammered and was
having, er, speech issues, but he tried to help.. "dude, they sould
just come off" Yeah right. Thusly fortified with that knowledge, I
went back to pounding, only with more zeal. One thing I have not
mentioned is the growing pile of shit that is falling off of my truck
with every blow. Rocks, mud, small animals, and rust flakes out of the
rotors. At this point I have a pile that is about 6 inches around and
over an inch deep under each rotor of just rust flakes. By this time I
am pretty pissed off, and with Josh's cruel laughter burning in my
brain, I don my gloves and earplugs and start up my rhythm again -
WHAM-tap, rotate 1/4 turn, WHAM-tap, rotate 1/4 turn, and so on until
WHANG - A piece of my rotor about the size of my thiumb breaks off and
nails me in the chest [note: today I have a small bruise there..].
Yikes! Ouch, that hurt through the sweatshirt, and I remember Mike's
curse... Uh Oh. Now I am seriously pissed off, punctuating my work
with a string of curses that would make a biker gang queasy: WHAM-tap,
Cuss, rotate 1/4 turn, WHAM-tap, Cuss, rotate 1/4 turn, and Lo- what do
I see... movement!! Success! Yeeeehaw!!!! A few more WHAM-tap, rotate
1/4 turn, WHAM-tap, rotate 1/4 turn cycles and I have it off. The back
of the rotor has LOTS of good sized dents in it. Wow, this was tough.
I look at my watch, it's been almost 40 minutes since I called Josh.
Wow. Realizing that I was rapidly burning daylight, i scuttled over to
the other side and started my rhythm up: WHAM-tap, Cuss, rotate 1/4
turn, WHAM-tap, Cuss, rotate 1/4 turn.. and within a few minutes I have
success on the Driver's side. At this point my really hot neighbor [the
local fitclub put her on their bilboard - HOT] pulls up and asks me what
I was doing because she could hear me banging 2 blocks away. I wanted
to hug her, but she took one look at my filth and ran away. O well.
Putting everything back togeather didn't start off too well either. At
first I thought I had wrong pads when I went to put them back togeather
and they wouldn't slip over the new rotor, Uh Oh. Then I realized that
they had expanded a bit, and a quick re-squosh with my C-clamp made
everything fit right. Unlike the old rotor, the new one was positively
loose on the studs. I was wishing I had retainers. The remainder of
the install went well, and I must say I am 100% pleased with the
results. The autozone Morse brand ceramic pads stop like nobodys
business, seem very quiet, and hopefully will be cleaner than stock.
And at $50 a set, they are absolutely a bargain. I am seriously
impressed, so far.
And I and my truck lived happily ever after [I even got my tire fixed
over lunch today...]
-Barry
MCP, A+, Network+, Server+
===============================
Efficiency is doing things right.
Effectiveness is doing the right things.
Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
===============================
Contact Info:
217-899-6105 Cell 217-467-8673 Page
217-558-6000 Desk barryoliver@novanis.com
Username: barrysuperhawk
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