So yesterday I decided to work a half day and go home and try to change the pads on my truck myself.

Now you have to realize how incredibly inept I am when it comes to anything automotive related.

Electronics I know handle and computers I know really well and DIY stuff round my house I can take care of but automotive stuff I'm next to useless.

So anyways I went to Crappy Tire and bought some Monroe Pads and one of them hex keys for my allen wrench thingy to take off the calipers.

with me so far ...good...

So I got the caliper off and replaced what was left of the pad which was about a millimeter left (no wonder my truck wasn't stoppin so well)
and went to put the caliper back on ....

This is where my problem began...

Didn't realize from what I had read that I would need a C-Clamp to push the pistons (hydraulic cylindrical little parts thingies in the caliper) back in to fit the caliper back over the pads.

So ya after a whole lot of prying with a hammer to release the pressure of the brake fluid back up into the lines and get the pistons to go back in I was able to slide the caliper back over the pads and bolt the tire back on and I was done.

Anyways my point is to anyone that has more time than money on their hands that changing the pads on your brakes is not as intimidating as you may think.

Save yourself a couple bucks and do it yourself.

http://carcraft.com/techarticles/p17...mage_small.jpg


P.S. If I don't write in a while it's cause my brakes failed...hehe

You can borrow caliper compressors from PartSource or Crappy Tire to make the job easier, but glad you got it done [img]smile.gif[/img]

lol - when I had my Z28 I got so used to replacing pads I could do both fronts in my driveway with no floor jack in under an hour from jacking it up to the tires hitting the pavement again [img]tongue.gif[/img]

If you take off the top of the brake fluid resevoir it makes it easier to compress the pistons.

I looked online at Crappy Tire for a caliper compressor or similar tool ...can't find anything under 'auto brake tools' any idea what I should be looking for or a price range on those ...I assume they'd be relatively cheap and if so I wouldn't mind picking one up for next time.

Just use a c-clamp big enough to fit over the caliper and a little piece of wood to even out the force going down on it so it doesnt just push in one side.

This works very well!

I did it on my Jetta when changing the front brakes and it saved me alot of time and madness.

Amen to that.

just use a flat screwdriver on the old pads before you pull the caliper just like I've been doing since the beginning of time.....or at least since I first learned how to change brakes.

I hope you didn't forget to use anti-seize on your caliper slides. And the lug bolts before you put your tires back on.

Monster Channel-Lock pliers are popular with Mechanics, since they are fast.

As for the picture of the SSBC brake caliper in your post, I've had a few run-ins with products from that company, and I haven't been very impressed. Missing hardware was the biggest problem, and damn heavy rotors.

Anti Seize on my caliper slides?? that would be all swahili to me ...and ya kinda hard to "forget" to put the lug bolts back on.

Reminds me of a friend I had when I was younger that would always work on his motorbike and somehow there were usually a couple screws left over after he was done working on it and he would just shrug his shoulders and say "oh well must not need them".

Wonder if he's still alive.

As for those lug nuts ...I try not to have parts that have come off not going back on if you know what I mean.