Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Brake Work Today

Try Wagner company for brake parts. One of the better I have used.

-Ken

Wagner or Raybestos.
One other that eludes me at the moment.

They were the brake suppliers back when you only had one choice
of quality. And it was good.

Bendix ?

Actually I think they were Wagner. I got Power Stops now and they have been good.

Everybody makes 2 or three price/quality levels.

I'm lucky to be friendly with the manager of the parts house.
He's been doing it since the 70's, and is a smart guy.
He knows some things! Even has the whole rack of books on the
counter. And can find something in them in seconds. Along with use the dumb box.

Anyway, their focus is professional. Deliver to garages all day long.

He keeps up with the parts he sells and generally doesn't like to carry
anything that's not at least decent.

If you haven't guessed,
It not a chain.😉

The job on the rears is teaching me lessons. The bolts are sae. The heads are so rusted that you can’t get a socket on them without pounding.

My wife road raced a Mazda RX 3 in the early 80s. The Rx 3 had small brakes for its speed potential (especially after an engine upgrade). Every Saturday after first qualifying, she would change the front pads and rear shoes. She's our brake specialist.

Don't let us slow ya down !

I got the rears done today. The same problem was observed. The pad mounting tabs were seized in the mounting bracket, all four pads. This convinced me to purchase a sand blasting cabinet. I reconditioned the mounting brackets old school with a file wire brush, not again. The power was out when I did the rear brakes. Lots of heavy duty breaker bar action, no power tools. The brakes are very strong now.

Tried my Fusion fronts today.
One was grinding, for a week or two.
Time to get them done.


But, My nuts were swelled, and I couldn't get them off.

So befor i got started, i gphad to buy a 19.5mm socket and 20
new lugnuts.

$45 more.

Reminds me - I need to check out "The Warden"s brake pads, on her truck.
She's got 240K on the originals.
Probably worn out.
I've been trying to get her to be more gentle on the equipment!!!

Funny how some people wear them out, others don't.

Wife and I live in the valley, don't go over mountains much.
Drive like the ex-truckers we are. Barring a stuck caliper, they last a long time.

Have friends that cross a one of the mountains daily.
Or, the poor bastards th at work in Johnstown. Literally, up (and down) a Mountain
both ways. Their brakes don't last long.

Used to work in Chambersburg, had to cross several.
19 years old and driving a manual, I didn't use them much!

I hear ya on some people.

I'm fortunate, my wife is easy on brakes and clutches.

Wow.

I remember wht I hate working on cars.


Didn't get around to the rears until today.
Just gonna change pads. An hour, right?


The pads were seized into the brackets.
Sooo...
Pull the brackets, clean the slide areas, and grease them.
Lucky, bolts came out decent
Silicone grease before reassembly, wanna keep it that way.

Then, the drivers side.
Noticed a missing bolt in the rotor, probably drilled out.
No big deal.

Then!
Only one bolt on the caliper!
WTF?
The Boss (She Who Must be Obeyed) was keeping me company.
So, gave her

the one bolt. Told her what it was called and sent her to
the parts store.

"Which one?"

"Well, Auto Zone, O'Reilly, and advance are within a mile once you get to 30.
The old fashioned Pro type place is 6 miles.

She tried the better one, the pro place.
Nope. Out.

Was just putting the bracket back in when she returned.

Auto Zone fixed her up.
$10 for the whole slider kit.
I needed 1 bolt.


Boy am I glad I saved so much on this job

2x rotors=$80
1 set good pads=$30
1 set house pads=$16
Anti Seize and brake grease and something else pushed it to over $150

Then it was a tool to screw in the rear pistons $10
A tool for the swollen lug nuts <$10
20 new lug nuts <$30.

And $10 for a stupid bolt.

Wonder if I saved a nickle