First brake job..........suggestions, tips, ect..........

[schubee]

I'll be conducting my first brake job this weekend. I'll be replacing pads, resurfacing rotors, changing fluid, and bleeding. What suggestions or tips would you guys have for a rookie? Thanks in advance for your comments.



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John
'81SC Targa

[bpcsguru]

get a power bleeder. Pelican carries them for around $40 I think. Will make bleeding A LOT easier

Boris

[wckrause]

If the caliper dust boots are torn, or if you see any seepage, take your caliper pistons out and clean them and the calipers up. Replace the seal and dust boots. It's a very easy and cheap job, and there is an great tech article on it, and a lot of helpful threads.


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Bill Krause
'79 911SC Euro

[fred hannah]

i just replaced my pads last week. i have the old calipers(are or something like that) they were real dirty. i took some high temp red paint and painted them, dont know how long the paint will last but they looked real good when i was finished. make sure if you paint them you dont get any brake fluid on the new paint, it will remove it. good luck

[pbs911]

Since the rotors will be off, take a good look at the bearing. It's a good time wash them in solvent and then repack. Also take a close look at the brake lines for signs of wear. If you remove a brake line be sure to use a hex wrench to prevent stripping. When bleeding start at the right rear, then left rear, then right front and left front. Good luck and have fun.


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Paul
78SC Targa

[9eleven]

If that were my car, and I were that deep into the braking system, I would rebuild the calipers, too (unless they have recently been rebuilt).

Its incredibly cheap and easy to do. Basically, just pop the pistons out with compressed air, clean everything up, replace the seals and put it back together. Truly a no-brainer.

Then you will have a *complete* brake job done!

[joehahn]

How do you get the piston out? I was in Schubees position a week ago and got 1 pad out. Went to get the next out and it was difficult. I then realized that I couldn't get the old pad back in it's place. After a while it went back in but not easily. The tech article and threads make it sound as if it is just a walk in the park (just like shift rod seal!).

How do you seperate the pistons? What prevents the pistons from clamping down on the new pad and simply pressing against the rotor? I know I am not explaining this very well but I guess what I am asking is if the old pad is half as thick as the new pad, and the old pad is already almost touching rotor, doesn't it stand to reason that the new pad will be tighter and stick to rotor? I don't get it and obviously know nothing about this procedure. Do the pistons adjust to the pad saize? I have M calipers

[wckrause]

You have to pry the pistons back into the caliper. This can be done with a long stout srewdriver or small pry bar. After you pry them back, you can put the new pads in, and then they will adjust to the new pad size when you first pump the pedal. The pistons are self adjusting. The pads should still lightly contact the rotor after you lift off of the pedal.

To get the pistons out is relatively simple if you have a source of compressed air. The tech article describes it pretty well, but be careful cause those pistons can shoot out with a lot of force.

I have never done any brake work before in my life, and was able to rebuild all 4 calipers following the tech article and some advice on this board. The hardest part was getting the calipers off of the car.

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Bill Krause
'79 911SC Euro

[9eleven]

Here's how I do it.
Using a piece of wood, hold one piston in place while you carefully apply pressed air to the caliper. That will blow the other piston out.
I then clean up/"rebuilt" that side. Insert the piston back in place. Now, holding the "rebuilt" piston in place with the wood, blow out the other one and repeat.
The brakes are self-adjusting, in that they will compensate for the thicker new brake pads. The piston simply runs deeper in the caliper when you put in new pads. As the pads wear, the pistons just keep expanding outward in their bores to compensate. Its all self adjusting on a 911 (unlike some other cars, like the 914, that use a different style of rear handbrake mechanism and DO need to be adjusted).

[Drago]

Remove a couple of ounces of the old brake fluid from the master cylinder so you don't overflow the system when pressing the piston back into the caliper to make room for the new pads.

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Marc
'86 944 NA

[joehahn]

...is it O.K. to use a screwdriver or something like it to spread piston? Will that damage rotor? Any wood that I could stick in there was ultimately too flimsy to spread them.

Note: brake are fine/firm, just pad wear is starting to cause squeal in front.

[fred hannah]

take a c clamp to squeeze the piston back in. ive done this 20 or 30 times on many different cars and trucks and it works great.