Ford Superduty Brakes and Shocks: DIY?

[Buliwyf]

I just use Silver Anti-Sieze for the caliper pin lube. It's allways worked fine for me.

Never bothered with the anti squeel goo. It's just going to get washed off in the first few puddles anyways. My brakes sometimes squeel a little until they bed in, nothing crazy.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Yep, Power Slots. They make the regular and cryo'd. Spend the money on the cryo'd ones. They will probably be the last rotors you have to buy.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PSR-126-65071CSR/

Jack

I'm seeing some different info out there. Are these the same P/N front and rear? Is this something that you put on the front, and standard rotors on the rear?

 

[locrwln]

I'm seeing some different info out there. Are these the same P/N front and rear? Is this something that you put on the front, and standard rotors on the rear?

Yep, the rear brakes on mine were the original rotors and pads at 96k. The fronts take the abuse/use and were undersized for the GAWR of an F250/350 in '99-'04 Superduties. In '05 they upgraded the brakes and it made a big difference.

This was my normal load.


With occasional loads like this.


Jack

 

[bajajoaquin]

Thanks. I just did a little shopping around and managed to save a few more bucks on the rotors. I also decided to skip the rears for now, and see how they feel. If I'm just keeping them stock, I can run out and buy a set later if I need to.

I appreciate the feedback. I'll post up comments on them and the Bilsteins once I get them installed. Since I have a Baja trip planned for the first week of April, that will be a good deadline and test run.

I've been running around on floppy shocks and pulsing brakes for so long, I'm really looking forward to feeling the difference.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Don't want to rain on the parade...but if you've never done brakes, be prepared for serious elbow grease. Seem to remember that on my 2002 f350 it takes over 100 ft lb of torque for the calipers. 98dango has the rig time allotted just make sure you have the right tools. 102000 on my truck and I turned rotors with no issue. They're pretty solid hunks of metal.

That's good advice. I mentioned my experience in a different post, but I didn't mention that I have a big air compressor and impact gun left over from my auto-racing days. I think I'm pretty well equipped. Space to do the work on the other hand.... I live in a pretty tight urban environment, so I'm going to have to get creative!

 

[Buliwyf]

I've got a step by step with pics here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/63026-Ford-Superduty-build

It was easy. Especially if you know the trick to getting the rear rotors off. My rear brakes were as big as my fronts. Kinda odd. This was good exercise.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Wish I had seen that thread first! I ended up looking at the pads on there, and they were fine, so I didn't replace pads. I took off the whole caliper assembly and didn't touch any of the pins or springs. I will make sure, however, to put in new pins when I do pads, and grease them well. I'm also going to make sure to use your bolt trick on the rear rotors when I do them.

However, I have to say, it was as easy as advertised. It took me longer to run around and get my crap together than it did to actually change the brakes. Turns out that my 1/2" impact wrench didn't have enough juice to crack this stuff loose. I have a 3/4" drive ratchet, but the smallest socket I have is 7/8", and the one I need is 13/16"! But the handle from the floor jack over the 1/2" drive was enough to break everything loose.

I used a ratchet strap to compress the shocks, and everything went on easy. The first wheel took like an hour, and the next one was half that. Now I'm going to go and buy a new steering dampener, too. Since it looks pretty ratty next to my new yellow 'Steins.

Tomorrow I'll do the rear shocks.

Sorry I didn't take any pics, but you really don't need them. You can just take off the wheel, and see what you need to do next. The rotor is held on by the caliper and the wheel, so once you take those off, the rotor just lifts off.

Easy.

Thanks to everyone for the comments and advice. It was really helpful.

 

[Greggk]

Very easy to do shocks. I have Bilstein 5100's on my Superduty and LOVE them. Well spent money there. Haven't done my brakes yet but it's coming up soon.