Love/Hate my truck

[NM_Shooter]

Had a brake shoe fail on my truck's rear axle yesterday.  Was going to just replace the pads, but the rotor got torn up.  Rotor was frozen on the hub, so had to heat it with a torch and whack it with a hammer to get it off.  The other one was similarly frozen, but no amount of heat and hammer was going to release it.  I bought a new rotor, and heavy brake pads for $140.  Went home, put one side back together, and noticed that the other caliper had the piston seals torn up.  Went back to the store, bought two calipers.  Had to tear off the side that I had reassembled to put the new caliper on.  I love doing stuff twice, don't you?

A one hour, $60 job turned into 4 hours and $250.   At least the truck didn't fall on me.  Not keen on having one new / one old rotor on the back, but the old one has never been cut and is still pretty smooth.  Now that the truck is back together I can break that rotor loose, but I'm going to let this ride for a few miles and see how the brakes wear in. 

And I only had 120000 miles on those back brakes.  They just don't make 'em like the used to!   

[Don_P]

as long as we're telling truck tales. I traded farm use trucks with our mason, he needed a parts Ford which I had and I was enamored of his parked '89 Dodge. The steering was shot in the dodge but I have an old '76 parts truck. So I got the chainsaw out, cut the trees that had begun to encircle it and dove under the '76, stole the power steering gearbox and pump. I pulled his unit off and it took some righteous pounding and a 12 ton jack in a homemade arbor press to get the arm off of it but got it free. I had to cut the arm off the '76's box. Finally got it reassembled before work Monday morning and hopped in to back it into the turnaround and take it down to the barn. It went across the drive just about opposite of where I wanted to go  . Must have forgotten to attach something. Hit the parking brake, opened the door and looked under while turning the wheel right, the wheels turned left. Turned the steering wheel left, the tires turned right. By this time Michelle is down below waiting on me so we can go to work. She claimed it looked like a clown circus as I made my way down the drive dodging back and forth between ditches. The chickens almost lost a home and at the last second the barn stepped out of the way. I'm beginning to think those gearboxes are not interchangeable.

[fishing_guy]

It only took me 23+ years to perfect the brake job.

The solution:  Marry my daughter to a diesel mechanic.  He can do a brake job (including rotors) in about 15 minutes.
It also helps that we have a junkyard that you can pick up pads and rotors for under $80 per axle.  We just put new rotors in now just to prolong the life of the brakes now.

I used to dread it.  Now I look forward to new brakes.

Sorry you only got 120,000 of that set.

[MountainDon]

...... I'm beginning to think those gearboxes are not interchangeable.

       great story

[NM_Shooter]

Whoops.  Wrong forum.  Apologies!

[NM_Shooter]

Hey Fishing guy... does your son in law have any brothers?

[fishing_guy]

Nope.  I told my daughter that if she ever divorces him, he stays...she goes...lol.

[CjAl]

i just chanved the original rear shoes on my suburban. 210k mi.




of course the rear brakes havent worked since it had 90k. mi. on it. lol