Help with brakes

[nc-grayson]

Greetings,

I just finished reassembly of everything after a lengthy valve cover gasket and goodies replacement. I put in an hour here and there when I could. I had planned on doing the 231mm tundra upgrade during the downtime, but came to a halt when I couldn't get the caliper mounting bolts free, so I stopped the brakes and focused on the valve covers only.

Anyways, I made it as far to remove the brake line from the stock caliper, turkey basted dirty fluid from master cylinder, and topped off with fresh fluid. I put everything back together when I got hung up on the caliper mounting bolts.

I now have virtually no brakes. Everything with the valve cover gasket job went smoothly, now I just don't have any brakes!

I'm just trying to get the brakes in decent enough order to where I feel safe enough to drive to a shop for them to do the tundra upgrade. Where should I start?

I don't see how I could have gotten air in the master cylinder, but I could be wrong. My initial thought was I just have some air in the line, but my drivers front wheel was the ONLY one I touched during the quick time I was on the brakes....yet it feels like neither the front not the rear have any braking power.

The brake pedal is all the way at the floor and still ridiculously unsafe to drive over 10 mph.

I know nothing about brakes, this is my first brake job ever. I guess the driver front could just need a good bleeding? Just don't want to bleed the entire system now if I'm going to have to pay someone to do it when they do the TBU...

Where should I start!?!? Thanks in advance folks!

 

[cashmoney]

You've got air in the lines. Bleed the entire system. Brake fluid is cheap.

 

[jhfleet]

Greetings,


Anyways, I made it as far to remove the brake line from the stock caliper, turkey basted dirty fluid from master cylinder, and topped off with fresh fluid. I put everything back together when I got hung up on the caliper mounting bolts.

You introduced air into the system when you removed the brake line from the caliper.

 

[Rocky5000100]

Air in brake lines. Buy a mityvac system, it's about $30 and makes bleeding easy. I just did mine the other day in under 15 minutes. You'll need a few bottles of brake fluid.

 

[nc-grayson]

Thanks all for the speedy replies! I've already got enough fluid on hand for the planned TBU. I was just hoping I could get out of bleeding the entire system if I'm just going to have to do it again.

Damnit, I need some impact tools.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Buy yourself a breaker bar and get back at it! A little penetrating oil like Liquid Wrench soaked overnight helps too.

Search results for: 'breaker bar'

If you have one and it still won't come off, introduce a little heat and literally stomp on the bar. It'll come loose.

 

[cashmoney]

Best penetrating fluid bar none is a 50/50 mix of acetone and transmission fluid. Mix it in a spray bottle or in a paint can and brush it on. The acetone dries and draws the fluid in to the pours. Tore apart dad's 77 bronco with nothing but ratchets using that stuff and every bolt on there was rusted.

I'll also second the breaker bar. My personal one is an 18" 1/2" and I bought a 24" piece of black iron pipe from home depot in case I need even more leverage. Works like a champ every time and I own multiple impacts. Sometimes nothing beats good old fashioned leverage and muscle.

 

[nc-grayson]

so the whole downtime process was about two full weeks. I soaked the bolts in pb blaster 3x a day for the 3 days leading up to the "job". Still no luck.

I guess a trip to the hardware store for a cheater pipe not be the worst idea...

 

[cashmoney]

Never a bad idea to get more tools. Especially as something as handy as a cheater pipe.

 

[nc-grayson]

Rode my bike to the hardware store and came back in 10 minutes with a 3 foot cheater bar and we're in business!

Only problem is......is that the rotor is frozen to the hub. I've beat on it with a hammer and rubber mallet to no avail. It's soaking in PB blaster now, I'll give it a whack in a few minutes. Any other suggestions if that doesn't work out?

Also, anybody know if I'll be able to trim the dust shields with some tin snips? Or anybody know what gauge thickness the dust shields are?

 

[cashmoney]

Get a bigger hammer and beat on it front and back. Maybe a little heat as well. I hate frozen parts. Everything I take apart gets put back together with a healthy coat of anti-seize.

Dust shield can be trimmed with tin snips no issues.

 

[animator]

Those bolts are torqued to I believe 80 ft/lbs, which isn't a lot with a decent breaker bar. Also worth noting they need to go back on at 80 ft/lbs, so if you don't have an appropriate torque wrench, get one. Brakes aren't something to go "eh.. good enough..." on. Do it right or let someone else do it right for you.


As said, air gets into the lines any time you pull the line off. They need to be bled. The process has been posted here and should be able to be found with a search.