Replacing Brakes - Installing Caliper & Brake Pads

Richard Cottingham: My name is Richard Cottingham, from Tysons Auto Specialties. Today we are going to show you how to replace the front brake pads and rudders on this Chevy pickup truck. Next we are going to install the rudders and the pads and finish our brake job.

So, next Rolando is going to put the rudder, the new rudder on to the hub. He is going to use a lug nut to hold the rudder in place so that it doesn't flop around when we are trying to install the pad holder and the pads and caliper. We are going to install our pads under our pad holder. We are going to do it on the workbench.

First, we will apply just a light coat of lubricant to the pad holder. We can also put just a light coat on the inside where the flat part of the pad rides up against it. So first we will install one pad on one side and then we will move to the other. Install one pad on this, and you can do this while it's on the car or you can do it off the car, I prefer to do it off the car because a lot of time it's easier, there we go.

Well, if you have pads on there like that, make sure they move freely, we are going to bring it over to the truck and we are going to install on the car. Alright, next Rolando is going to put the pad holder in the pads, on to the truck, he will install the bolts that hold it to the knuckle. For any bolts that you are not sure of how to tighten or how much to tighten, whether it's lugging up for your wheel or bolt for your pad holder or the caliper pins for the caliper, you should consult a manual that will give you the proper torque specs.

Rolando has been doing this for quite some time so he is able to do jobs like this without necessarily having to consult a reference manual for the torque specs. Right, now he has got those tight, so next we will install the caliper. But first we will apply a little bit of disc brake Lubricant to the back of each pad which helps to cut down on squealing. He is applying the disc brake Lubricant to the back of the pads, you want to apply enough to provide some lubricating quality, to keep it from squealing but you want to be careful not to apply too much because you don't want to run on to the surface of your pad or on to the surface of your rudder. We should be detrimental to proper braking.

Next, he is going to put the caliper back on to the vehicle. Be careful with your calipers so you don't stretch the brakers or hang them by the brakers, if you can't find a place to let them rest while you are working on it, like the upper control arm, you can take like a bungee cord and tie them up so they are not putting pressure on the brakers. Now he is going to tighten the slide pins and the caliper bolts. Once he has those getting tight, we will lower the vehicle and we will bleed the brakes. When we bleed the brakes, what we are doing is we are removing the air from the brake system because when you have air in your brake system, you wind up compressing the air which allows your brake pedal to travel too far and you don't want any air in your brake system because you can't compress the fluid and that allows you too get the contact from your brake pedal through your caliper.

So that's how we install the rudders and the pads and the caliper back on the vehicle. Next we are going to bleed the brakes.