John's vette

Anyone have any good links or some suggestions for any tools needed for a complete brake job. I am changing rotors, pads, and SS brake lines on a '98 C5. Can someone also post the order to bleed brakes on the '98, I understand some years have different orders.

OmVette

I just did mine including new SS hose lines and rebuilt calipers.....

Do a search on here and you will find some good threads.....

Also, if you dont have the Service Manual... well thats a must have! I got mine from Bob at Fitchners and the 109.00 was WELL worth it.....

manny - omvette

John's vette

Tried to buy a service manual couple weeks ago from Bob and the '98 manual is on back order with no estimated shipping date. :cry

Richin Chicago

Through 2000 it is the old standby RR LR RF LF
Get a turkey baster to suck out fluid from the resevoir to speed up the bleeding.

Also make sure you grease the slider pins with hi temp grease. The pins are attached to the nut that holds the 15 MM pin bolts in place. They pull out of the caliper mounting bracket (with boots) Finally use new bolts or clean the very well and reapply loctiite. I torque them to about 30 ft lbs. I believe the manual says 23. But make sure you regrease those slide pins. I have seen too many that corrode and wear out the pads in very short miles.

Also pay attention to the placement of the wear sensor ( the little tab that projects out from the pad and will scrape the rotor when the pads wear out) it goes on the inside of the rotor and should be the last thing to see the rotor on forward rotor rotation. Otherwise you will be getting early wear out indication if the wear out indicator is the first thing to see the rotor.
I'll E_mail you GM's proceedure. But it doesn't show greasing the slide pins.

P.S. http://www.speedbleeder.com is a great help. I also bough their plastic bag and hose. Invaluable if you do frequent bleeding.




[Modified by Richin Chicago, 9:58 AM 7/15/2003]

OmVette

John

Before I had done the whole brake job I was alittle afraid that I may do something wrong which will cause the car to blow up....lol

But now after doing it I realized that its a no brainer...

Plenty of good posts on this site which I had used (even before getting my manuals).

One thing you might want to consider is to buy the Speed Bleeders or the Motive Power Bleeder (which I bough - one man bleed job). I will be bleeding the system tommorrow....

Try doing a search on my posts/replies and it shoudl come up with some helpful posts

Manny - omvette


[Modified by OmVette, 9:54 AM 7/15/2003]

Ron Cleaver

That's what Bob told me when I wanted to order one for my C4. I went to helminc.com and ordered it myself - you can do that now.


[Modified by Ron Cleaver, 11:16 AM 7/15/2003]

John's vette

Any certain brake fluid I should use? Any "special" tools needed?

OmVette

the only special tool I needed was a breaker bat to get those tough bracket bolts off.....they are torqued with locktite!

I also rented a large socket for the removal of the spindle nut (rear tires)....

Hey John... have you taken off or changed pads before? If you have you are almost there...lol

Did you find anything when you searched on this site.... there is a GREAT post with pictures on caliper removal

Richin Chicago

You need a 15 and 16 mm wrench the 15 can be closed but the 16 should be open. You also need some kind of tool to push the piston/s back so the new brake pads will fit. I use a very large set of water pump pliers and one of the old pads against the pistons. Push them in so they are flush and you'll have a lot easier time putting the assembly back together.
For fluid I use super blue. I love the stuff it has no discoloration od bubbles after a very hard day at the track. It also has little afinity for wateer so you can keep it in for quite some time:

http://www.shotimes.com/SHO3brakefluid.html



http://www.autotechnic.net/store/asp...asp?product=70





[Modified by Richin Chicago, 1:38 PM 7/15/2003]

SweetSavannah

Go here! http://www.z06vette.com/forums/showt...ad+replacement

Front:

Tools needed:

Jack & jacking puck(s)
Torque wrench
Breaker bar (w/ pipe extension for handle)
screw driver
15 & 18 mm sockets (for caliper guide pins/pad replacement only))
21 mm socket (for caliper bolts)
C-clamp (or other device to push pistons back into sleeves
8 in box or wire hanger (to support caliper after removal)

If you're doing both rotors and pads, you won't need to remove the caliper guide pins, so you won't need the 15 & 18mm wrenches.

Follow the instructions at the URL above.

Some additional hints:

The screwdriver is to remove the rotor retention clips, if they're still there. Put the blade against one of the flanges and tap it loose (counterclockwise). After a quarter turn or so, you can turnit with your hand. Chuck it! It was only there on the assembly line to keep the rotor straight.

The breaker bar and pipe extension are because the typical torque wrench (Sears) won't fit in the wheel well unless the car is up on a lift (AARRGGHH!).
Since the breaker bar is usually shorter than the torque wrench, it will. You'll need all the extension you can get to loosen the caliper bolts which are on at 125 ft lbs.

Once you've loosened the caliper bolts, use the C-clamp to push the piston(s) back a little so the caliper slides off the rotor more easily. Support it with the hanger or box. If you're doing new pads, push 'em back all the way. Loosen the fluid reservoir cap to make it a little easier. If the pads are old, suck a little fluid from the reservoir or it'll overflow when you push the pistons back. Big mess!

IMO you can re-loctite the bolts or not. The old loctite will still likely provide some resistance to backing off. If you get 'em back on aat 125 ft lbs, they won't be loosening on their own.

Drink a beer when you're done to replace the fluids you lost sweating.

davidfarmer

OmVette
You didn't take the axle nuts off just to get your tires off, I hope??????????

OmVette

--------------------
OmVette
You didn't take the axle nuts off just to get your tires off, I hope??????????
------------------


hey david....

Yes, but not for the tires, I did for the rears in order to take off the hub..if I understood your question correctly.... Axle nuts (spindle nuts) are on my rears and hold the rear hub to the halfshaft.....

I took the hubs off to seat new wheel/lug bolts. I figure I was in there anyways...yes Im ****..lol


[Modified by OmVette, 12:38 PM 7/16/2003]


[Modified by OmVette, 12:39 PM 7/16/2003]

John Shiels

get a 16 MM open end to hold the guide pin. Better than pliers :thumbs:

John Shiels

:eek:

put the old pad on the pistons then the c clamp or huge channel locks. You may want to get some caliper rebuild kits, they are real cheap.