OK, disk brakes complete; now some questions

Well, I did my first ever front disk brake job. I had done older car drum
brakes, but never tackled front disk. Job went fairly well, and the car will
now 'stop on a dime and give you nine cents change' as a old friend used to
say.

A few observations and questions about today's job:

1) I could not jack from the front using the K member. This car is a 1988
Shelby Lancer, and the Ground Effects from the front wont allow a floor jack to
go too far underneath. I jack up one side at a time using the frame rail, and
placed a jack stand under the K member per each side. Seemed to work OK, but
the car creaked and moaned as I jacked.

2) The LUG NUTs used to have some crome caps on them, and most of the caps are
long gone. This makes using a 3/4, or 19mm socket, and/or lug wrench DIFFICULT.
I used a rag as a 'spacer', and it worked for the most part, but I am a bit
uncomfortable about the lug wrench slipping during an emergency tire change.
Any tips, or suggestions here?

3) My procedure was to open the bleeder, use my one man bleeder kit, and re-set
the caliper using a re-set tool. Seemed to work well.

4) The anti rattle clip on the passenger side was much different than the
driver's side??? I hope I got them on right???? The car does indeed stop great
and no squeels, or squeeks.....

Any comments, advice, or suggestions are appreciated!


Bill
88 Lancer Shelby
91 LeBaron Convertible
01 Chevy Impala LS

 

First thing you should do is replace all the capless lugnuts with
new ones. This should ease your mine about emergency changes.
You do NOT have to open the bleeder valve when you are just
replacing pads. Use a large C-clamp and squeeze the piston back in -
slowly.

Congrats on doing the job yourself.

 

As far as lug nuts go, I replaced those capped things after experienced
the same problems you did, they kept slipping. I replaced them with
solid "monster" ones, they look pretty much the same, but they are solid
one-piece units, not capped, and they only cost $1.50/piece at the local
parts store, while the OEM Capped ones cost $3.00. Anyhow, been using
those monster ones for two years now, through the many tire rotations
and brake jobs (that car gets 40,000mi/year, so the wheels come off a
lot), not one has slipped or stripped yet.

Ken