Replace Front Brake on TJ

GA did pass the time by typing:

The side benefit of doing it yourself is the toys you can afford with the money you save. Like jack stands, jacks, shiny metal tools..mmm shiny tools...

Anyplace in the salt belt.

Both left and right should wear fairly evenly.

That tells me the two pins that the calipers slide on may have some grooves or rust on them. One pad will wear a bit more than the other but if you can see the difference I'd replace those pins. Remember to put a bit of lube on the new ones.

Dunno.. you got drums or discs?

Discs are almost identical to the front except inside the "hat" there is the emergency brake shoe.

Drums are a bit more complex than discs, more fiddly bits and springs that go sproing. But nothing you couldn't do. It also helps if you have a drum brake tool (looks like a wierd set of pliars)

Ooops! I forgot to mention it... I do have rear drum brakes.

Joe.

Servicing the rears means taking out the star wheel adjusters and making sure they turn easy. I find antiseize priceless up here in the salt belt and use it on things like that to keep them free.

A word of warning, only take one side at a time apart on the rear brakes, they have right and left parts that you don't want to mix up.

I also recommend antiseize on the front caliper sliders and slide bolts. This will make the brake wear much evener.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

GA wrote:

Mike Romain did pass the time by typing:

That and mind the star adjuster, the little bugger can develop some SHARP edges.

rilly? ;)

ditto.

GA did pass the time by typing:

Should be similar on yours.

The following tools will help although it can be done with your basic screwdriver and socket (for pressing off the springclips)

Brake spring pliars

Spring clip remover and a differnt springtool. Depending on your budget I'd suggest getting a rebuild kit (new springs, star adjuster, clips)

When you go to take the drum off it may not want to slide off easily, this is caused by a lip that develops on the drum and the emergency brake is actually keeping the pads expanded just enough to catch this lip. The solution is to release the emergency brake cable back at the Y. If your drum has a lip it should be turned.

When you get the guts replaced and are ready to put the drum back on adjust the star wheel out till you can slide on the drum on with a little bit of rubbing. This gets your brake adjustment close to where it belongs. If you leave too much space in there it will take forever to adjust out.

Needless to say, drum brakes are messy, all that brake dust collects inside. a stiff brush will knock most of it off, not much reason to make it factory clean since it just gets dirty again. :)

There isn't any need to push the pistons back in since they return under spring pressure, just don't push the brake with the pads off or the little pistons will go shooting out.