And there was no response from the brakes...

All in all it turned out well, but there were some harrowing initial moments when I first pulled out into the cul de sac and the pedal registered absolutely no response from the brakes! Panic. Pumping. Pulling of the e-brake. And then the cylinders engaged appropriately.

This is the tale of my home brake job.

 First off, shout out to AutoAnything for once again delivering my stuff quickly and in time to make good use of this weekend to tackle a job of unknown duration given my varying competency. I ended up going with Powerstop brake kits front and rear. I was a little nervous because the drop down had an option for 4WD 4.0 v6 for the front but no option for the rear excepting the 2WD 4.0 v6. I assumed there might not be that much variation between my 2WD brethren and my truck in the rear axle but that there might be some variation owing to the presence of the drive shafts in the 4WD configuration. It turned out that worry was all for naught.

I got the truck jacked up all around with jack stands on the frame for the front and on the rear axle to support the aft end. I was a bit worried because there was another kit that didn't seem to make a distinction between the sizing of the pads but my kits came with two different sized pads. I thought this made sense as the majority of the stopping power is concentrated at the front of the vehicle, but it created some apprehension all the same. There were also two of the eight pads that had an extra metalic tab that I still don't know what purpose it served, but I do know now that they both occurred, on my vehicle at least on the passenger sides front and rear to the insides of the rotors. On the front passenger pad, the tab is in the lower position, and for the rear passenger pad, the tab is in the upper position. For these reasons, I wanted to have quick access to all four wheel assemblies if I needed to make a quick investigation.

 These wishbones were only on the front assemblies. When I did my first one, I accidentally left it out. D'oh. Went back and put it in.

 I'm not at all certain why I took this picture. I do, however still see a lot of mud even after 3 rinsings. It is making me reconsider my affinity for splashing through big mud. The majority of the job of changing the rotors and pads in this instance was actually focused on cleaning the components and removing the grit and such out of the way. The work itself was straight forward as the numerous people polled had responded to me to indicate.

 The first pad I encountered had this little tab.

 I also polled some folks on the benefits of slotted/drilled/combination rotors as they pertain to our trucks. I am aware of the marketing and the appeal it has for racers. I don't race my truck. I also wondered if those little holes and slots might entrain mud and debris and become a liability. I haven't heard anything to that effect; so, I decided to give them a go. They do a cost a premium over original equipment manufacturer equivalents, but I figured it was worth it considering the cost that would have been paid to a shop to recondition my existing rotors and furnish new pads. It was appearing to be about the same cost if not a bit cheaper to approach installing a performance set myself. I retained the stock rotors as this was the first brake job and they appeared to be in good condition even after having gone over 100,000 miles in the original configuration. The brakes only started to give the wear indication on the return trip from Ivy Branch. I had initially hoped maybe a pebble or some other debris had gotten wedged in somewhere inappropriate.

 But a comparison of the newly installed pads versus this removed pad shows that I didn't have very much material remaining.

 I had just finished the passenger side and moved my setup over to the driver side. The front half gave me all sorts of trouble. The larger caliper bolts were very well seized up. I hit them blaster and they still wouldn't budge. I got a torque wrench for some extra leverage. No budging. I couldn't initially get my electric impact into position as I had the wheels aligned straight forward. I wrestled with it some more with a ratchet before suddenly the wheel hub turned. My Dad had come by to make sure I hadn't killed myself. Then he asked, "Do you think  your gun will fit now?"

It turns out it did, but it still  wouldn't budge. I flashed back to my failed attempt at putting the OME shocks on when the lower shock mount wouldn't budge. I hit it one more time with the PB blaster, and after a 30 second effort with the impact gun, it finally broke free. I was about 30 more seconds from getting the propane torch and heating that mamma jamma up.

 I took the opportunity to PB blaster the remaining three assemblies one more time.

 It definitely helped here.

The rear, by comparison was cake. Whereas I had read that one might need to beat on the rotors to break them free (and beat I did; initially with a rubber mallet before moving onto my 10lb handheld shorty sledge), the rear driver required minimal coaxing and the rear passenger willingly availed itself to my simply grasping the rotor and drawing it near to my bosom. I don't know why I chose to use that imagery. It was easy. I should just say that the rear passenger was easy.

Anyway, it took some time being cautious and deliberate with cleaning the parts and applying the brake grease to the various areas to which it is recommended for application. It came time for the moment of truth and to start the break in period.

I already foreshadowed it, but just know that there was a frantic 5 seconds where I was staring down my neighbor's mailbox and had terrible visions of it crashing through my windshield and being pummeled with junk mail. Fortunately, it did not come to that.

The brake job was not a bad job. The truck stops well. I tested them all the way to my mom's and back. They will get their true test soon enough.

-will