Brakes stuck at one wheel

[Samarath]

Brakes seem to be frozen at the right rear wheel after sitting for a few months. You guys have a golden procedure for whacking on them to break them loose? Hydraulic disc brakes. Wabco.

 

[Tin Roadtube Vagrant]

Yooper salt-lick country!

Maaaybe pin or pry bar into pad arena if you even can get there. Otherwise, throw some gentle blows against the safe side of the caliper to see if it upsets the flash-rust. If you’re fortunate enough to get it loose, use a heat scan gun to monitor how hot it gets once you're on the highway. You may have a chronic sticker/drag'r @ this caliper.

Paranoia tip.... I'm in your boat. Don't use metallic pads up here in salt country unless you can see the tiny flakes of drum (rotor) conditioning metal in the pads are brass/bronze tone and not ferrous metal. You don't want to add to your woes by having rust-glue imbedded in your pad too.

.... and now 6 people will come on and say you can't tap a caliper or touch a pad......

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Pull the caliper off if you can. Grease the slide pins.

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Don’t pry on your pads. Don’t hammer on your calipers.

 

[mmoore6856]

Don’t pry on your pads. Don’t hammer on your calipers.

yes this can cause unseen damage

lots of wd 40 or similar type penetrating oil give it time to work. if you must use a hammer use a dead blow(plastic) or rubber. this will happen again as your sliders on the calipers must be lubricated. never powerwash your calipers. its easy to relube them

 

[Samarath]

Thanks guys. I did tap on it a little, and it broke loose. I didnt really wait for a reply before trying to figure it out, but in the future I wont use a regular hammer, and it sounds like I need to figure out gow to do some routine maintenance. Ive replaced the HCU, but Ive never jacked up the bus to work on anything.

Thanks again

 

[Tin Roadtube Vagrant]

Aces man!, real world situations call for real solutions. It's how we roll in field service, "just get it to the shop and we'll fix it there".

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Any good YouTube video showing how to replace the pads will go through the cleaning and lubrication procedure. Not hard. Just make sure the axle is securely supported and the wheels are well chocked before you go wrenching on the bolts.

 

[Samarath]

Any good YouTube video showing how to replace the pads will go through the cleaning and lubrication procedure. Not hard. Just make sure the axle is securely supported and the wheels are well chocked before you go wrenching on the bolts.

So, im the jerk that hasnt gotten his bus on a scale yet. If I am only working on one wheel at a time, a 12 ton jack stand should suffice right? I can wait until harbor freight gets a shipment in on friday for a set of 22ton jack stands. What do you guys normally use? I am also considering getting a 1 inch impact for the lugz. I think I can run my air compressor with my little gas generator. I wonder if a 1500lb impact (170$ at harbor freight) can break the lugz loose.

 

[mmoore6856]

A 12 ton will work as that's all I carry but block your wheels and if your not on hard pavement use a large pad

 

[Danjo-SKO]

When I’m working under a vehicle I always have a secondary safety in case it comes off the stand. I prefer timbers or a big round cut off a log.

 

[mmoore6856]

When I’m working under a vehicle I always have a secondary safety in case it comes off the stand. I prefer timbers or a big round cut off a log.

I read a big round bale of hay at first. Yea this is a must as I have seen Jack's fail. I did buy some Jack stands that I use

 

[Samarath]

Now for the actual work

Okay, tomorrow my plan is to gas up the generator and then go to an empty dead end road down the way. I think that if I get started early enough, I should be done by noon or so, and maybe noone will have had time to complain by then. I hitched a ride to a dealership in Manchester NH and picked up a new caliper and pads. I couldnt hitch with a rotor, and honestly, the caliper and pads were plenty heavy. Today I picked up some jack stands and will ve working on asphalt, but I doubt I will find any big logs for redundant safety. I also picked up a 1inch impact and sockets at harbor freight, and I am hoping that my 10g compressor will push it through a 3/8" hose enough to break the lugs loose. I have been soaking them repeatedly with wd40 for a couple of days now. My plan is to get the caliper swapped out, bleed the brakes, and creep to a local shop and see if they will torque my lugs properly. I cant find material on the torque values for the wheels or the caliper, but I think I read that the wheels should be torqued at 450#. I have all kinds of info on the brake system, but it only applies to the hcu, master cylinder, parking brake valve, and vbeeding procedures etc. It stops short of the xalipers. I watched a couple of videos, but they seem to skim past the details often.

My brakes are a wabco system and I just got a fleetrite caliper. I know the bleeder goes at the top, and I am sure that I can get the old one off(famous last words?), but if anyone can point me towards a proper manual for this, I would be grateful. I certainly cant afford to mess anything up through ignorance.

If all goes well, we can drive into manchester for our core return on the old caliper and maybe grab a new rotor. The next time I have it apart I will dig deeper into the axle, bearings, wheelplay etc, but right now I just need her to roll....lol

If anyone is nearby and has a driveway we can do the work in, let me know!

 

[Danjo-SKO]

450#?!

Are you sure?

Have you found a video that shows how to do these particular brakes?

On all the disc brakes I’ve ever done, a C clamp is used to gently push the piston back in.

I’ve also never bled brakes unless there’s air in the line. Just Take the cap off the master cylinder when you push the piston in. Keep an eye that it doesn’t overflow. It will eat the paint.

Do you need to disassemble the bearing race to replace the disc? If so, you’ll need bearing grease and a new cotter pin.

Make sure you know what parts of this apply in your instance and that you have learned the procedure before you start. It’s all on YouTube.

Brake cleaner is also very helpful. Do Mother Nature a favor and put a plastic bag full of rags under the wheel to catch the drippings.

And be careful wrenching on that thing with it only on a jack stand. You don’t want it coming down on you!

If you haven’t worked through the details it’s best to wait until you know exactly all the steps.

My 2 cents.

Good luck

 

[Danjo-SKO]

And bring lots of rags and rubber gloves if you have some

 

[mmoore6856]

Years ago there was a manual impact tool called a knocker. I used one about 45 years ago but have not seen any lately

 

[BarnYardCamp]

Brake work should be done by the axle. Don't replace the pads/shoes on just one side. That includes any brake work. Rotors/drums, calipers, wheel cylinders. If you do one side, do the other.
If you disassemble any parts that requires the system to need "bleeding" don't push the brake pedal all the way to the floor. Even if you do not have to "bleed" the system, you will still need to pump the brake pedal a few times to push the pads against the rotors. Again, don't mash the brake pedal to the floor. Doing so could damage the seals in the brake cylinder when they travel beyond their normal range.

edit; don't handle the friction surfaces with your bare hands, you don't want grease/grime on those surfaces.
New rotors may have a oily residue on them from the factory, clean that off with "Brake Clean". I also hit those surfaces with a little sand paper.

 

[powderskier]

If you are going to remove the wheels you are good with a 1" strong bar and a 4 or 6 ft pipe.
If the rims are frozen to the hubs loosen all wheel lug nuts but just a thread or 2 loose drive back and forth turning the steering wheel. Old Indian trick I learnt. saved hours of beating to get the rims loose. I would jack up one wheel at a time I use 2 10 ton Jacks and alternate between them jacking up the axle. putting the tire back on using a shovel to lever the tire up the last inch or so onto the studs works great. Have fun and learn and while you're under there clean everything up real nice. While it's jacked up and pressure is off everything grease all zircs. That's how I would do it anyway. Also apply no sieze to all parts off the inside rim that mate up with the hub. It'll save you time next time.

 

[Samarath]

450#?!

Are you sure?

Have you found a video that shows how to do these particular brakes?

On all the disc brakes I’ve ever done, a C clamp is used to gently push the piston back in.

I’ve also never bled brakes unless there’s air in the line. Just Take the cap off the master cylinder when you push the piston in. Keep an eye that it doesn’t overflow. It will eat the paint.

Do you need to disassemble the bearing race to replace the disc? If so, you’ll need bearing grease and a new cotter pin.

Make sure you know what parts of this apply in your instance and that you have learned the procedure before you start. It’s all on YouTube.

Brake cleaner is also very helpful. Do Mother Nature a favor and put a plastic bag full of rags under the wheel to catch the drippings.

And be careful wrenching on that thing with it only on a jack stand. You don’t want it coming down on you!

If you haven’t worked through the details it’s best to wait until you know exactly all the steps.

My 2 cents.

Good luck

Wheel-Ends: Torque Your Nuts

Maybe this is applicable to something else, but I am still reading. The lugs are 33mm with that flange lock thing behind them. I am a little ignorant, but I will wait to start the job until I am certain. I had to hitch a ride to get the caliper and pads, and so I couldnt have carried a rotor, much less the hardware for both wheels.

I ordered a torque multiplier from home depot. It should be there within a week or so, so I guess I have some time to do some more reading. I am replacing a caliper, and so there will be air in the system unless i am mistaken somehow. I have a pressure bleeder to put 30psi on the system during that procedure as well as software to release the pressure in the brake circuits.

I will call the dealership and see if they xan give me any specifics on this as well ..

Heres a pic in case someone knows it all!

I was going to clean up the rail that the pads slide on with a scotchbrite pad, grease the pins, slap it together, put the wheels back on the best I can, and then crawl next door and see if they xan torque the lugs to spec. My torque wrench only goes to 250#.

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Excuse me if I missed it in a previous post, what bus do you have?