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Saturday, October 14, 2006

I haven't been taking very good care of my cars, I guess, and managed to run down the front brake pads on my 1993 Eurovan all the way to the metal. I ordered some replacement pads that arrived on Tuesday, but when I went out to replace the pads I found out the wrong ones had shipped. However, since I was already thinking about the job, I decided to go ahead and pull the old ones off. The job is supposed to be very simple: just pull the tire, remove a wire retaining spring, drive out two pins, replace pads, put it all back together, maybe 20 minutes of time.

Ha! Everything went smooth until I tried to drive out the two little pins. Tap tap tap. Wham Wham Wham. Oil oil oil. Wham wham wham. Oh oh, head of pin is starting to mushroom. Try the air gun. Nope. Put more WD-40 on the pins and let it sit until today. I received the correct brake pads yesterday, but I spent most of the evening replacing the rear pads on the 2003 Eurovan. I tried every trick in the book to get the pins out, including heating them up to the point the caliper piston dust cover started to smoke. Nothing. I finally decided I was going to have to remove the brake carrier from the car and separate it from the caliper so that I could get the piece up on a work bench where I could heat it up without worrying about ruining any of the rubber bits, or, worst case, cut the pins off and drill them out of the brake carrier. So, I removed the large bolts that hold the carrier onto the wheel, removed the two bolts that hold the caliper onto the carrier, and learned that the carrier and caliper won't come apart without unbolting the caliper into its two halves. But wait, these are not regular bolts, they are 12-point socket bolt, and I don't have a wrench that will fit it. So, off to Sears on the motorcycle in 40 degree weather since Philip got his drivers license today and took the only other vehicle that runs to work. Guess what? Sears doesn't make or sell multipoint socket wrenches. Now what? The closest autoparts store open this late on a Saturday is too far to ride on the motorcycle without freezing, but Home Depot might have something. I rode over there, and sure enough, they didn't have anything either. Argh! Back to the garage and I inspect the caliper some more and decide that if I remove the outside brake pad it looks like I may be able to get the carrier apart from the caliper. The only way to remove the outside pad is to cut the metal away where the pins go through the pad. I got one side cut through when my dremel tool cutting disk broke. Frustrated pretty much out of my mind, I decided to give the right side of the vehicle a go. The pins on that side were a bit frustrating, but I was able to drive them out eventually. I had to clean them up some with a file, but I put anti-seize compound on them and put the right side back together with the new pads. Took an hour or less. Why won't the other side come apart?! Found another dremel tool cutting disk and cut the brake pad all the way out, only to find out that even though the carrier and caliper come much further apart then they used to, I still can't get the carrier to fit through the opening in the caliper. I guess I will have to find the special tool after all, which means I have to give up on the job for tonight. The picture below shows the offending pins (with the mushrooming ends) stuck in the brake carrier (the fixed part of the brake that bolts to the back of the wheel hub), the caliper that free floats and has the piston in it that compresses the brake pads against the rotor, and on the top of the caliper you can see the edge of three of the four multi-point bolts that will have to come out to be able to break the caliper into two pieces. Once in two pieces I should be able to get the carrier out and to a location where I can get the pins out. The whole contraption is normally at the front side of the rotor, but I have it sitting on top of the rotor since the carrier is unbolted, and I don't want to disconnect the brake fluid hoses if I don't have to.

2 comments
Comments:
I wanted a quick read while I was waiting for time to go to church with Alejandra and her three girls. (Lupita went to Yuma today.) This was not a quick read. But it held my interest in spite of the new vocabulary. Sorry it didn't have a better ending.
 
Well, the ending got better. I found the tool at AutoZone after church on Sunday, and spent the afternoon getting the brake carrier out of the caliper and into a vise where I could work on it without worrying about bending it. Got it all done except for putting the hubcap on and putting the tools away before evening church services. Finished up after church and took the van for a test drive. Drove it to work today. Great to have it back on the road.
 
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