It'll be neat to hear your impressions after you've had them awhile and see how they wear.

I thought it interesting that you would still pack the bearings with grease when you're allowing the gear oil to get in there now. Why not just use gear oil alone?

Also, for me the paper gasket for the axle drive flange works the best. I find that I have to remove the flanges/axles from time-to-time and silicone is annoying to have to clean off after each teardown. The (very inexpensive - less than $2 each at your local dealership or internet supplier) paper gaskets don't leak when faced with gear oil. I've tried other stuff too (aviation flange sealer, Permatex 2B [which works good, but it's that prep to remove it for new 2B when reassembling that makes it only good], etc.) and the paper gasket wins in my book.

 

I used the paper gasket on the front's, my friend, who is a ASE tech, said to use the RTV on the rear, he has it in a caulk gun.
The last time I had mine apart was 60k ago, when I last did wheel bearings.
I chose to grease the wheel bearings even though I was going to lube them with gear oil because when you do the gear oil trick you need to tilt the truck to each side for 10-20 min so the gear oil and run down the axle tube and into the hub.
We did not have the luxury of time.
We each told our wife "back by noon" and we didnt finish up until well into the afternoon.
The grease/gear oil mixture will not hurt anything and I fully expect these to be the very last rotors I ever put on my truck.
The ones I replaced have been on there for 100,000 miles or more and still had plenty of life left, one of the benefits of 80% expressway driving, brakes last forever.
As for how well the rotors will wear/last, they are huge chunks of metal that do nothing other than spin round and round, like a record baby, round and round.
The friction material is what matters, well, not really, brakes is brakes.
I bought solely based on price, I had searched high and low for a brake kit, almost pulled the trigger on a solid rotor semi metallic kit from Canada then I found this kit from CA for less money, so I bought it.
I also priced rotors alone and this kit was almost the same price as just rotors from AutoZone.
Rockauto has good prices but the shipping kills you.
I saved my old brake pads, plus the brake pads from the calipers that I bought solely to be used as a core charge, so I have 2 sets of brake pads sitting on the shelf in the garage to be dropped in once these pads wear out.
The only reason I did a complete brake overhaul was I had two frozen calipers and the wheel bearings needed repacking anyway.
As long as its all torn apart might as well replace everything.
Had I not found the brake kit for $250 I would not have done rotors and pads, just calipers.

 

Ever thought about rebuilding your calipers? Its actually super easy.

 

I had thought about rebuilding my calipers, I have never done it before and am alittle scared to be honest.
I know the kit is like $5 but I have no clue as what to do.
Mine are in the recycling dumpster with the old rotors.
I saved the bleeders and the brake hardware.

 

On the gear oil thing, before you insert the final axle shaft, jack up that side a little higher than the other and pump in the gear oil till it's ready to run out the high side. It'll add in more than you can through the filler plug allowing it to bathe and circulate with the oil in the housing.

I've had my axles out a half dozen times in the last year or two. I'll be glad when all repairs and upgrades are done for a bit.

 

We had the truck on a lift so it could not be tilted that I know of.
I ran the rear axle up on ramps and then filled the diff with gear oil, doing it that way brigs the overall level just above the fill plug, I do this with the front and t-case too.

I had never thought about putting in gear oil through the open axle tube end, good idea.

 

I was pretty nervous about it too. But really they're pretty easy. A bench vise helps. I split the caliper into halves and put one half piston side up in the bench vise. Then I clamped two pair of Vise Grips on the end of the piston cup, across from eachother. I grabbed each pair of Vise Grips and turned the piston while pulling up. The pistons came out pretty easy this way. Then I took a flat tip screwdriver and jammed the tip into the rubber wiper just under the metal ring. I gave the handle of the screwdriver a good whack downwards and the rubber wiper and metal ring popped right out. Using a small flat tip screwdriver I then worked the larger rubber seal out. Clean up the inside of the caliper and blow some compressed air through the fluid channels.
Using brake fluid wet the thicker seal and work it into the groove. Insert the rubber wiper into the metal ring. Wet the wiper/ring and push them over the piston. Wet the piston and push it into the caliper. Then I adjusted the caliper in the bench vise so the piston was sitting horizontal. I got a flat piece of steel that was larger than one piston but wouldn't touch or interfere with the second piston. Place the flat steel over the end of the piston. I then used a C clamp from the face of the steel to the back of the caliper. Tightening the C clamp will draw the piston into the caliper and will also seat the wiper/metal ring.
Repeat the process for each piston. Replace the channel seal and bolt the caliper halves back together. Each caliper should take no longer than half hour. Make sure you get all new seals/rings as well as new pistons. The old pistons are usually rusty or pitted which will destroy a seal pretty quickly.

 

Brake lines are a maint item and should be replaced every few years. They may look good on the outside but be fatigued on the inside. Have you ever noticed how some people will comment on how much better the brakes feel after they install stainless braided lines? You will get the same improvement if you are replacing old rubber lines with new rubber lines. And for that matter, if you replace a set of decade old stainless lines with new rubber lines, you will have that same improvement.

We never use vice grips or pliers/slipjoint/channellocks to remove caliper pistons. We will use compressed air to blow them out one at a time. You can use an old pad on one side and a block of wood or something similiar on the opposite side to fix 3 pistons in place, put a rag loosely in the space left for the 4th piston, cover the caliper with a rag and use an air nozzle with rubber tip in the inlet fitting and blow out the one piston. If you want all pistons out at once it is usually possible to remove the first seal/o-ring and place the piston back in the bore and go to the next piston. without the seal you should still have enough force to remove the other pistons unless the caliper had a frozen piston to begin with. This way will keep from damaging the piston lip or the dust seal area.

 

Yeah, but if you're replacing the pistons anyways who cares if you damage them? And I would strongly recommend replacing the pistons. I haven't tried the compressed air trick, though. Maybe its easier?

 

good call, dont let this happen to you!



off of a different (much older car) but the same concept applies... inside of the lines can collapse.