Love my truck until I have to work on it...

Seems like anytime I have to do anything to it, something always holds up the works, either a rusted bolt or bent pin or whatever. My motorcycle is 30 years old and is a million times easier to work on than my 9 year old truck. Decided to do the brakes today, last time I replaced the fronts was 8/06, and I've never replaced the rears. Took an hour to get the rears apart, both drums where welded on there. After getting them off finally and cleaning them, I compared the brand new ones with the ones that are on there, and there's no difference, the ones on there barely look worn.

OK, take the new ones back, on to the front. Sprayed the pins with PB blaster and let sit a little while, and then tried to tap the pins that hold the pads out, no go. Tried to tap a little harder, eventually the botton pin started to move but the top just mushroomed and bent.

Got the dremel out and tried to cut the old pin off, got half of it out but the other half was welded to the caliper, nothing at all would move it. Finally had to drill the other side out, all in all took about 3 hours just getting the drivers side caliper apart.

Why in the name of all that is good in this world did Toyota decide on this method of holding the pads in? There's no way a 5 year old caliper should be this difficult to take apart. I haven't even touched the other side, it got dark so the other side's just soaking in PB Blaster until tomorrow.

What's the secret?

 

mine were real easy to do, all the components came off/went on without a hitch and my rig is older than yours. maybe yours were just being stubborn. maybe your luck will change.

 

Your up North right?

Now imagine you are a Tech and gotta beat flat rate times for all US folks while dealing with rust belt stuff in an effort to make a living.

I'd imagine a flat rate tech would have sold you (2) NEW OE Toyota loaded calipers. Which would have been much cheaper then the 80 per hr he'd spend performing your task.

Rear drums you just smack the F out of them with a BFH like you are trying to hurt them. Then a little PB around the hub then more smacking. Then work the drum off with the 2 threaed holes for pressing off with bolts if they are still like the earlier modles.

 

this.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I did to the rears. Beat em' till they gave in. The front sucked, it was literally welded in there, no amount of beating could have moved that SOB. The truck has spent its life in new england, the original owner lived in New Hampshire, and I live in Mass., the original frame was just about eaten alive before Toyota gave me a new one. Guess I'll just have to try to paint the pins with rustoleum and grease em up good when I install them. Funny thing is the other side doesn't look as bad, but they're both the same age.

 

i did my fronts sometime last year and the total time from start to finish was 30mins tops, got lucky i guess. the rear brakes were a different story though, probably spend an hour on each side. the most time consuming was getting the drums off i think. BFH was what i used to get em off.

 

Well, the passenger side was easy, got the pins out in about 15 minutes. Don't know what the hell was wrong with the drivers side.

 

My guess is that the bike would be harder to work on also if you rode if from November to March in Mass.

Salt is a bitch...

 

Just because they get the same beating doesn't mean they wear out the same. I know this sounds like a dumb comment, but I used to work on helicopters and there were things on there that wore out at a rate that didn't make sense. I'd have to write a novel to explain, but trust me, it's the truth. Things wear out faster and slower or corrode faster and slower because of the way it was made. 2 components can be exactly the same in every way (to the eye) and one can have half the life. It's life