Getting outer front brake pads to fit (2wd 4 cyl base)

Hi guys,

Has anyone done their brake pads on a 2nd-gen 2wd 2.7L base model? All the 'how to's I've found seem to be for the fancier V6/4wd models which take different brake pads, are 2-piston, and are just...different.

My question is, is there a trick to getting the outer pads to fit between the rotor and outer half of the caliper body? I got the new inner pads fine after depressing the piston with a piece of wood and 'C' clamp, but could not fit the outer pads in. Does the caliper body slide toward the outer side of the vehicle, by hand? Or is there some other trick to provide enough clearance?

I have everything buttoned back up for now and just reused the outer pads which still had a decent amount of life left, I just hate that I'll have to revisit those outer pads before long.

Here's is a pic with the situation circled...the angle makes it a little tricky to see what's going on, but that 'claw' looking part of the caliper body bumps into the side of the pad backing plate when swinging it back into position. I'm lacking maybe 1/8 - 1/4" of clearance here. It's my fist brake job, so apologies for the newbishness!

 

Piston doesn't look fully retracted.

Use the c clamp directly inside the piston cup, all the way in.

The sliders are moving freely right?

 

Piston isn’t pushed all the way in.

 

I use the old pad and c-clamp.
The pad is harder than wood. Wood will compress, the pad will not.
Just be sure not to pinch the piston dust boot. You should be just fine


Ok, ok, actually if I’m lazy, I use a big pair of channel locks.
But that doesn’t always work either.

 

Sometimes the piston will get cockeyed when you're compressing it with the wood plus clamp method, so I've had success just loosening the clamp slightly and moving it around a bit and then trying again. I don't know how the insides work but my sense is there's a sweet spot angle that can be hard to nail the first time with the clamp method. A mechanic I worked alongside once had this caliper spreader tool that basically mimicked the action of the pads, looked like a short caulking gun with two metal plates that had a handle trigger you would compress and it would spread the plates apart and push the piston in. Worked like a dream, never had the desire to buy one but they seem to obliterate this whole issue.

You could also use some sort of lube on the piston that will be safe and not hurt the seals (maybe silicon based lubricant).

 

That's genius, surprised I haven't heard of that before.

 

Most cars have brake calipers of this design. The slider pins may not be going all the way into the caliper bracket due to trapped air or excess silicone grease inslide. You may have to carefully lift up the lip of the slider pin boot to burp it.

 

Or they could be seized.

 

Very rare for the slider pins to seize - it's silicone grease in a boot. If OP's truck had been serviced by a shop in the previous 16 years, it's more likely to have too much grease there. Grease doesn't compress.

 

It is possible.
It kind of looks like OP used the “loosen and lift” method.
Where you remove 1 slide pin bolt, loosen the other, and rock the caliper back.
I usually take it all the way off and grease the slide pins.

 

That is a possibility as well but I have seen Ford and GM pins seize quite often on trucks and we aren't even in salt country.

 

Toyota pins seize lol. Very common.

I have a trick to pop them out. I heat them up with a torch and they shoot out like bullets

 

Something tells me a Lube Tech might have gotten to “help” once or twice?

 

Ah, so the piston needs to be pushed back well into the bore as shown in the picture below, and that causes the caliper body to eventually shift toward the outside of the vehicle, proving clearance for the outer pad, is that correct? I was working under the assumption that it just needs to go back enough to provide clearance for the inner pad.

To be clear, this is an image I found online, NOT me currently. Right now my wheels are back on, with the old outer pads put back in (but new pads on the inner sides)


I did not check for slider pin actuation...the how to for the 4-piston job has them taken out, cleaned and lubed but wasn't sure if that was applicable to my setup. I just got the piston flush with the bore rim (had a long wooden shim across the bore rim so it was not able to travel beyond that point). I can say that my brakes were/are working great, aside from one inner pad being worn to the metal.

Hey, I did say this was my first time replacing pads...

 

Good job man.
See, It wasn’t too bad was it?

We’ve all been there. Never, ever, hesitate to ask if you need help.
That’s how you learn.

 

This is precisely the method I used, as seen in the following short youtube clip. I just took the top bolt out, didn't remove any pin(s), and swung the caliper out to the side, leaving it 'hinged' on the bottom.

PS - my truck has had the front pads replaced once, by my local mechanic. He left the fluid cap off (discovered at home a few days later sitting between hood and windshield...so who knows what else was done sub-par. Braking has been great in the 7 years/75k since then, though. Just replacing since one pad was down to the metal and making noise...he did not install the wear indicator clips (grrr.....)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgL21CHjtY

 

Yes the piston needs to be fully pushed in. The sliders can fight you sometimes, those silly little rubber collars will get squishy and try to slide out of their spot jamming the slide pin and preventing it from going all the way in

And I see frozen sliders all the time. It's actually a major cause of premature pad wear, squeaking and rotor pulsation. They'll allow the caliper to clamp down but they won't let it release, so the brakes run around slightly dragging and getting hotter than normal. I clean and grease them on every brake job

 

This video over-simplifies the process. At the very least, when closing the caliper shut, you need to pull the caliper toward you to retract the slider pin.

FYI the 4-piston calipers on 6-lug Tacomas don't have slider pins; those are just retention pins to prevent the pads from migrating outwards and hitting the rim. Some racing calipers use a large cotter pin in their place, for example:

 

Thank you all for the advice! It's a lot clearer to me now and I'll be getting those outer pads installed here very soon.

"FYI the 4-piston calipers on 6-lug Tacomas don't have slider pins; those are just retention pins to prevent the pads from migrating outwards and hitting the rim"......now I get it-- 6-lugs are fixed (two piston), while my base 5-lug is floating (one piston).

Gonna be time soon for a new Taco for me, once inventory catches back up. Going to be bittersweet parting with something I've had so many memories with.

Edit/Update: I'm happy to report my outer pads have been installed and a test drive produces smooth, noise-free braking. Turns out I actually had my pistons back far enough the first time, but did not realize I could slide the caliper toward the outside by hand. I had more than enough clearance for both the inside and outside.

My slider pins were not seized and moved freely, though I removed, cleaned and re-lubed them anyhow (with silicone grease...hope that's okay. Looks like they had black grease on them before, unless that was just dust and grime that colored it).

Thanks again and cheers, everyone. Pretty simple task, now that I've done it!