Gonna do brake pads and rotars, any advice?

There are some small rubber plugs in the backing plates which allow you to see in and measure the material left on the shoes.

If you're going to go through the process to get the drum off, just replace the shoes and have the drums turned. If the drums haven't been removed before, you likely will need to use the star adjusters to "suck the shoes in" so that the drum will let the shoes go- a small lip can develop, and you can damage things if you just try to force the drum off with bolts.

 

True, but for me it will easier to have my brother just remove the wheel. Click on my avitar and you'll see why I'm not so flexible anymore these days. Crawling under the Truck for anything is a chore.

 

I recently did my front brakes (stock, not the Tundra upgrade). The only complication I encountered was loosening the caliper bolts, which required a *really* big breaker bar. I put anti-seize on these bolts when reinstalling so things will be easier the next time around.

 

Did you just do the pads? You shouldn't have to remove the calipers for that.

 

But you do have to remove the caliper to remove the rotor.. which should be turned or replaced when you do the pads.

 

I replaced the pads, rotors, and calipers. I had a complicated wobble I needed to fix. But yeah, you should turn or replace the rotors when you replace the pads and this requires removing the calipers.