I've installed new pads, calipers and rotors on my 1995 FZJ80 using the FSM procedure. I'm done, but it's clear that the outer pads are touching the rotor of both passenger and driver side brakes. What did I do wrong, and more importantly, how do I adjust the pistons to back off a bit and allow an ultra-small amount of room to exist between the pad and rotor?
that is normal. They should be just touching, but spinning the wheel will let you know that they are not sticking. You should hear the slightest sound of friction.
that is normal. They should be just touching, but spinning the wheel will let you know that they are not sticking. You should hear the slightest sound of friction.
Very cursory look shows wheel bearings to be ok, I haven't dug into them yet.
Concrete, that's reassuring, that sounds just like the situation. I can spin a wheel without TOO much effort, I hear a bit of friction, then the wheel stops immediately when I let go--it sure doesn't freewheel. (Truck is up on jackstands of course). Thank you.
I do not know about coomon but it has happened, if the inner wheel bearing race is not fully seated it spaces out the hub witch brings the rotor outboard with it, you said it was tight on the outer pad witch made me think of it,
unfortunatly I cannot think of a good way to check for it witout pulling the hub back apart, quite a bit of labor and you will need new seals. would be a good bit of work and parts to go through to find that was not it.
do you have another 80 you can compare to? if so you could just pull the drive plates and compare the ammount of spindle exposed past the nut, a non seated race would show as less exposed spindle here. IIRC it is not much like a thread or two,
bad calipers could also case the pad to drag if the pistons do not retract fully.
I'm guessing if you used new bearings, then you also put in new races? If so, are you certain you seated the race FULLY into the rotor? Maybe pull the rotor/hub assembly and make sure the race is in fully. Then when remounting, make sure it's fully seated onto the spindle.
Freewheel? There's 6-12 pounds of preload on the bearings alone, the hub without brakes won't 'freewheel'. Add the friction of the pads, which touch the rotor with pretty much no space between them, and there's no 'freewheeling' happening at all. With pads installed the hub should turn almost as easily as it did without pads- it should take 6-12 pounds of force to move it.
If you were able to install the calipers, there's more than likely nothing wrong. It's when you can't install them that you have problems. Drive it and see if they smell like they're burning.
I just did the brakes on my pick-up this weekend & set the bearing preload to approx. 7-8 lbs. I noticed when I put the lock nut on & torqued it to spec, 35 lbs? (I don't remember exactly) I checked the preload & it bumped it up to ~14 lbs.
It didn't freewheel & the pads fit perfectly. This is with new calipers, rotors, & pads.
When I put the tires on it would freewheel 1 turn or so before stopping.
I haven't done the 80 front brakes yet, but do they have the upside down V spring like in this pic?
Doesn't that help the pads pull away from the rotor?
It definitely won't freewheel on my 80's front setup. I gotta push the tire to turn--not horribly hard, but the moment I stop pushing, the wheel stops dead.
It sounds like it's fairly normal to be this way. As long as its normal for the pad to be just touching the rotor face.
Freewheel? There's 6-12 pounds of preload on the bearings alone, the hub without brakes won't 'freewheel'. Add the friction of the pads, which touch the rotor with pretty much no space between them, and there's no 'freewheeling' happening at all. With pads installed the hub should turn almost as easily as it did without pads- it should take 6-12 pounds of force to move it.
If you were able to install the calipers, there's more than likely nothing wrong. It's when you can't install them that you have problems. Drive it and see if they smell like they're burning.
I'm gonna "argue" alittle here, I say "argue" in quotes cause I'm thinkin that we're sayin the same thing here...
I agree that the hub wont really want to "freewheel", with or without the caliper attached; as you wrote, its got 6 to 12lbs preloaded (12.6 to 12.8 pounds in my instance)...
however
I always find that my tires/wheels will "freewheel" to some short extent when mounted on a properly preloaded hub. In other words with the tire/wheel mounted you can actually turn the thing with some "uuumph" on a single short throw and the tire/wheel combo can turn at least another full turn or more. I'm just sayin this cause there are posts here that sound like "freewheel" is hub/rotor only while others sound like the whole thing. I precisely set preload and experienced this - the rotational energy of the tire/wheel is significant. HTH.
I've done around 10 front brake pad replacements on 93-up 80s and dozens on other cars over the years. I find that they routinely drag a bit with new parts and quickly settle out as the calipers and pads heat cycle a few times and recenter. If you paid attention when putting the wheel bearing races in (who wouldn't?), I'd say you are good to go. If you're the paranoid OCD type, next weekend jack up the front end and see if it's turning easier. My guess is it will be.
