I was thinking of something else, yes they do rotate. He used very thick grease Never drove on the highway. All city driving stop and go traffic for work.

 

Thank you for the write up and pics...took me a while to find it .....I was lost till I did .THANK YOU THANK YOU

 

The backing plates don't rotate, not with 4 big studs clamping them between chunks of iron.

Putting grease on the backing plates is a bad idea. The backing plates are right up against the brake rotor. Grease getting on brake rotors and pads is no bueno. Not to mention all the dirt, dust and other road crud the grease will attract.

 

From my previous post... Why not cover the exterior side of the anchor pins with grease?

3. Put a dollop of grease on the outside of the backer pins (before you put the caliper back on). Actually fill in the depression with grease. This is handy for trucks that don't exhibit the strange engineering phenomena of premature backer plate rot. Just did brakes on the 11. Plates are clean(checked before purchase it... rear wheel wells too). Applied liberal dollop of grease to both pins on both exterior(edit) sides. Should keep the rot rats at bay for a while.

 

Thanks for the write-up I used this in conjunction with a few other forum posts and a youtube video. I ran into more problems than were documented in many of these posts. First when I went to pull the hub off it just pulled out by hand whereas most people used jaw pullers. I later realized that the hub/axle housing seal basically separated so I had one half still buried in the hub and the other half stuck on the axle. The break was so clean I wasn't sure if the seal was part of the hub so it took me awhile to figure out where I could use a flathead and hammer the seal out from the sides until I was able to pry it off. I had to replace both of my dust shields as well because of rust and a previous mechanic doing a terrible patch where one of the retaining clip holes was rusted out.

Tips: Use a block of wood and a small steel headed mallet to smack the disc free from the hub. Takes a few good blows.

Replace the rotted springs and the retaining clips, I was able to get a small kit from NAPA For ~$20 It's worth it.

The seals I purchased from Ford and were revised from what was on there previously. Replace the Timken bearings. Think it was ~100 for both inner and outer sets but I had to specify I wanted the Timken bearings at NAPA. It's where the local dealer was getting them as well. My cones looked good so I just did the inner and outer bearings and left the pressed cones in.

Lastly its very important to get the spring orientations correct when putting them all back on the shoes. The picture shown in this post has them WRONG with one spring hook below and the other above the rear Spring hooks They should both be above and the top Spring should sit very close to the steel jaw actuated by the cable. Otherwise that top outer spring WILL RUB on hub housing and they will squeak when driving. You will wonder if its a bad bearing or something. Worst part is its not the easiest getting back in there without pulling the hub again. I had this happen to me but was able to use a combination of a pik with a 90 degree turn and a 45 degree needle nose plier I used to grab the shaft of the pik to give me some leverage. I also used another small tool to help push the spring back into the hole once I had it pulled far enough. Once I had it free I pushed the hooks from the inner spring thats hidden behind the shoes down and then oriented the outer hook back on one side on top. Then used the pik/plier combination along with a drum brake adjusting spoon to push it back on with the limited access. I looked at a brake spring plier and they were too bulky to get into that crevice. Take your time with this part and reference other how-to's on how it should look before you have to go through what I did.


This is the limited gap you have to adjust after without removing hub again.

Wrong

Correct

 

The seals come apart like that quite often...One guy was trying as hard as he could to get the assembly back on but half the seal was on there..we told him he found it. Done.
Thanks for all the other info..

 

If the bearings need to be replaced you should always replace the race with the bearing.

 

Guys,

The shields are rusted pretty bad on my 99, do they serve a critical function or can I just ignore them?

 

They make the parking brake work

 

Sorry for being dumb but could you please clarify that for me? These things sure look like dust shields and not much more:

 

Your parking brake shoes are attached to the backing plates. That is usually where they start rusting and then pull out of

 

First, thanks for the info. Second, thats a terrible design! I just replaced all the parking brake cables and lubed the moving parts of the shoes today. The parking brake now works for the first time since since i got the truck three years ago.

How will i know when i have to replace the shields?

 

When they look like this. If you notice the big rust hole...That is where a brake pin is supposed to go. In my case it sounded like the back wheel was going to fall off from the parking shoes flopping around.

 

Do you have to pull the hub off to replace the backing plate?

 

Yes you do. It is not hard at all.