Well, looks like its time for a full brake job on the old girl, I need to change out front and rear pads and shoes, resurface the rotors, and possible turn the drums depending on what is left...... What are some tips and tricks to do when doing this... and does anyone suggest where to go to get all the parts???

 

I got all my rear parts including new drums from napa. Everything was made in the usa.

 

good call... I get my filters there too....

 

If it were me , I wouldn't re- surface anything ..Get a spring kit for the rear , & maybe new calipers (loaded )& front flex lines from napa ...They are dirt cheap ...

 

If you have to pull the axles to do your rear brake be prepared to spend 80 bucks on hub seals i just finished a full rear brake job on my sterling 10.25 which i didnt have to pull axles if everything would have went right but with my type of luck it didnt go that way lol

Good luck to ya drink one for me while doin the job

 

I wasn't sure If I had to pull the rear hubs or not, but it looked like I was going to have to when I rotated the tires, I couldn't get the drums off, but I didn't really try too hard.

My front rotors aren't too bad, but on has a fairly decent groove in it that I probably want to get smoothed out. I will have to check how much with my calipers...

 

With a Sterling 10.25 SRW you shouldn't have to pull the axles. You just remove the wheel, and then "massage" the drum off the hub. I usually employ the help of a BFH and hit the top of the drum. Usually a couple of sharp hits and it just pops loose from the hub.

You probably already know this, but if you get it to pop loose and can't remove the drum you may need to back off the adjusters through the slot on the backing plate.

As far as the fronts go, it is a pretty basic setup on a 4x4. The hubs stick through the rotor, the caliper bolts on with two bolts and the wheel goes over the top of the whole thing. The 4x4 is a lot easier to do front brakes on than a 4x2 with the integrated hub.

The brakes on these things aren't really too bad to work on. One tip I would give though is that if you do end up opening the hydraulic brake system and have to bleed it, make sure the reservoir doesn't go dry. If you get air in the RABS valve it can be a pain to bleed it all out again.

 

Sometime to help get the rear drums off, I will take two pry bars and get them between the backer plate and drum and walk the drum off the shoes.

Definitely get new hardware kit for the drum brakes.

 

Thanks, I will try on the rear drums more, I remember pulling them off before, and didn't recall pulling the rear hubs, but that was many miles/beers ago...

I plan on redoing the rear with shoes and spring kit too....
And hoping I remember when it comes to taking apart the front too.... I'll try and take pictures if I rememeber