Had to replace both front rotors on my 1999 E-250 Ford van. Thought I would take some pictures while I worked. This van has 2 wheel ABS.

WARNING! Brakes are important and should only be serviced by qualified personnel. I have no idea what I'm doing so don't believe a word of what you read here.

First off remove the cap from the brake fluid reservoir.



Loosen the lug nuts. The lug nut wrench that came with my van is nearly useless since the socket isn't deep enough. Instead I carry this breaker bar and deep socket around with me.


Jack up the van until the tire is just high enough to freely rotate. I add jack stand for safety sake. Had a jack snap once. Luckily I wasn't under the vehicle at the time.


Remove the lug nuts. The hub cap is a handy holder.


Move the tire out of the way.

The calipers, brake pads and brake hose had recently been replaced on this van so I won't be replacing those.

Next remove the two caliper slide bolts. The bolt heads are on the back side of the caliper.


The bolt head is metric. 13mm.


Since the bolt head is on the back side I had to give an extra thought to which way to turn it. Here's a trick I learned a long time ago. It's called "The Right Hand Rule". This is mainly used in mathematics and physics but it's also really handy (pun) when working on cars. Using your right hand, stick out your thumb like you're hitch-hiking and curl the other fingers towards the palm. If you want to tighten or loosen a bolt point your thumb in the direction you want the bolt to move then turn the bolt in the direction that your curled fingers are pointed.

That's it. I use it all the time and it never fails me. Unless it's a left-handed thread. Then just use "The Left Handed Rule".

Bolts out.


The caliper should swing off. If it's still tight GENTLY pry between the inside of the caliper and the back of the brake pad on the opposite side from the caliper pistons. This causes the piston to retract slightly into the caliper which also causes brake fluid to flow back into the reservoir. That's why you remove the cap from the brake fluid reservoir before starting.


The caliper will swing away from around the brake pads. One end of the caliper will have two tabs.
s.

The other end will have just one tab. The one tab end swings out first then the two tab end is lowered away from the caliper bracket.


On the drivers side the one tab end is on the bottom. On the passenger side the one tab end is on the top.

Once the caliper is free don't let it hang from the brake hose.


Slide the brake pads away from each side of the brake rotor.


They should come right off.


Next up are the bolts for the caliper bracket. They have 13/16 heads.


Don't expect these to come off as easily as the other bolts did.


When I took these off on the passenger side the lower bolt wouldn't come free until after I used a jack to raise the wrench.

OK that's done.


Remove the brake hub dust cap. I gripped it with channel locks then tapped the pliers with a rubber faced hammer and the cover came right off.




Straighten out and remove the cotter pin.




Take off the nut lock.


The dust cover makes a handy holder for these small parts.


Before removing the spindle nut I tighten it to see how loose it was. About a sixth of a turn.


Pull the brake rotor slightly towards you. The washer and outside wheeling bearing will pop out.


Remove them. Notice that the inside of the washer isn't completely round. There are two flat spots.


The rotor should now just slide off.


Clean and inspect the wheel spindle.


Notice the flat spot on the top of the threaded part of the spindle. This corresponds to the flat spots on the washer.


If you're planning on reusing the inside wheel bearing it can be removed by turning over the rotor and tapping it out with a large screwdriver and hammer.




I'm not going to reuse the wheel bearings. I bought the van used and have no idea how long these have been in there. They might still be good but I'm no expert and new ones aren't that expensive. Time for a trip to Advance Auto.

New rotor, bearings, oil seal and grease. Around $90 altogether.






Pack the new bearings with grease. I use the rub it across the palm method.


Place the greased up inner bearing in the back of the new rotor then gently hammer the oil seal into place.


Install the rotor on the spindle.


Install the outer bearing, washer and spindle nut.


Now comes the magic. The question is how much to tighten the spindle nut. Here's what I copied off the internet.:

The way I did it was to snug up the nut then spin the rotor back and forth a few times. Snug up the nut some more and repeat. Keep this up until I couldn't snug up the nut anymore. I was squeezing out the excess grease from the bearings. Tighten the nut up then back off one sixth a turn. 1/6 a turn is easy to see since the spindle nut is six sided. Make sure the wheel spins freely.


Install the lock nut and cotter pin. Bend the cotter pin in place.


install the dust cover. Be sure to get it on straight.


The new rotor has a coating of oil. Use brake cleaner to get it off.


The brake pads slide on the anti-rattle clips. The clips are located on the caliper bracket. Add a little grease on the clips so the pads can slide.


Bolt on the caliper bracket.


Slide the brake pads back on.


The caliper might not fit on the new rotor since it will be thicker than the one removed. Need to squeeze pistons back into the caliper. Use a block of wood and a C clamp. Do this SLOWLY and one piston at a time.


If you still have problem lining up the caliper on the bracket it might be this rubber covered sleeve.


You have to push the sleeve far enough into the caliper so it clears this part of the caliper bracket. You can't see any of this and have to do it by feel. I've got the camera stuck up behind the rotor pointed down to get this picture.


Bolt the caliper back on.


Mount the wheel and put the lug nuts back on. Since this is a 8 lug wheel an easy way to do the star pattern is to tighten one bolt then move to the third lug in the clockwise direction. As long as you don't lose your place or change directions you'll hit them all and be back to where you began in 8 moves.


After taking the van off the jacks and doing the final tightening and putting the hubcap back there are still a couple things left.

Put the cap back on the brake fluid reservoir.

Clean off all the greasy fingerprints left on the side of the van from where I steadied myself as I stood on the lug wrench.


One final piece of information you hopefully won't need. The threads on the caliper slide bolts are M8x1.25.


You won't need to know this unless you manage to start cross threading the bolt when putting it on like someone I know who will remain nameless.

 

Nice write-up---thanks for including it WVVan for those who might be contemplating something similar.

I'd add only that replacing caliper hardware like slide bolts and boots is a good idea, especially if there's any doubt how long they've been in place. Bare minimum the boots and other rubber parts need to be carefully inspected, special attention to the piston seals and flexible brake hoses.

If I don't have access to an impact tool I use a 3/4" drive breaker bar, 6" extension and 3/4" drive 7/8" deep well socket. In fact along with a very substantial scissor jack those tools are part of my road side break down kit.

Anyway thanks again---reps sent!

 

Great thread, added to tech folder!

 

When replacing rotors, make sure that they have a slip ring for the ABS.
A.Z. sold me non-ABS rotors when I informed them that I had the 4WABS
system. Lesson learned.

 

Excellent write up - Reps sent - If I might mention - Pump the brake pedal 3 or 4 times before moving the truck. Dont ask me how I learned this one.

 

More than one brake job has been "tested" during a test drive--NOT the time to discover something might be slightly amiss somewhere.

 

Nice pictorial, easy to follow.
I use lithium brake lube, not wheel grease on moving brake parts, grease can't take the heat from hard braking, it melts, runs and ruins pads...or so they say.

 

Great write up! I appreciate the tip on "The Left Handed Rule" because my right hand is a real trixter sometimes!

Let's not forget these tips:

1) If the brake fluid reservoir is near the full mark, siphon/remove some of the fluid (at least 1/3 of the reservoir should be empty). This will prevent overflow when depressing the pistons back into the caliper.

2) If you plan to reuse the wheel bearings, remove the grease seal from the inner bearing side first. This will allow the inner wheel bearing to come out freely instead of tapping on it with a screwdriver or punch and potentially damaging it.

3) Brake cleaner is good stuff, but denatured alcohol cleans even better. Ever since I learned that denatured alcohol leaves absolutely no residue, I've used it for cleaning all my auto parts.

 

I was always under the impression any alcohol (other than beer) leaves something behind when it's evaporated away?

I might have to try this because alcohol would be a lot more environmentally friendly than most commercially-available brake cleaning sprays.

 

Sorry for the delayed response- been crazy busy lately.

I suppose I shouldn't have said "absolutely no residue." It does leave behind a very, very light residue - but for all practical purposes, it's really non-existent. In particular with brake applications, once the brakes are actually in use, the residue that is there is burned off rather quickly.

Compared to brake cleaner, denatured alcohol is a much better choice. It's also a kick-*** glass cleaner!

 

Great writeup!! Just completed this on my E350 and saved me a lot of time and trips back and forth to the parts store. I had a frozen caliper on the driver side which chewed up the inside of my driver side rotor and disintegrated the inner pad. After a new caliper, rotors, pads and bearings (inner and outer), we are back up and running. Changed the bearing as my lock nut on the hub was loose on both sides….yea i know very strange.

I did want to add that I found out you CAN remove the rotors WITHOUT removing the caliper brackets. This is accomplished by removing the cotter pin, lock nut and outer bearing. The rotor will then be allowed to move a bit more freely and with some patience, out it will come. I only explored this method on the passenger side as the I only had hand tools available to me and those caliper brackets are really torqued on there!! Again, great writeup, thanks!