I signed up for this forum to get some information on replacing the rear brakes and rotors on my 2001 F150 Supercrew. I didn't find a lot of directly related information on this here at this site, so I took all the information found on the net and used that to guide me.

The repair went flawlessly. Here is a quick step by step of what I did in case anyone out there is looking for this information:

- Remove rear tire
- Remove the rear brake caliper from the caliper housing. Used a 10mm socket for this
- Be careful not to drop the caliper as the hose might disconnect spewing brake fluid everywhere.
- Remove outer brake pad. It has a clip that attaches to the outside of the caliper.
- Open the hood to check and make sure that the brake fluid level is not topped off. Mine was about 2/3 full. When you compress the brake caliper piston, the fluid will rise. You don't want it to overflow the reservoir. It won't hurt anything, but it could be messy.
- Using a C clamp compress the caliper piston with the inner brake pad still on it. This will give a larger area and make the piston compression even.
- Grease the new pads where the will come in contact with the caliper and/or caliper housing. This will help the pads move freely.
- Install the new brake pads.
- In all the forums I checked, everyone said that removing the brake rotors is a pain. The inner part of the rotor forms a drum. This houses the emergency brake components. I had no problem whatsoever removing the rotors. When removed you can see the mini brake shoes that are the emergency brake. I also read that there might be issues with the emergency brake freezing. I use my EB all the time and haven't had an issue. My truck has five bolt spindles to hold the wheel on. When I purchased the rotors I had to decide between two configuration options for the five spindle wheels: 12mm bolt spindles and 14mm bolt spindles. My truck has 14mm bolt spindles. From what I understand they changed the spindle size in the middle of the model year. I took the old rotor with me to make sure I got the right size.
- Remove the old rotor.
- Install the new rotor.
- Install the caliper back onto the caliper housing.
- Grease the bolts that attach the caliper to the housing.
- Install the caliper bolts.
- Put the wheel back on.

It's that easy. Once I had all the parts, it took me about 20 minutes per wheel to do the job. So figure on about 45 minutes to do both wheels. The total cost for the job was about $75.00.

If anyone else has anything to add, jump in.

 

Looks about right.

 

Good stuff, good for all those looking for info. Welcome to the site.

 

replacing the rear pads on my '01 supercab now but would have to bang the caliper into position due to an interference between the pad and the housing. wouldn't object to bang-in-place if the pad was loose afterwards to slide. Is this normal or a fit problem??

 

You need to fully compress the calliper piston for it to drop on. Do not bang it into place that will tear up the pad.

Use a C grip vice grip or c clamp or in a worst case scenario a large pare of channle locks to fully compress the pistons.