A woman I know asked me to help her put brakes on her Explorer. That pretty much means I'm doing it by myself.

I don't know the exact year, but it's a 4wd. I assume the rears are gonna be standard drums, no big deal. Anything I need to know about the front discs? Are there any specialty tools like a spindle-nut socket or snap-ring pliers needed? Anything weird going on up there I need to know about?

Thing is, I have to go to her place to do and I'll be starting late in the day...I really want to avoid any delays because I forgot a tool or didn't give her a specific enough parts list.

Thanks,
Jonny Y

 

If you're just doing pads, you don't need anything special. If you're replacing the rotors, you'll need a spindle nut socket. And there's two different spindle nut sockets: one for automatic locking hubs, and one for manual locking hubs. If it's auto hubs, you need to remember to remove the key in the groove on the spindle before trying to remove the spindle nut, or you'll mess up the threads and make it very difficult to remove the nut.

If it has manual hubs, bring a torque wrench capable of 180 ft lbs. That's the amount of torque needed on the outer spindle nut.

The rotors have standard tapered roller bearings in them. You might want to repack/regrease the bearings while you have them off, and you'll probably need new wheel seals to install on the new rotor

 

Perfect, thank you. I'm pretty sure it's got auto hubs. And she told me she was buying new rotors so seals will need to be installed. Does the spindle nut need to be torqued or is it a castle-nut?

I plan on showing her how to pack bearings and leave it in her hands (yep...a pun).

 

It's not a castle nut; it's a hex nut that has a little key you slide in a groove in the spindle to keep it in place. I don't know what the torque on it is supposed to be. The only experience I have with those nuts is when I removed them to convert to manual locking hubs, which use entirely different nuts that are torqued differently. I don't think the torque on them is very much though; I believe you leave it a little loose like a castle nut.

I would check this out to see how it comes apart: Automatic To Manual Hub Conversion

 

That's great, thank you. I'll do a little Google-ing when I get a chance to try and pick up some more info, but I think I've got a handle on it now. I've never liked "auto" hubs and if this chick wasn't so strapped (the reason I'm doing it for her in the first place), I'd talk her into converting to manual hubs. She's really trying to pull her formerly FUBAR'd life together by staying straight and working hard. I admire that, especially when it's hard to see that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for the quick help...we both appreciate it.

 

I assume this has those caliper pins with a diamond cross-section with rubber in the middle like my '91 Ranger. If you haven't had to work with them before, they can be a bit of a PITA. What worked for me was to clamp the outboard side with needle nose vice grips and then tap them inboard. Once the pin is flush with the caliper assembly, take off the vice grips if it hasn't already fallen off. Then, continue to tap inboard until it's out. I used a 1/4 inch drive extension with the big end against the pin. It fit rather nicely.

Sine the pins have rubber in them, lube them up with a silicone grease like Sil-Glyde so it won't attack the rubber when you put it all back together.

Whether a castle nut like my '97 Aerostar or other setup like my '91 Ranger with manual hubs, torque on the nut was 16 inch pounds for a tapered bearing setup. This was for the nut that tightened against the bearing (the jam nut had a different torque). Before tightening the nut against the bearing, you tighten the nut pretty tight while spinning the wheel, then back off to loosen and then torque to 16 inch pounds. All of the sockets that big don't come in 1/4 inch drive and I didn't have adapters to work with my inch pound torque wrench, so I just guesstimated with my uncalibrated hand.

You're a good man for helping someone who has fallen on hard times. God bless you and your friend.