EXCURSION BRAKE ISSUES:

Before I start to "rant" abount nonsensical info. posted in here, let me assure you guys, that as a "new" Excursion owner, I have found this forum VERY helpful. VERY grateful for MOST of your "posts".

Thanks to what I read in here regarding SUSPENSION issues, I was prepared for my Excursion to be a useless wallowing "pig", so I'd already ordered a Hellwig rear sway bar and air bags for the rear axle, before even ATTEMPTING to tow a heavy trailer with it. No-one has explained to me how come Ford put some of the Excursions into the public's hands WITHOUT a rear sway bar, and with such soft rear springs, KNOWING they would be used for heavy towing.

But as for the BRAKE discussons - well, let me tell you what I just did. And why. Others have noted, and I agree, the "stock" brakes just arent "grabby" enough. Those of us who have "surge" brakes on our heavy trailers, need to have a "responsive pedal feel" so we can have good control over our surge brakes. It takes WAY too much pedal pressure to get a good "grabby-approaching wheel lock up" response from the stock brakes.

Well, some of you guys have been stating glowing praises for the so called "gold" series of brake pads.

Last night I tried an experiment. I installed the "gold" series brake pads on the RIGHT SIDE ONLY just to see if there was any difference (of course I am going to complete the installation so that all wheels have the same pads, later today).

If the "gold" series pads are "better", meaning, after "break in", for any given amount of caliper pressure, I should have felt at least SOME trace of "pulling" to the side of the "gold" pads.

If there is a difference, I cant detect it. And both sides will "lock up" only under the most extreme brake pedal/pressure application.

As a side note, I found the rear caliper anchor bolts to have been over-tightened, without lubrication (front anchor bolts were fine - not over-tightened and threads did have anti-sieze/grease).

We know from the "Oasis" that mine was one of the last ones built. It is a low mileage ( 15,000 mi) "virgin", so this apparently a factory-production error.

Given the above, I strongly recommend anyone with a Ford truck to un-bolt their brake calipers, and grease and re-torque the bolts. You do NOT want to find, when you eventually need to change brake pads, that your caliper bolts have rusted in place , 0ver-torqing, combined with the inevitable corrosion in this area from water exposure, would be a first-class expensive DISASTER !

 

Funnny you posted this because I have some Powerslot Cryoed and Hawks LTS and I tried to remove the front calipers and the bolts will not budge... I used a air impact gun and nothing I'm scared to put anymore pressure on my breaker bar to remove them...
Anyone Have any suggestions?
Should I just spray some WD40 on them and let the sit for a few minutes?

 

What is the exact size of the caliper bolts?

Nevermind I found it:

http://www.custom-computerz.com/EXCURSION/guides.html

 

Get yourself a bigger impact gun (3/4" at least) and the airflow to run it.
The 1/4 inch industrial fittings won't do the job.

 

yes, again, the caliper bolts are VERY tight - typical Ford lack of quality and consistancy - over-tightening the way mine are, and apparently so many others are, over-stresses the bolt, and just about guarantees serious expense down the road.

In my case, I got them in time, my Excursion is still "new", meaning, it was delivered in the far west (almost no humidity and practically never rains), had only 15,000 mi on it, and I still had one BYECHE of a time getting those bolts out.

Do NOT use an impact wrench - even if you have the HIGHEST quality PRECISION sockets, you WILL "round off" the bolt, OR "fatigue crack" and break off the bolt - probably already partially fatigued from being over-tightened at the factory....you use an impact wrench, and just about guarantee yourself close to a THOUSAND dollars in parts and a LOT of lost time.

My suggestion is use a PRECISION fitting socket, and a LONG "breaker bar", and GENTLY start applying a loosening pressure with all your strength. Hopefully, you will be strong enough, and the bolt and your "breaker bar" wont break. Then, on installation, GREASE the threads and the inside end of the bolt-head with a HIGH TEMP DISC BRAKE GREASE.

This is a potentially SERIOUS problem that will get worse every time your suspension gets wet and/or ages. Strongly recommend EVERYONE jack their wheels up, take em off, and get those caliper bolts out and greased, NOW, even if you arent ready for a brake pad job.

 

Well I was thinking today that I aint paying no body to put brakes on my truck no matter how disabled I am... I was looking for a pipe to over the breaker bar but didn't find any but came across a 6' 2x4 and pivotted that thing on the chasis and had the leverage to move the bolts... It was soooo smooth, it wasn't rusted but it was very snugged.

I got the Powerslots and the Hawks LTS on and when through the seating steps and went for a ride to blockbuster and what a BIG difference. Can't wait to do the rears.

Next step to buy and install the Hellwig!

 

"BIG DIFFERENCE"...eh ? COULD be that my so called "gold" linings are no different than the "stock" FoMoCo pads that came with the vehicle. I dont know. What I DO know, is that it was a pain in the part that goes over the fence last to do this job, and the linings weren't cheap. So I would certainly like to feel I'd accomplished something.

I REALLY want to think these new "Gold" linings are better. Trouble is, the experiment I noted above (just doing BOTH WHEELS ONLY ON ONE SIDE indicates that at least in my case, the difference, if any, cant be detected-obviously, if these new linings were more "grabby" I would have felt a "pull" to the side with the better (grabbier) linings.

Yeah - install a sway bar on the rear of that thing. It really does tame the wild beast's desire to wallow like a drunken pig !

 

Ok,, I went to left field on mine. I used Wagner Premimum Ceramic pads. First thing I noticed was less pedal pressure for the same stopping distance. The pads removed were "very metallic" with lots of metal in the pad surface. This was not the case on the ceramic pads. However I do believe the pads will wear faster, the stopping is worth it. I have no plans to use metallic again on this truck. Jim

 

Sounds to me YOU got what I WANT !. I've got a bad feeling I went to a lot of work for NOTHING. The pads I put on looked suspiciously like what I took off.