Has anyone changed their own brakes?

[chefdc1]

I need to replace brakes on my 1997 Damon Hornet 2754b, Ford E-Superduty Chassis. Is this something I can take care of myself? I can change brakes on a car.

[ron_dittmer]

youracman wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:

DrewE wrote:
There are no drums on the E-SuperDuty chassis (which was renamed to the E450 a year or two later). It's disc brakes all around, with the parking brake being mounted on the drive shaft in a little housing bolted to the back of the transmission.

Just FYI to the readers.......

My brother has a 1997 E350-V10 (not a Super Duty) motor home with rear drum brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

I own a 2007 Super Duty E350-V10 motor home with rear disk brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

The drive shaft parking brake you mention is on the E450 up to and including year 2007. Every year of the E350 to this very day, never had the drive shaft parking brake. The drive shaft parking brake was discontinued starting with year 2008.

Thanks for posting, Ron. Good to know. My 2007 (2006 chassis) has the driveline brake of course and I wish it had the cable system. No problems with it at all, but if/when that driveline unit fails it is sure expen$ive to replace. I believe the main reason for failure is overheating....usually from forgetting to release the parking brake. Fortunately, mine has a loud beeper with different sound than normal to slap me alongside the head when the brake is left on. I may have driven it 100 ft or so that way a couple of times. :^(

I also have read that starting in 2008 the brakes were bigger. I'd sure like that...if for nothing more than to dissipate the heat better (and a bit more stopping power would be welcome too.) Hmmm maybe I need to update to a 2009 rig....or not.

Safe travels ..............

Like you, I too wish I had bigger brakes because bigger is better, right?

But....

I wonder if the current day E350/E450 2008-2018 brakes are actually better. I once compared the specs of our previous generation brakes to the current generation brakes. The current design is just a tad bit bigger in diameter. As little as it might be, that is still a very good thing, I don't knock the benefit at all.

But.....

The current day rotors are separate from the hub. It is not all one piece of metal like it used to be with the previous design. That to me is a downer. Corrosion between rotor and hub can warp the rotor. Heat cannot pass thru corrosion as well as with a one piece design, and the rotor is simply more stable being one with the hub.

If Ford retained a one piece rotor/hub design, but made it bigger, then that would be exceptional.

So I don't feel so deprived knowing that.

[youracman]

ron.dittmer wrote:

DrewE wrote:
There are no drums on the E-SuperDuty chassis (which was renamed to the E450 a year or two later). It's disc brakes all around, with the parking brake being mounted on the drive shaft in a little housing bolted to the back of the transmission.

Just FYI to the readers.......

My brother has a 1997 E350-V10 (not a Super Duty) motor home with rear drum brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

I own a 2007 Super Duty E350-V10 motor home with rear disk brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

The drive shaft parking brake you mention is on the E450 up to and including year 2007. Every year of the E350 to this very day, never had the drive shaft parking brake. The drive shaft parking brake was discontinued starting with year 2008.

Thanks for posting, Ron. Good to know. My 2007 (2006 chassis) has the driveline brake of course and I wish it had the cable system. No problems with it at all, but if/when that driveline unit fails it is sure expen$ive to replace. I believe the main reason for failure is overheating....usually from forgetting to release the parking brake. Fortunately, mine has a loud beeper with different sound than normal to slap me alongside the head when the brake is left on. I may have driven it 100 ft or so that way a couple of times. :^(

I also have read that starting in 2008 the brakes were bigger. I'd sure like that...if for nothing more than to dissipate the heat better (and a bit more stopping power would be welcome too.) Hmmm maybe I need to update to a 2009 rig....or not.

Safe travesls ..............

[CharlesinGA]

What I do when I put new rotors on the Ranger, twice now in 300K mi, and I use genuine Ford rotors, is to take a punch and knock out the Chinese races they install and throw them in the scrap metal. Then I go to a real bearing and drive business that sells to industry, and buy new Timken USA bearings and races or at least SKF or Toyo Koyo, something that has a decent brand name on them. Only bearing I have ever had to fail said China on it. Have never had a non-China bearing totally fail, but have replaced a few due to discoloration or I just didn't like the looks of them.

The "split pins" that the brake calipers slide on, are two pieces of stamped metal, formed lengthwise in a V shape, turned vees facing each other and filled in between with elastomer. Each end has tangs protruding from the metal.

Take a hammer and gently drive the pin till the tangs hit the caliper bracket. Then take a punch or drift and hit one of the metal vees to compress the elastomer and make the tang go inside of the caliper/bracket, then do the other one, and then drive the whole pin thru. I reuse them but if the brakes have been over heated, they probably should be replaced.

Wire brush out the Vees in the caliper and bracket, and use scotchbrite to clean the pins themselves. Do not use any lube on them.

Charles

[DownTheAvenue]

chefdc1 wrote:
I need to replace brakes on my 1997 Damon Hornet 2754b, Ford E-Superduty Chassis. Is this something I can take care of myself? I can change brakes on a car.

Yes you can, absolutely. All you need is the knowledge, skills, and tools. Only you can answer that question.

[ron_dittmer]

chefdc1 wrote:
I need to replace brakes on my 1997 Damon Hornet 2754b, Ford E-Superduty Chassis. Is this something I can take care of myself? I can change brakes on a car.

I encourage you to start with the front brakes for they will be easier, and will resemble more of what your are familiar with.

Have you ever repacked wheel bearings? It does involve removing the hubs which involves the wheel bearings. Definitely replace the grease seals. If a set of bearings look damaged from corrosion or pitting, replace the race (the mating ring) as well which hammer out.

Do one wheel at a time as not to mix up the bearings. You want each wheel bearing back into it's original position mated to it's original race. It is important because worn bearings wear/mate to the race. You don't want to mess up the break-in of the two.

Personally I would not resurface/reuse the front rotors. I would buy new ones which generally will come with new races. I would also consider replacing the bearings since the races will be new. A new rotor assembly will cost $81 with free shipping on-line.

Once done and tested well, maybe you will have built up enough courage to try the rears. The worst that can happen is that you put it back together and take your rig to a truck repair facility.

Here is a front rotor.



Here is a grease seal. They tap out and back in. They are very affordable, generally just a few dollars each. They prevent water from getting into the bearings from the back side.



I quickly found bearing kits on-line which include the bearings with races and grease seals. You won't use the races if new ones are inside the new hub/rotor.

[ron_dittmer]

DrewE wrote:
There are no drums on the E-SuperDuty chassis (which was renamed to the E450 a year or two later). It's disc brakes all around, with the parking brake being mounted on the drive shaft in a little housing bolted to the back of the transmission.

Just FYI to the readers.......

My brother has a 1997 E350-V10 (not a Super Duty) motor home with rear drum brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

I own a 2007 Super Duty E350-V10 motor home with rear disk brakes and a cabled parking brake to them.

The drive shaft parking brake you mention is on the E450 up to and including year 2007. Every year of the E350 to this very day, never had the drive shaft parking brake. The drive shaft parking brake was discontinued starting with year 2008.

[youracman]

Hi Dave-

At 50,000 I have developed a shimmy when the brakes are applied at speed. My daughter got the brakes hot twice in mtn driving last summer, so I'm thinkin' I have warped rotors. I too have done cars ..... piece of cake, basically; but, like you, I wondered about tackling my E450. So I signed up for the Chilton DIY online manual for it to get a "feel". Kinda took the wind out of my sails when I saw that the fronts do not have separate rotors.....it is one gigantic piece with hub, bearings, rotor and all; so caliper mounting plate removal, pressing bearings out of the old and into the new + new inner seal etc comes into play. If the rotors had been separate, I might have gone for it, but now I am thinkin' "life's too short" to tackle this one + brakes by the pros be "cheaper n bones". lol

The steps in Chilton's were very clear and informative so maybe you could go this route. I believe they even have a short "free trial" deal that might work for you re making the decision?

Good luck with the fix, and safe travels to ya..... ed s

[charwan]

The split pin just take a blunt punch and drive them out. Now they have little places on their sides to hold them in so just take the punch and start one side out and then do the other and then drive them out.. They will go back in with a hammer on the end. This will do no damage to them.

[DrewE]

There are no drums on the E-SuperDuty chassis (which was renamed to the E450 a year or two later). It's disc brakes all around, with the parking brake being mounted on the drive shaft in a little housing bolted to the back of the transmission. Incidentally that means you can't rely on the parking brake when jacking up a rear wheel, as the differential will let the other wheel turn freely once one loses traction.

From what I've seen online, it's not an impossible job to do the brakes on them. The rear calipers use some sort of a split pin thingy rather than bolts to join them together, which apparently requires a little different fiddling to remove but isn't terrible once you know the trick. The fronts are more typical construction.

I've always paid someone to do the brake work for me. I'm pretty sure I could do it, and there are plenty of other chassis maintenance things I've done, but somehow just haven't cared to do it myself...maybe partly due to a bit of unnecessary fear about the sorts of problems a serious mistake could bring about, and partly because mucking about under vehicles gets less exciting as time marches on.

In general, the E series chassis isn't too challenging to work on. There are a few things for which access is less than ideal (e.g. upper front shock mounts, spark plugs, vacuum system for the heater controls....) but by and large things are reasonably accessible and repairable and don't need lots of special or extra heavy duty tools.

[ksg5000]

Just had my rear brakes replaced - cost me about $300. They were OEM from 92 and pretty rusty and I suspect were a PIA to work with. As I get older I tend to avoid the stuff that requires patience/strength.

[Big_Katuna]

On a chassis that old, if I planned on keeping it awhile, I would replace everything. Hoses, rotors, master cyl (cheap) calipers, slides, use Ford OEM slide grease. If the rear drum measures out, you can reuse it, but inspect for heat cracks.

[charwan]

The best I remember is they have removably drums off the hub on the rear. Could have disc also. Frt. pads when you removed them, before removing bolts take two big screw drivers and force them between the rotor and inside pad to get a little play. Remove the caliper and take the outside pad out leaving the inside. Get a 6 in clamp and put one end against the caliper and one side on the old pad and compress the piston completely in. Like Charles says it will be a 50/50 chance off having them stick at sometime. Would I take a chance, Yes. If the rear are drum I would rebuild the cylinders if they have high mileage. It's nothing to rebuild the calipers there is only an O-ring in them and the kits are cheap. If you have done a car it will only be just bigger parts.

[CharlesinGA]

Biggest problem is that the newer calipers (and that goes back to at least my '91 Ranger) have phenolic pistons to insulate the fluid from the heat of the pads. I don't know what goes wrong, but eventually the pistons began to seize when they get hot. When the brake cools off the brakes work normal till they get a little overheated then they start dragging again. This happened to me on the Ranger twice, both times in Atlanta freeway stop and go traffic. I got off at an exit, pulled the wheel, let it cool for an hour or so, used the lug wrench to wiggle the caliper so the pistons would retract and it worked fine after that (but I replaced the calipers when I got home).

Same thing again, on a co-workers '04 Ram 3500 dualie. He replaced the hot caliper and we bled fluid thru the entire system till we were getting out fresh fluid. A few days later he was headed to Florida when it happened again with the other rear wheel, not far from my house. I picked up another caliper, we changed it out and bled the brakes. Both rotors need changing, as one has heat cracking. This is a low use truck but he will get to it soon.

Moral, go ahead and replace the calipers.

Charles

[tobydad]

If you do them yourself, best check and double check the brake lines also. They probably should also be replaced. Better safe than sorry.