Josh Keady- Unnumbered entry: We like American music.
Brakes today, apparently they are pretty necessary for stopping. Went to dinner with my folks, then we all took a merry trip to Lowe’s and I took a couple of pictures there. So look at ‘em.
This is a caliper. A bad, bad caliper. I’ve -I think- got either a partially plugged port on the master cylinder or maybe even a slightly bent steering knuckle / caliper bracket (how would that even happen?) because after about 25k miles, the LH caliper starts sticking a little. And then a little more. And then a lot more. And then it wears down until it looks like this.
This brake pad shouldn’t look like this. Specifically, this brake pad should actually have a pad on it, not just ground-down nubs that used to resemble rivets.
And likewise, this rotor shouldn’t have those heinous grooves. HEINOUS!
Bare spindle and knuckle. Bearings still seem to be good after 150k miles. Knock on wood. Funny thing is, when cars started getting these sealed-bearing hubs, people screamed bloody murder about it (I wasn’t really born yet so this is more or less conjecture) because up until then, wheel bearings were something that you could service. Remove, clean, repack with grease, reinstall. But with sealed hubs, you just throw away the whole hub and bearing assembly when the bearings fail, and replace it with a new unit. Thing is, the sealed unit is usually good for 100k miles, is cheap, and requires no periodic service (I think the service interval on my Chevy truck is 30k miles or something like that).
New caliper ready for pads. A new LH caliper, new pads, and two new rotors went on the car today.
New loaded left side caliper. Looks a fair sight better than the first picture, eh?
New rotor looks better too!
And it all comes together: new caliper, pads, rotor, installed with anti seize grease on the slides and waiting to be bled. Dad and I bled the system until the air was gone and pedal was firm. A couple of panic near-stops from 55 mph or so will bed-in the brakes, and give you an idea of whether or not they’re working. It helps to have a country road test-track on which to test such things. :)
Here’s a shot in my parents’ back yard, the grapes are starting to drop off the vine now. Too bad my phone’s camera is so crappy, they really are an intense purpley blue.
Saw this at Lowes, made me think of every grandmother’s house ever. Didn’t they stop making these things in 1977?
And finally... if you get this for your cat, make sure that you don’t show them the box. It’ll wreck their self-esteem.