I need new calipers but I have a concern over the remans being cast iron and the OE Fords being aluminum. Will the brake caliper bracket support the double weight iron caliper?

 

OEM's are cast for the 98. I've never seen aluminum calipers to tell you the truth. Cardon sells Ford rebuilds. The better Cardons IMO are the rebuilds w/steel pistons. Make sure you replace all three rubber brake lines if you want her to brake like new again. Factory lines are junk. Calipers alone won't do that for yuh.

 

All that can be found @ Rock Auto. That's where I found that stuff the cheapest.

 

ETA I'll just go ahead and get everything new like jbrew suggests and see if that cures my drag'n brakes.

My squealing front brakes are enough to make people cringe when I roll up to a stop light, the same effect you get when you drag finger nails across a chalk board.

 

Yea, I just went with Brembo rotors. They're just like OEM's but allot heavier, they won't warp and they're cheap in price. As far as pads, -have NEVER had to purchase pads since about 2000. Purchased good pads that don't dust, squeal or whatnot. Lifetime pads that I just take in every 3 years or so to swap for new, -free. Those are Carquest Blues. Pay once, never again. A combination of ceramic and copper. I pulled allot of weight with that truck and stopping power was a must. Being a 98, discs are only at the front. Had to replace the OEM's with the good stuff, - glad I did.

Braided lines are the best but pricey. Rubber lines will last a 2-3 years or so, but then breakdown inside, restrict fluid flow and the rubber just expands vs flowing to the calipers like it should. The braided lines won't expand, -specially when you need your brakes most. If you can afford them, - it's the way to go.

 

The fronts are on along with Wagner ThermoQ's & new lines. Doing the rear drum cylinders in the morning because last time I took that crap apart it took half a day to get it back on.

I used DOT 4 because its supposed to a little higher temp.

 

If you are switching to DOT 4, you should flush the whole system.

 

I hate drums, I started this install at 9am

I really didn't have a hard time with replacing the hardware, cylinders were pretty easy, even though the manual says to remove the brake drum guts I didn't.

Installed the rear brake hose, the relocation bracket for the line fitting was moved when I did the air bag install & that made it harder. Driver side wheel cylinder was leaking and the pass side wasn't even working.

I got it all buttoned up around 5 pm and thought things were great, WRONG rear brake hose is not to spec & it leaks at junction of the hard line on the frame I screw with it for an hour trying to get it to stop leaking. In a fit of rage I pulled it off chucked across the garage and put the old factory line in place. Old line doesn't leak I dont know if it works vs swelling or not.

I get that swapped over and as I am buttoning up the drums I notice that the new driverside wheel cylinder is leaking needless to say my over use of the F word was not spared for yesterday. Noone heard me over me the air compressor though Buy once cry once comes to mind and so did a disc brake swap.

I bled the system out of DOT3.

 

yea how hard is a rear disk break swap? do you need to replace the entire rear end or what? i know im getting due for pads, drums, and all the goodies in the rear breaks... i did however put a whole new spring set in the passenger rear due to a lug that came out and cleaned house...

 

Okay, I have driven around for several days on these new parts and the issues I was having are all gone. I got the calipers with steel pistons instead of the phenolic's. and I did the rear wheel cylinders as well.