Does anyone have a step by step process to change the front brake shoes and rotors on a 98 Tahoe, 4wd, z71?
you'll need a big 3/8" allen wrench or better yet a 3/8" allen socket. ($3 at oreilly)
take out the 2 3/8" allen bolts on the engine-bay side of the caliper and you can pull the caliper out.
once the caliper is out you can pull the old pads out of it and put the new ones in.
have some zipties or a coat hanger ready to hang the caliper from the upper control arm so it's not hanging by its rubber hose while you're working in case something comes up and you can't just stand there holding it.
with the caliper off, the rotor will just pull right off the hub.
put the new rotor on
when you go to put the caliper back on since you have a thicker new rotor and thicker new pads it might not fit. you'll have to open up the caliper some, loosen the top of your master cylinder reservoir and squeeze the piston-side brake pad to push the caliper piston in some. If you can't move it by hand, use some big channel locks to squeeze and if you do have to use channel locks put one of the old pads back in to squeeze on so you don't bung up your new pad with pliers. (i've always been told never to use pliers directly on the piston itself, have an old pad in there)
ONLY DO 1 side at a time all 3 other brakes should be completely assembled with old parts or new parts. Don't do any squeezing on anything if the other side or back brakes are in any way disassembled.
put the caliper with new pads in place and put the bolts back in.
Some people say you should always bleed your brakes after squeezing on them like that, I never have and never had any problems but do what you think is best. Oh and don't do any bleeding unless everything's assembled.
