How to Replace Front Disc Brake Backing Plate 1997-2004 Ford F-150
Created on: 2017-06-21
How to replace a worn or broken brake backing plate on 98 Ford F150.
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the 19mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Brake Pads
- Pry the upper and lower ends of the brake pads into the caliper with a C-Clamp to push in the pistons
- Remove the 18mm bolts from the caliper
- Pull the caliper, brake pads, and bracket aside
- Hang the caliper by a bungee cord
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step 3 :Removing the Backing Plate
- Slide the rotor off
- Remove the three 8mm bolts from the backing plate
- Remove the backing plate
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step 4 :Installing the Backing Plate
- Insert the backing plate into place
- Tighten the three 8mm bolts to the backing plate
- Slide the rotor on
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step 5 :Installing the New Brake Pads
- Put the caliper on
- Tighten the 18mm bolts
- Tighten bolts to 136 foot-pounds
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step 6 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts between 83 and 112 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
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step 7 :Testing the Brakes
- Pump your brakes repeatedly until they feel firm
- Test your brakes at 5 miles per hour and then 10 miles per hour
- Road test the vehicle
Tools needed
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Large C-Clamp
Hammer
Socket Extensions
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Torque Wrench
Pry Bar
Jack Stands
18mm Socket
19mm Socket
Bungee Cord
Ratchet
Floor Jack
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So we want to start this project we're going to go ahead and loosen the lug nuts here, we're going to use a breaker bar with a 19 millimeter socket. So next we're going to go ahead and raise and support your vehicle. You can use a jack and jack stands. In this case here we're using a lift to make it a little bit easier. We'll just go ahead and remove the lug nuts here just by using that socket because we've already loosened those. With the lug nuts removed, we can now go ahead and remove the wheel and tire.
All right, so we're going to go ahead and remove the brake caliper and the bracket assembly as one complete unit. So to go ahead and start that, we're going to use a basic C-clamp. You want to use the C part and put it on the inside of the brake pad area. And then bring this backside and put it on the backside of the caliper. Be sure not to catch the hard brake line right there. Now, you don't have to crank it in too far, you just want to apply some pressure. And as you start to tighten it, you can actually see the space between the caliper itself and the pad push in. You just want to do it a little bit. Back up, and you want to do it to the lower half. This will let you release the tension on the caliper, and pushes a little bit of brake fluid back up into the system. You can see that this is moving pretty freely right now because a lot less tension on there.
So on the backside, you have a large bolt right here and one right on the bottom. There's only two of them holding this on, and we're actually going to use an 18 millimeter to go ahead and remove those. Once you get those loose, you can go ahead and use a ratchet. Okay, so we're getting these bolts pulled out. All right, so we're going to hold on to this caliper and the bracket, it is a heavy unit.
Now you want to be prepared. Have either a bungee cord or a strap and pull this off. It should slip right off, with your brake pads, caliper, and the bracket. And you want to anchor this somehow, back up to the suspension of the chassis so it doesn't fall down. All right, once you pull of the caliper and the bracket, your rotor can slip right off. In some case you might find that your disc brake backing plate here might be rusted as is ours down below here. Some of them are much worse so it's all rotted and your whole bracket or shield might be missing. So let's go ahead and we're going to show you how to go ahead and remove this. We're going to use a simple eight millimeter wrench.
Now, these here, because of the age and the rust you know that it's been out there in the weather for a long time. So we're going to start to apply a little bit of heat to this here. It's going to help us loosen these bolts, you don't want these to break off inside the knuckle because that just opens up much more work for you. Always be aware of what is behind what you're heating up.
We're going to put this on, and we're going to use a hammer and usually by tapping it and pressing down. We'll actually shock the rust a little bit to break it free. There we go. Okay, you can work it a little bit and go ahead and remove that. We're going to do the same for the other two and get this shield removed .Like I said, you want to make sure and be aware of the surroundings, the backing plate, and then you have your rubber boot right here for your outer tire rod end. This will melt quickly, so be careful when heating this up. Always have a fire extinguisher or something to extinguish a fire in case one should occur.
Okay, we're going to do the same here, and that one is coming out nice. And the same for the lower. Just going to go ahead and remove these here. If you want at this time you can go ahead and maybe just give a little bit of water on those there. You can see you don't want to be putting your hands on that, that's not going to be good. And as you see here we're able to salvage all three pieces of hardware. Here's the backing plate. Ours isn't too, too bad. We're going to go ahead and reinstall this one here. But you can see your three mounting points: one right here, one on the bottom, and then one on the top. So this is something you can do in your driveway, and you will be required to pull the wheel off.
So now I'm going to go ahead with the re-installation of this component. Get the top one started, and we'll go right to the bottom here. Get that one started, and then we're going to go ahead and install the last one. We're just going to snug these up. You're just holding a piece of sheet metal in place so it's not going to require a lot of pressure for that. And up for the last bolt.
So now we're going to go ahead and reassemble the brakes. So we're going to take the original rotor and we're going to install this component here. And next you'll want to go ahead and take that caliper, slide that right back on over here, just going to thread in the two bolts into the backside here. So we're using an 18 millimeter socket with ratchet to go ahead and snug this up. All right, so we're going to take the 18 millimeter socket and put it on the torque wrench and then we're going to tighten this to 136 foot pounds.
All right, I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the tire. I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the lug nuts here. You'll want to get a few threads caught on all of these here. These lug nuts are a 19 millimeter. So we're just going to snug these bottom out, bottom the wheel out to the rotor, we're going to lower the vehicle down onto it's own weight and then do a final torque. With the vehicle on the ground we're going to do a final torque of the wheel, which is between 83 and 112 foot-pounds. We're going to do it in a star pattern. Before test driving the vehicle, you want to start the engine and pumps the brakes a few times, this will reseat the brake pads and compress the calipers.
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