Tradesman

I was finally able to upgrade my brakes this weekend. The poor weather and a lack of a garage prevents me from working on my truck projects as often as I would like to.

For this particular project, I studied the F-150's braking system. I also have my Ram 1500 as an equal comparison. The F-150's front brakes are actually designed very well. Unless you're towing/hauling at maximum capacity on a daily basis or taking your truck to the track then there really is no need for a big brake kit. The factory brakes are more than sufficient, as long as your calipers and brake lines are in top shape and you install high quality rotors and pads. I have original OEM rotors and pads. After studying which brake pads and rotors I wanted to go with, I decided to go with Hawk Ceramic (Yellow) and AP cross drilled and slotted rotors.

Here are the pics of my brake project. You'll also notice that in this picture I have brake shoes for my rear e-brakes. I haven't had a chance to do those yet and I will do those sometime down the road. I have never used Hawk brake pads before but they have a reputation for being better than EBC. I have personally used EBC RedStuff brake pads and I wanted to use them for this project but to my knowledge they are not available for our trucks. So Hawk Ceramics it is. I have already used AP cross drilled and slotted rotors as I have them at all four corners on my Ram 1500 and they are absolutely awesome.
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Here is a close up of my passenger-side front brakes. The rotor actually still has plenty of life left in it and isn't warped by any means. Theoretically I can have them machined and keep them, but I have always replaced rotors the same time I replace pads. I'm already saving money on the labour and it feels have assed to replace pads and not replace the rotors to me, so I always do them both at the same time. The pads themselves are pretty much shot, and are almost up to the backing plate.
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I noticed on both the driver-side and passenger side that the lower control arm had some sort of gouge marks on these tiny little "ears" that come out. Perhaps the previous owner had much larger wheels and tires that rubbed against the control arm at one point. Not really too sure what it should look like but if anyone can post a picture of a non-damaged lower control arm I would greatly appreciate it.
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Originally I had trouble getting the 18mm caliper bracket bolts out, so I used a torch to heat them up until I was able to zip them off with my impact wrench. I purchased four new caliper bracket bolts from the local Ford dealer. Frikking cost me $10/bolt! In this picture you can also see the old pads compared with the new pads, plus the anti-squeal braking compound that you place on the backing plate of the brake pads. Do not get any of it on the rotor or the friction material of the pads.
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Here is another pic of all the parts I will be replacing. Brake pads, rotors and caliper bracket bolts.
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Here is the final product. It took me about an hour and a half for the entire thing from start to finish, taking my time. I could have done it faster if I used my air ratchet and rushed it but I like to double check everything and make sure everything is good. The calipers were very snug and required some convincing to get them to come off the caliper bracket, and the caliper bracket bolts were seized and require a propane pencil torch to free them up. Having an impact wrench also helped, otherwise everything else were just regular hand tools. If I wasn't pressed for time I would have painted the calipers as well.
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In the coming months I will probably post an update on how I like or dislike these brake pads. I can tell you right away they are a tad bit noisier than I thought. They aren't whisper quiet like EBC RedStuff. They do have a good solid bite though, and it seems the warmer they get the stronger the bite. Time will tell whether or not I can recommend these brake pads.

In due time I will be installing stainless steel brake lines and bleeding the brakes, on top of painting the calipers. That will be on a different thread. And be sure to check out the Stoptech website on how to properly bed your brake pads. Bedding our brake pads will determine how well they perform and how long they will last. I spent about 45 minutes bedding in my brakes due to high traffic, but it was well worth it. So far I am impressed by these brake pads performance, just not the noise. And this is my third time using AP rotors. They aren't cheap, but they work very well.

techrep

iTrader: (1)

Nice job...except your forgot to throw some paint on your calipers and hub...

Tradesman

As mentioned I didn't paint the calipers and caliper brackets as the weather was turning for the worse and I don't have a garage. I'll be painting them sometime down the road when time and weather permits me. I'm going to tackle the rear parking brake shoes this afternoon.

ToughFX4

The pics of your lower control arm are from full turn. Every time you crank your wheel right or left all the way that part acts as a bump stop.Hope that answers your question.

flamehead16

i have ebc pads and rotors on my 04

muddyford911

iTrader: (1)

i had ROTORPROS dimpled and slotted rotors with PFC carbon metallic pads on my 03. great combo, but like tradesman said, pretty noisy. also, performance increased the hotter they got.

tradesman, have you had any problems with your rotors cracking? i did alot of research and found that drilled rotors are actually slightly weaker and are more prone to cracking than dimpled rotors.

shawnx92

nice write up! Like all the detailed pics. How much did that cost you for the rotors and pads?

powerranger262

Not sure about his exact setup, but i just did all four drilled/slotted rotors with pads for $212.

powerranger262

Oh yeah, no more brakedust from the garbage stock rotors and pads! Real nice not having to wipe my chrome rims every three days.

Tradesman

Thanks for the info, I was wondering why it seemed all scratched up. The previous owner must've done some hard lock-to-lock turns.

Can't give you an exact price as I don't pay retail price for anything, but expect the same set up to cost well over $500 range. I don't mind spending that kind of money on brakes since I tow an 8,000lb trailer and brakes are critical to me. Besides, I never install garbage parts on my vehicles. Everything from my US made LEDs to UK made brake rotors, I only use the best.

That is one hell of an awesome price. That price barely covers the cost of one of my rotors.

I know, I have chrome 20 inch wheels on my Ram 1500 and when I switched over to ceramic brake pads I only have to clean them a fraction of the time.