may be a dumb question my '95 F150 will be needing brakes soon (65k)
i want heavy duty pads and shoes ,i pull a boat (3000 lbs ready to go)
at this time would it be a good idea to replace the wheel cyl.in the rear and the calipers in the front, and all the lines, i live in ohio, so the lines see alot of salt??
the brakes work just fine now , pads are getting thin can imagine shoes are too.

thanks ken

 

If calipers are free and dont leak, they should be good, rears if they are original it would not hurt to replace them also replace the springs and hold down pins.

 

OK,thank you , no the calipers are NOT leaking ,nor are the wheel cylinders
the lines are flakey (rusty) but , also not leaking.
thanks again
ken

 

It would be a good idea to have the brake lines checked. A light rust is ok but if they're flaking or wet they really ought to be replaced. (Copper/Nickel alloy tubing is the best thing to use when replacing lines because it doesn't rust.)

The other trouble spot is the front brake hose where it turns to metal tubing and attaches to the caliper. That's one of the first places to fail when you're doing hard braking under a load. (If there's any doubt change em' out.)

 

LobstahClaw (if there's any doubt change em out)

thanks , that's what i was thinking , never heard of copper/nickel alloy tubing

 

The brake line is called Poly Armour, we sell it here at NAPA, if you are going to do brake lines, it is best to do the whole line from the proportion valve to the wheel cylinders, including the center hose.

 

I'm sorry ... really don't mean to keep contradicting you Bro.

The Poly Armor is a coated steel tubing. It's good, but it in places where the coating chafes off the unprotected area is just as prone to rust as regular steel tubing.

The 3/16" x 25' Copper Nickel tubing is Napa / Balkamp PN: BK 6413347

Volvo started using the Cu / Ni alloy tubing sometime back in the late seventies or early eighties. They did all of these studies and it came back with such a low failure rate that they continued to use it on the cars they make.

GM on the other hand kept using steel tubing and ended up with a pretty good sized recall because of brake line failure.

Anyway ... they're so concerned about brake line failure here in Maine that they're very strict about them being in good condition before they will pass a vehicle during it's yearly inspection.

It's to a point now where every time i get a new ( used ) vehicle the first thing i do is change out all of the lines to CuNi. That way it's done and i don't have to listen to them fuss every year.

It's nice stuff to work with.

 

There might be a wisdom in changing out the wheel cylinders & calipers. It all depends on whether or not you're doing the work yourself or paying a mechanic to do it.

Most of the shops in this area are billing somewhere around 70.00$/hr. for labor. Once it's in the bay and up on the lift the meter is runing so you want things to go as smoothly as possible.

If they have to change out a rusty brake line they'll have to bleed it. Once they get to the bleeder valve on the wheel cylinder there's a pretty good chance that it wil either be rusted shut or nearly rusted off.

Everything slows to a crawl while they fuss with it. It would be easy to lose an hour (70.00$) trying to make a fifteen dollar part usable again.

Same thing with calipers.

The parts may be perfectly operable but if the bleeders are no good it's more cost efficient to change the wheel cylinders & calipers out.

It's a better quality job too because you're now starting out with parts that are new or rebuilt.

 

Calipers are recommended at 100,000 km

 

Lol