Disc Brake System Rebuild/Replacement/Servicing // 02.2024

NEURO

1st Gear Poster
Joined
Sep 22, 2023
Messages
36
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Vehicle Details
1997 Ford Thunderbird LX Sport with 4.6L V8
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1997 Ford Thunderbird LX Sport
A couple weeks ago, finally finished rebuilding/replacing/servicing The Car's brake system...and I'm still alive...although I hurt so much after two weeks of this and The Car being offline. 😎

The work was documented with photos & commentary that are on Google Photos, in case it helps anyone.
Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MPUWX8G8nFTHWTog7

Special thanks to @supergordo (Gordon) & another friend for their help, food, coffee, and extra pair of hands when I needed them or ran into issues.

Afterwards, it was time to grill some beef for dinner.
Because that's what heroes do 😎


shopping 01252024.jpg

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Beautiful car. Not a ton of great pads available for the rears of these.
Went with the Duralast Gold Semi-Metallic for the rear pads.
They don't make Gold's for the Sport fronts, so went with the ACDelco Professional Semi-Metallic.

I wanted more than just basic SM, which is why I chose them. I have no idea how good they are or how long they'll last, but I typically pop for Motorcraft or higher-tier products for The Car. There aren't too many factory original Sports in this condition around any longer, so I keep her in the best shape I can.

But she only sees about 1000-1500 miles/year, so it'll be a very long time before they're replaced again.
I probably could have gotten another 10K miles...or another 5-10 years out of the original brakes at that rate, but after almost 30 years of service...and a few panic stops that were weak...I knew I had let the brakes go too long and had overstayed my bang for the buck value on the factory ones.
 
PBR swap, then pads are varied and numerous, lol. Also powerstop makes drilled rotors that look really cool.
 
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