Tundra Brake Assembly

Performing the replacement process for a Tundra pickup trucks front brakes involves and requires familiarity with automotive hydraulic brake systems. The Tundra truck model utilizes a disc brake system in the front and a drum brake system on the back wheels. As a result, the home mechanic not only needs to be able to remove the wheel and hub, he also needs to understand how to handle the fluid adjustments and repair of the rotor, caliper and brake pad.

Instructions

Preparation Work

1

Apply a lug nut or socket wrench to the lug nuts that hold the wheels onto the car. Loosen these nuts with the car still resting full-weight on the ground. Continue loosening until the nuts can be spun by hand, but do not remove them.

2

Use a vehicle jack to raise one side of the truck, working on one wheel at a time. Place a jack stand underneath for safety and to prevent the truck from falling if the stand fails.

3

Remove the tire lug nuts and pull the tire off the hub. Locate the brake caliper on the internal rotor attached to the axle hub. Loosen the bottom, or lower, bolt securing the caliper in place. Use pliers to pull out the safety clip wires in the brake pad pins. Pull the pins out and set them aside.

4

Position the loose brake caliper so that you can loosen the wire springs on the top of the brake pads. Remove the wire springs and pull out the pad parts (brake pads, support plates, shims and pad wear indicators). Keep them in the order of assembly they came out with so you know how to reinsert them later.

5

Suction out 50 percent of the old brake fluid with a brake fluid pump after connecting it to the caliper hose.

Installation of the Brake Pads

6

Insert new brake pad parts in the same order that you removed them in the preparation process. Insert these parts by hand into the caliper assembly, pushing them in place until they are in the correct position.

7

Insert the brake pad pins again into the caliper and secure them with the safety wires. Reattach the securing wire springs at the upper part of the brake pad assembly. Reposition the brake caliper back downward onto the rotor again.

8

Lower and hold the caliper on the rotor and reinsert the lower position bolt. Tighten the bolt with a socket wrench or crescent wrench.

9

Re-install the tire, spin the lug nuts back on, and lower the wheel to the ground. Remove the jack stands and lift and tighten the lug nuts to keep the wheel in place.

10

Add brake fluid into the now half-empty brake system by pouring new brake fluid into the master cylinder container. Press the brake foot pedal multiple times until the pads push against the wheel rotor properly. Close up the cylinder and perform the same brake pad work on the other front brake and wheel to finish the front end.