New Brakes, Another Step By Step Tutorial Options

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I took out my '76 and while driving I could tell there was some additional drag when I depressed the clutch pedal. I pulled over and felt the wheels, and found the driver's side rear was much warmer than the other three. So, after filling with E-free gas, I drove home and put her up on blocks.

I took the rear wheels off first, and found the driver's side rotor and caliper were essentially seized - I couldn't turn the rotor at all. Since the car is almost 40 years old, and in terrific condition otherwise, I placed an order with PMB Performance for a complete brake replacement.

I started by cleaning the wheel wells that had decades of dirt. Here is what the rear looked like:

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Thanks Cairo94507. Today I took delivery of the rear calipers and hard lines for the rear - Thanks Eric at PMB! I only need the new front hard lines to complete the brake rebuild.

Today I heated the front rotors up to about 300 degrees and had the front wheel bearing races in the freezer overnight. I found two sockets that were just under the OD of the races, and once the rotors were heated up I dropped the bearing races in and tapped them down and seated them. The heating of the rotors and freezing of the races will gain you several thousandths of clearance when installing them. I also measured with my vernier to ensure the races were seated and matched the rotors I removed.

After packing the bearings with wheel bearing grease and installing the inner seal, the rotors were installed. The locking nut was adjusted to have zero clearance, but the rotor spun easily. I had some difficulty putting the bearing cap back on. I looked around and found a piece of pipe that fit the outer flange on the cap, and was able to pound it on. Here is a picture of how it turned out.



Here it is with the new re-manufactured caliper from PMB:



You can see the original caliper to the bottom left. Once the new hard line and rubber line are installed this corner will be ready for a bleed job and ready for another 40 years of cruising!