2003 Ranger Edge Front Brake Pads Replacement
 

Is the replacement of the front brake pads pretty straight forward on these trucks? I asked because I've never done anything brake related on a vehicle with an Anti-lock Braking System. I just bought new Wearever Gold MKD-833 pads from Advance Auto and an AmPro T71899 disc brake pad spreader.
http://www.amprotools.net/product_images/T71899.jpg

http://www.tamparacing.com/photopost.../DSC005871.JPG
I don't do any kind of high performance driving or have any power adding mods to the truck so performance pads were not necessary being that this is my daily driver.

I live in an apartment complex where working on vehicles is forbidden and also I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to doing things like this myself anymore. If replacement is straight forward and I don't have to mess with anything else after the pad replacement the I'm sure I could knock it out fairly quickly at a DIY shop on our local air force base.

Its really pretty straight forward. Just take off the wheel, calipers and rotors. Then replace the same way you took them off.

yup if you get stuck just look at the other side.

you will also need a c-clamp

JUST pads?

Wheel off. 14mm to the caliper bolts. caliper is now off. Use c-clamp to compress the pistons so the new pads will fit. put new pads in calipers. put caliper back on. bam...done.

I suggest machine turning the rotor though.

According to the package for the spreader it also compresses the piston. Is there more than one piston in each of these calipers?

i don't get that spreader....useless imo. there's really no need if you got a c-clamp. our calipers are dual piston calipers....so yes, there's two pistons per caliper.

Doubt this will help you, but look at my tutorial (pads and rotors tho)

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ad.php?t=69753

rotor removal/install is different 4x4 vs 2wd. heads up.

caliper/pad removal/install are the same on both 4x4 and 2wd.

Mine is 4x2. I purchased the spreader not knowing we have dual piston calipers so I'll just get a refund on that and get a C-clamp. The DIY shop on base has rotor turning machine (lathe?) so I can get that done there.

Is your truck a Edge or a XLT.

Mine is an Edge (as mentioned in title of the thread)

all 2wds are nutted/bearing'd, dustcapped. doesn't matter if it's torsion bars or coils. So that link to Korey's thread should help him out in the removal of the disc department.

yeah what was I thinking. no sleep sucks.

Sorry if i took your thunder there chad. lol.

Any particular size C-clamp I need to use? I already took the spreader back. Going to Sears so I figured I'd pick one up from there.

If you take the caliper bracket bolts out then make sure you use loctite on the bolts. If you are just doing pads you don't need to take the bracket off.

That spreader would have worked fine....

All you had to do was put the old pad between the spreader and pistons and compress the old pad against the pistons. They'd both go in just fine..

Thanks. It's a bit late for that now, though. I'll keep that in mind for future reference. With the pads removed from the calipers how much room is there to play with for using a C-clamp? I only want to buy the one C-clamp I need and not a whole C-clamp kit.

I used a 6" c-clamp that i had just lying around to push them pistons back in.

yep thats what I used also, I used a block of wood also to push them both back in at the same time.......

I bought ceramic pads, now I'm not dusty dirty like the stock ones.

Got the pads changed today. I've seen worse pads than these. They were unevenly worn on the right front side. The three inch C-clamp I got from Sears wasn't big enough, but the DIY shop have a bigger one that I used. Also, it turns out that the previous owner must have turned the rotors before as they were too thin to turn.
Left front pad with new pad.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00608.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00606.jpg

This caliper pistons were out pretty far.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00610.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00611.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00612.jpg

Right front pad with new pad.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...K/DSC00615.jpg

Another thing, after the pedal stiffened back up it feels no differently than it did before even though the truck stops better.

What made you do a brake job in the first place? The pads look like they have about 50% left in them.