I started working on the front brakes this weekend and so far, it's been pretty frustrating. Armed with my experience replacing the back brakes, I thought I knew what to do on the front set. Boy was I wrong.... After removing the front wheel, I started off by hitting all of the mating surfaces that I could see with Kroil penetrating oil. A little prying with a pry bar and nothing. A little banging with a deadblow hammer and some more prying leads to nothing Add more Kroil and move to the other front wheel while this one soaks up the Kroil. Repeat procedure on that side. Nothing. Back to the first side. Nothing. More banging with deadblow, more prying. Nothing. Back to the second side for more of the same. Nothing. All the while, I'm thinking to myself that the alignment studs look like they've been peened over. Nah, just my imagination playing tricks on me. After all, it was pretty hot out there! Back to business. Repeat all of the above. Nothing. Three hours later, I give up in frustration. Then, after cleaning up a bit, I hit the truck forum and discover that I wasn't imagining things. The studs were peened over by the factory! Holy cow, I've just wasted the entire day. Nice.
The second day of the weekend brought some success.
I got out the Dremel with a hefty cut off wheel and got down to business. I didn't want to use a full size grinder, because these studs are between the wheel lugs and I didn't want to damage any of them. So with Dremel in hand, I got to it. Took about an hour to grind all three studs flush with the brake drum. So now the moment of truth...a little prying and...nothing! That meant getting the drill out and drilling out what remained of the studs. That took another 15 minutes or so. With pry bar in hand I give it one more try...and VOILA! With an audible crack, the brake drum broke free of the remnants of the studs! After that, the drum easily came off the wheel hub. A quick inspection revealed that the shoes were worn paper thin. I doubt that they had ever been serviced. I buttoned them back up and cleaned up. Next weekend I'll replace those internals, grind off the studs on the other side and replace those internals.
One thing that I was able to do was to remove the rubber brake line hoses and the final pieces of steel brake lines. After I get the brakes rebuilt on the front wheels, I'll add the remaining replacement brake lines and the new master cylinder. That should be the last of it. I don't know if I can get it all done in one weekend, but will give it a shot.
Next weekend, I'll take some before and after pics of the studs.
