Hi Erkan,
Your late TR3 brakes are nearly identical to my early TR4 system.
Do you have a service manual for your car? If not, a brake job like you
are doing is challenging.
I am worried that one front pad wore out entirely while the other 3 were
fine. That indicates a problem. You may have successfully addressed it
with the caliper work you were doing. The smell you mentioned could be
coming from the new pad dragging.
The front disks must be removed after the front hubs have been removed
from the front axles The disks bolt onto the back of the hubs. Once the
assembly is off the car, put some WD40 on the bolts before trying to
loosen and you should be able to remove them.
The service manual will give you step by step instructions, too long to
post here. Pretty simple once you've done it the first time. Same is
true of a rear brake rebuild.
Regarding your soft brake pedal, you really need to check the rear
brakes before spending any more time on the road. A soft pedal indicates
a problem that is a serious safety issue. It could be air in the system
(more bleeding) or a leak that allows fluid out and air in. All the
bleeding in the world won't solve the problem.
Also check all the brake hoses (one at each front caliper, one at the
rear axle, for a total of 3 on your car). Assuming they are rubber, see
if they are overly soft (allowing them to expand when you apply the
brakes) or cracked and leaking fluid/allowing air into the system. I
replaced my ancient rubber hoses with braided stainless steel, much more
durable and gives a significantly harder brake pedal.
The smell you describe may be caused by a dragging brake shoe or a
leaking rear wheel slave cylinder has saturated the brake shoe linings.
It also could be that one front pad hanging up again. Are you sure the
front calipers are working right?
I don't believe in fooling around with the brake system. You might want
to consider taking the parts you have purchased and going to a brake
shop with the car until you are more familiar with the repairs.
In the meantime, if you do drive, keep your hand near the parking brake
as it can be used to stop the car in the event the hydraulic system
fails catastrophically (only if the rear shoes & hubs are in decent
operating condition)..
If you want to do the work yourself, let's not fill up everybody elses'
e-mail. I will be glad to pass along specific detailed instructions if
you want to e-mail me directly.
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'62 TR4 #CT17602
Hassan, Erkan wrote:
> I greatly appreciated the wise advice from the list regarding the
> calipers and pistons.
>
> As a recap, when I brought my TR3B home, the PO said it had just
> received
> a new master cylinder. The squishy brakes, I therefore attributed to
> lack of bleeding (since it was replaced the day I picked the car up).
> I
> bleed the brakes (note: all 4 bleed nipples had fluid coming out of
> them
> when loosened and pumped) and the pedal improved but still needed
> pumping. I then heard terrible metal to metal grinding on the front
> passenger side. The ouside pad had completely worn down to metal onto
>
> the rotor. The remaining 3 pads on the front were all fine......
> .....What is going on here??
> Where should I start?
> Are the front piston(s) stuck again?
> Are there no rear brakes?
> Does it need to be rebleed again (I'm really getting tired of doing
> this)? All bleeding has been done the old fashion way without an EZ
> bleed
> or Mitivac.
> How have others replaced front rotors without the benefit of impact
> wrenches?
> Assuming the rear brake drums have melded into one solid mass, how
> does
> one check the back?
>
> Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> Erkan Hassan
> 62 TR3B
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MZ
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