Last part of my title is almost a ryhme!

Anyways, finally figured out how to jack up the rear end with a pice of 2x4 on the axle, and got it on stands.. got the wheels off (I've done my front brakes already.)

Looking at the haynes manual, and they simply state "remove the retaining clip for the parking brake."

Well, sure, they make this sound easy. How in gods name do you actually accomplish this?! I've got the caliper bolts off, both torque member bolts loosened... all ready to change everything, but I can't get the parking brake cable off my caliper!

 

Follow the brake cable towards the front of the car. It will be secured to the car with a 10mm bolt just a little in front of the rear axle. Remove that and you should get just barely enough slack to remove it from the caliper.

 

That's working, thank you very much!

 

NISSAN GAVE ME A BOX WITH THREE REAR PADS AND ONE FRONT PAD!!!

That's fabulous, seeing as I have no transportation there...

 

i hope you have something holding those front tires very still... thats scary

 

Tell them to get a hot courier out to you to deliver the parts at their expense.

 

I've got a pad on the way, a friend is getting it for me.

But another problem now, trying to get atleast one side done...

I can't get the rear calipers to retract, the resevoir is open, but ONCE AGAIN the haynes manual doesnt tell you how to do this. They simply say "we bought this specialized tool, but you can figure out how to do it with needle nose pliers on your own."

What direction do you spin it in, and exactly how much force should I be exerting here?

 

Spin it clock wise. Righty Tighty. You can use needle nose plyers, but good luck. It takes some force to retract the rear caliper piston. Best be is to have your friend pick you up the tool at Autozone for about 10 bux. Make sure the piston boot doesnt bind and tear when you are spinning the caliper piston. Use a little bit of wd-40 around the boot and piston.


Edit***

Only retract the piston far enough to make it fit back over the pads. Which will be almost as far as you can make it retract.

 

You may be able to rent the tool for retracting the rear caliper, if its too expensive to buy.

 

That tool costs nothing to buy.

 

The tool is cheap, you can get one thast just a socket piece. It's still a pain to turn them in.

 

If the piston is *really* hard to twist back in, then its time for new calipers. Even if you manage to get the piston in after some forcing... you'll likely end up with binding brakes in the future as the piston is likely seized and will not retract properly when you use the brakes and parking brake.

While you are working on the rears, make sure the parking brake cable is extending/retracting properly (i.e. that it isn't kinked, seized, rusted, sheathing isn't cracked).

 

And if you do need rear calipers, replace both as they are hydraulic and you will experience uneven braking if both are not replaced.

Are you planning on machining the rotors? I was told that they are relatively thin to begin with and should be replaced, rather than machined. In my case, the rotors were fine. The new brake pads will clean up any glaze that exists on the rotors.

 

i have have the haynes manual too
I love how some of parts of are completely different from my car and show 3rd gen parts instead of 4th how lovely it is.

 

I ended up having to reassemble everything with the old brakes, as I didn't have time to get the tools necessary and correct pad before I have to head to work in a few... gonna have to do this again tommorow.

However now I have the socket tool that goes into the caliper to retract it. My car only has 80k on it, so for now I'm hoping the rear calipers will be ok for atleast this set of brake pads.

 

I've got new rotors and pads, it looks like the rear pads have been changed a few times without changing rotors. They are not warped, but they are pretty worn (they are set in with a thin lip on the outer most edge of rust...)

Like i said in my previous post, gonna have to do it all from scratch tommorow.

Luckily I took off all the bolts and everything today, and have the caliper tool this time around, so things should move smoothly tommorow.

 

Don't forget to loosen the brake reservoir cap to allow some of the pressure to bleed off when you screw the caliper back in. If you take your time, needle nose pliers should work just fine...