If you've been following along, I'm recapping the hell that was the "quick" brake job on my dad's Expedition. Day 2 marked the start of the real fun. It was daylight hours so I broke out the air tools with aspirations of quickly getting the brakes apart. I grabbed the brakes to separate the caliper from the bracket. I tried to drive out the T45 bolts while holding the caliper. No, that didn't work so much so I forced the unit (uh, huh huh huh) back on the mount where I could temporarily put in a bolt to get some leverage. Once I got the bolts out, figured out the stupid clips, and moved the sliders back, I was able to get the calipers, pads and bracket separated. The pads were, in a word, pretty.
The rotors had clearly not been turned.
I'm 99% sure the driver-side one was way below spec. These things had been reused without proper maintenance (Hindsight: Error #4)
The driver-side caliper re-seated without a hitch but the passenger-side caliper's dust boot was all sorts of jacked up. I'm sure I could have forced it back in but I would have been driving all that rust into the seal probably shredding it and causing the caliper to leak and fail. That's not how I roll so I decided it was time to put in a reman. 
So, let's get a tally. So far we need 1 caliper, 1 brake line, 2 rotors and new pads. Before I went out to buy a bunch of parts, I wanted to get everything apart. The rotors were the only thing I hadn't tackled so, after realizing they were pretty stuck, I got "The Equalizer," my 3lb hand sledge. I beat on the rotors pretty good and they didn't budge. After soaking them in PB Blaster for about 30minutes, the beating resumed. Much to my frustration, they weren't moving. My buddy happened by and he gave them hell but they bit back and snapped "The Equalizer" like an old lady's hip on a cold day.
A quick trip to Sears won me a newer (and less crappy) 3lb hand sledge as well as a 20lb sledgehammer both with fiberglass handles. (Here's where Hindsight Errors #1 & 4 come into play). So I took said hand sledge and started into the rotors. After about 20minutes of that I got out the full sledgehammer and started swinging. I was removing chunks of rotor and a ton of rust but the rotors would not budge. I called a friend who was nice enough to lend me a very large hub puller and a 3/4" impact gun. He had used this in the past on Ford rotors (oh, crap... these things are notorious for this?!?!!). So it went to town. Here's where hindsight error #4 comes into play. Chunks were coming out of the driver side rotor as I worked the hub puller. This effectively removed the lip I needed to use the puller so I regrouped and moved to the passenger side. I pumped the compressor to 122lbs of pressure and got the hub puller so tight that the impact couldn't turn the bolt any more. No matter how or where I whacked the rotor it still wouldn't budge.
Fearing an explosion of steel that was sure to land me in the hospital and not having access to an acetylene torch I decided my only recourse was removing the wheel bearings with the rotors attached. Unfortunately, like everything else, one of the 6 bolts was rounded off. Grabbing my hand sledge and a 6-point socket, I hammered until the socket grabbed and I was able to remove the bolt. Note to self: Grab a replacement bolt at the auto parts store (Hindsight: Error #5). Finally! The bastards are off the truck.
The rotors had clearly not been turned.
I'm 99% sure the driver-side one was way below spec. These things had been reused without proper maintenance (Hindsight: Error #4)
The driver-side caliper re-seated without a hitch but the passenger-side caliper's dust boot was all sorts of jacked up. I'm sure I could have forced it back in but I would have been driving all that rust into the seal probably shredding it and causing the caliper to leak and fail. That's not how I roll so I decided it was time to put in a reman. 
So, let's get a tally. So far we need 1 caliper, 1 brake line, 2 rotors and new pads. Before I went out to buy a bunch of parts, I wanted to get everything apart. The rotors were the only thing I hadn't tackled so, after realizing they were pretty stuck, I got "The Equalizer," my 3lb hand sledge. I beat on the rotors pretty good and they didn't budge. After soaking them in PB Blaster for about 30minutes, the beating resumed. Much to my frustration, they weren't moving. My buddy happened by and he gave them hell but they bit back and snapped "The Equalizer" like an old lady's hip on a cold day.
A quick trip to Sears won me a newer (and less crappy) 3lb hand sledge as well as a 20lb sledgehammer both with fiberglass handles. (Here's where Hindsight Errors #1 & 4 come into play). So I took said hand sledge and started into the rotors. After about 20minutes of that I got out the full sledgehammer and started swinging. I was removing chunks of rotor and a ton of rust but the rotors would not budge. I called a friend who was nice enough to lend me a very large hub puller and a 3/4" impact gun. He had used this in the past on Ford rotors (oh, crap... these things are notorious for this?!?!!). So it went to town. Here's where hindsight error #4 comes into play. Chunks were coming out of the driver side rotor as I worked the hub puller. This effectively removed the lip I needed to use the puller so I regrouped and moved to the passenger side. I pumped the compressor to 122lbs of pressure and got the hub puller so tight that the impact couldn't turn the bolt any more. No matter how or where I whacked the rotor it still wouldn't budge.Fearing an explosion of steel that was sure to land me in the hospital and not having access to an acetylene torch I decided my only recourse was removing the wheel bearings with the rotors attached. Unfortunately, like everything else, one of the 6 bolts was rounded off. Grabbing my hand sledge and a 6-point socket, I hammered until the socket grabbed and I was able to remove the bolt. Note to self: Grab a replacement bolt at the auto parts store (Hindsight: Error #5). Finally! The bastards are off the truck.
Serious chunktification. Hmmm, that bearing looks an awful shade of red.
Chatter marks, chunks and a busted seal on the wheel bearing.
Kinda glad this one didn't come apart.
Let's get an updated parts tally. Now we need 1 caliper, 1 brake line, 2 rotors, pads, 2 wheel bearings, 1 bolt and a bucket of anti-seize compound to prevent these shenanigans in the future. Having a shopping list in hand, I was more than happy to pack it up for the night.
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