arbor: Shaft which extends from spindle of lathe to which adaptors and drums and rotors are mounted. more »
Providing Complete Brake Service
by Karl Seyfert, Motor, June 2006
June 2006. Delivering quality brake service involves more than your choice of pads or shoes. Several other factors also affect the quality and longevity of the finished product. more »
The Tools That Keep Brake Service Fast & Profitable
By Larry Carley, Technical Editor
Brake & Front End Magazine
Brake work is one area that continues to show steady growth in the aftermarket. Obviously, brakes are an essential safety item on every vehicle - you can’t stop without them! But the brakes wear every time they are applied and eventually wear out or develop problems that interfere with the safe operation of the vehicle.
Linings wear down and have to be replaced. Rotors and drums wear unevenly, warp and go out-of-round requiring them to be resurfaced or replaced. Hydraulic components such as the calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinders can develop leaks and other problems that require these components to be rebuilt or replaced. The same goes for steel brake lines, rubber brake hoses, brake hardware, self-adjusters and parking brakes. Nor is the ABS system immune to wear and corrosion. Add it all up and it equals a tremendous service opportunity for brake repair work - provided you have the right tools and equipment. more »
Brake Drum Service
Bill Williams
Brake & Front End Magazine, January 2002
The mention of drum brake service doesn't usually get much attention in regard to interest these days. The service is thought to be so straightforward and simple that it doesn't take much brain power to get it done. Right? Not necessarily so. Proper drum brake service, like anything else, requires attention to detail in order to provide the best possible braking.
INSPECTION
The first step is determining the level of service needed. more »
Heavy Duty Brake Repairs
By Larry Carley, Technical Editor
Brake & Front End Magazine
Big trucks have big brakes that equal big repair opportunities for shops that can handle this kind of work – especially if you land a commercial fleet account. But stepping up to truck repairs requires some education and know-how if you've never done this kind of work before.
Passenger car and light-truck brakes are all hydraulic, and typically have disc brakes up front and drums in the rear (except on four-wheel disc brake applications). With big trucks, air actuated brakes are used rather than hydraulic brakes. And on the big rigs, any loss of air pressure in the system causes the breaks to apply. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 121 requires this kind of safety backup to prevent runaway trucks from careening down the highway. more »
Trailer Brake Repair Offers Unique Service Opportunity
Larry Carley
Brake & Front End Magazine
Summer is trailer season. People pull boats, campers, race cars, horses, lawn tractors, utility trailers, you-name-it. In many states, trailers that have gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of more than 3,000 lbs. are required by law to have their own brakes. In some states, trailers with a GVWR oas low as 1,000 lbs. may be required to have brakes. on trailers with tandem axles, brakes may be required on both axles if the GVWR exceeds 5,000 lbs.
Trailer brakes are essential because the added weight of the trailer may be more than the tow vehicle can safely handle. more »
SELLING SERVICES
Wheel Bearing Hub Units
The $120 Million Service Opportunity
By Larry Carley
Brake & Front End Magazine
What goes around comes around. The replacement market for wheel bearing and hub assemblies is estimated to be $120 million annually. Yet, many wheel bearings that may need to be replaced are not because they are overlooked when other service and repair is performed on a vehicle.
Missing a bad wheel bearing and hub assembly that should be replaced means that you miss out on a profitable repair job. List prices for a typical sealed wheel bearing and hub with an internal ABS sensor or external ABS tone ring run $140 to $150. When you add in labor, the total job can easily add up to $500 to $650. more »
Doing A Complete Brake Repair Job
by Larry Carley c2005
What is a "complete" brake job? The opposite of an "incomplete" brake job, obviously.
An incomplete brake job is one that leaves things undone. Important things that may be overlooked, or not included, in the basic package to save time and/or money. We are talking about things like rebuilding or replacing calipers and wheel cylinders, replacing disc and drum brake hardware, resurfacing or replacing drums and rotors, changing the brake fluid and bleeding all the lines, checking and adjusting the parking brake and even checking the ABS system. more »
Silencing Disc Brake Squeal
by Larry Carley c2005
Like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, disc brake squeal is enough to make anybody's hair stand on end. For some neurological reason that is not fully understood, human beings react negatively to high-pitched squeals — like crying babies, sirens and screeching breaks. So if your brakes are sqeualing, you want the noise to go away.
Brake squealing is produced by high-frequency vibration in the brakes. With disc brakes more »
Eliminating Disc Brake Noise
by Larry Carley c2005
Getting rid of an annoying brake squeal and other brake noise is like trying to cure a bad case of herpes. You can treat the symptoms and improve the patient's condition. But it is virtually impossible to eliminate the underlying cause. Fortunately, brake noise is not caused by a virus. It is caused by a combination of factors that sometimes add up to create noise.
Brake squeal is really a high frequency vibration. In disc brakes, it can be caused by vibrations between the pads and rotors, more »
Say No to Brake Noise
By Larry Carley c2003
Nothing grates on a persons nerves more than squealing brakes. The high pitched squeal often has the same effect as dragging fingernails across a chalkboard. American drivers will not tolerate that kind of noise from their brakes. They will ignore a Check Engine lamp and other kinds of problems for thousands of miles, but they will not put up with squeals when they step on the brake pedal.
Europeans are said to be more tolerant of brake noise. Europeans are more tolerant of a lot of things. But hey, this is America and we have to cater to the needs and wants of American drivers. What our customers want is safe brakes, affordable prices for brake work, and NO NOISE! Not a peep!
Of all the various complaints motorists might have after a brake job, noise is number one. more »
Brake Rotors
By Larry Carley c2006
Brake rotors are an often replaced item when the brakes are relined because they bear the brunt of the friction created by the brake pads. Every time the brakes are applied, the pads rub against the rotors and create friction. Friction creates heat and wears both the brake pads and rotors. Eventually both need to be replaced.
BRAKE ROTOR WEAR & ROTOR COOLING
Rotor wear is usually much less than pad wear because the rotors are harder. Rotors are made of cast iron more »
Composite Disc Brake Rotors
by Larry Carley c2005
Composite brake rotors have been around since the early 1980s. When they were introduced, everyone was worried about soaring fuel prices (just like today), and auto makers were scrambling for ways to take weight out of their vehicles so they could meet the government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. So one of the changes that was made was to replace heavy cast iron rotors with lightweight composite brake rotors.
COMPOSITE ROTORS SAVE WEIGHT
This type of rotor derived its name from the fact that it combined a stamped steel center hat more »
