Quote: Once I get a rotor and caliper, I can hook up the caliper, bleed it, put it where I want it, have someone hold the brake pedal to center it and meake my templates. something to that effect.
Put a rotor on a hub and hold it down tight with an old open lug nut. Make sure there's no excessive runout when you turn the hub. Then, lock it down so it doesn't spin. If it's a drilled rotor you can wire it to the lower control arm. Whatever method you use, it must prevent the rotor from spinning while you play with the caliper. Once that's done, drop the caliper with pads over the rotor where you want it to be. A pair of vise grips clamped to the rotor (using cardboard under the jaws to prevent damage) will keep the caliper from sliding off the rotor. I used small needle nose vise grip pliers to grab a cooling fin from the edge of the rotor and let the caliper hang off of it. You can then put shims between the brake pads and rotor to center the caliper. Be sure to space the caliper so the pads are at the right depth and the rotor doesn't touch the caliper. When everything is locked down tight you need to turn the steering wheel back and forth to check for clearance. Adjust the caliper position accordingly. If there are no conflicts you need to bottom out the suspension and turn the steering wheel again. Adjust position as needed. Next, fully compress the suspension and check for clearance again. After you have the "perfect" position figured out run through the suspension and steering movement one last time to guarantee a collision-free position. Be sure to mark the position of the caliper on the rotor with a Sharpie or other fine marking device. Permanent marker ink will wear off the rotor. If you like you can stick masking tape on the rotor to draw the outline of the caliper.
Finally, with the caliper in it's best position you need to crawl under the truck and start making measurements to determine the best mount to place the caliper where you want it to be.
Only then can you pull the caliper off the rotor, marking the shims and pads used to position it. That will enable you to reset the stack should the first mount not work out.
When I did my brakes the calipers only fit in one position and I had less than 1/2" of up/down adjustment available.
We are brothers and sisters doing time on the planet for better or worse. I'll take the better, if you don't mind. - Stu Harmon
