Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches New England Newb question

I had to give warning.

Im a newbie here, my name is Damon. I dont own a contour, but a few friends of mine do and they have no knowledge of cars whatsoever so I help them out from time to time.

Im also a moderator at the taurus car club. A fellow moderator has done an SVT head swap onto his 3.0 duratec. I am pretty good with my own car, but my question is this.

Is the contour front disc brake setup similar to that of the taurus (ie 4 bolts hold everything together)? One of my friends needs new rotors and pads,so I volunteered for the job. I know the taurus, but not the contour. Any help is appreciated. Hes got a 98 SE.

Also, I see you guys have meets from time to time. Are non-contour drivers welcome?

Thanks!
-Damon

i think the taurus is a 5bolt pattern but i'd suspect the disc brake setups are similar.

i'd say noncontour people are welcome at our meets

i just got done doing my brakes so if u need any help......

Gen3SHOgirl is the only one i can think of right now.
she is from the wakefield area, maybe you already know her.

brake pad changes on the contour are suprisingly easy. Both teh fronts and rears are designed to be easy to change pads.

In a nut shell, pull the wheels off, remove the 2 pin bolts that connect the caliper to the caliper bracket and the caliper and pads come off together.

I also suggest you take the caliper bracket off the steering knuckle so you can slide the rotor off and give it a quick once over. You just want to make sure that the braking surfaces of the rotors aren't all gurred up and do a quick thickness check with a tape measure to make sure the rotor isn't worn too thin.

Before you put the rotor back on take a minute or two to sand the surfaces of the rotor with some 100 or 220 grit sand paper until the surfaces look hazy. This helps to lighlty rough the surface so the new pads break in better.

Then put it all back together with a thin film of caliper grease (white grease works good too) on the surface of the pin bolts that attach the caliper to make sure that it can slide smoothly and the bolts don't rust.

also check out the How To, it should help guide you along

Regarding Jay's post - make sure you use garnet paper (for wood sanding). Works great to eliminate pulsations due to pad adhesion.

If your just changing your pads and before changing them the brakes work smoothly with out pulsing then your rotors are probably true so sanding is all you need to do to lightly rough the surface to help bed in the new pads.

If your brakes are pulsing when you go to change the pads then its a good idea to have the rotors turned to make sure that they are true. If the rotors are turned then there's no need to sand them becasue the machining will leave a surface sufficently rough to bed in the new pads.

You can get garnet paper the same place you would sand paper - hardware store, Home Depot, etc. The package says for wood sanding, and usually garnet is on there somewhere, but may not be obvious.