97 Geo Tracker brake job

Hello! Today I want to share what I did for my Geo Tracker. When I bought this little Toy Truck, I didn’t realize just how much work was going to be needed to make this a daily driver! For such a small vehicle it has a lot of maintenance! Under normal circumstances however, If previous owners would have done the bare minimum of maintenance there wouldn’t be so much to do! So what would I do? Like I don’t have anything else to do around here? 😉

Moving right along~ my tracker was in desperate need of brakes. The parts aren’t too bad as far a cost goes. I bought everything from ebay.

BTW~ you can click on a picture to enlarge it.

 

 

 

I thought for sure this was going to be a 2-3 hour task, but it took much longer! Not that I’m slow! There was just more than I had anticipated to do!

 

The parts: New slotted/drilled rotors, new drums, new wheel cylinders, hardware kits, master cylinder, shoes and pads of course, paint for the new (rebuilt) calipers, and a fuel filter while it’s up on the lift, and check out the exhaust leak too! oh, there’s where my time went!:(

 

 

 

Darn, looks like this tracker had been sitting in a field somewhere! It was so rusty looking!

 

 

 

 

Several days before I did the brake job, I painted my calipers red and painted the rear drums as well. I don’t want them to ever rust!

 

I’m all set and ready to go for the front brakes~;)

 

 

 

I was so excited to place my new rotor on! Damn that is sexy! 😉

 

 

 

 

The anti-rattle clip thing. They can be a little testy to put in correctly, but they will only go on one way.

 

 

 

 

Pads in place and ready for the pretty caliper.

 

 

 

 

 

I wish someone made a lesser expensive Brembo caliper, but this will just have to do!

 

 

 

The new front brakes look great through the spokes of the wheel!

 

 

 

 

The Rear brakes:

The front disc brake overhaul was quite easy compared to the rear drum brakes. To remove the rear drums, sometimes just a good whack or two with a large hammer will release the drum from the axle flange, but a couple of screws can be used to pull the drum off.

 

 

 

I forgot to get a close up picture of the rear brake setup before I removed it all! argh! But there’s my new rear shock~ I bought the set of 4 shocks from eBay for 99 bucks! The Low Range Offroad decal I put on the shock to dress it up.

 

 

 

This is the rear brake without the wheel cylinder obviously. The rear brakes aren’t difficult, it’s just the axle flange is large and gets in the way.

 

 

Probably the biggest hassle is removing the hold down springs and the large return spring. However, the self-adjuster is kind of a pain too. But be patient, it’s not that bad. Just when doing rear brakes, just do one side at a time or take pictures before disassembly.

 

This is the Drivers side adjuster.

This is looking at it from the backside. So if one were to adjust the brakes from the access hole in the backing plate, it’s a little testy to adjust with a brake spoon or small screwdriver.

 

 

 

The little rubber plug to the right of the wheel cylinder is the access to the self-adjuster or star wheel. I found to adjust this, I needed a pick with a 90degree hook to pull the little adjuster plate away from the star wheel, then was able to turn the wheel with a small screwdriver.

 

 

 

However, to adjust the brakes~ I found it easier to adjust the star wheel before putting the drum on. I turned the axle flange to allow the best access to the star adjuster, then used a small screwdriver to turn the star wheel. The star is just below the green spring. Sorry about the poor picture. I adjusted, put the drum on to check for snugness, and repeated this process until I was happy with how it fit snug wise.

 

 

 

 

The old shoe on the left where the adjuster plate goes has a larger top than my new shoe(speaking of the pin). I tried beating out the old one to install in the new shoe, but it would not come out! So I took my Dremmel with a thin cutoff wheel and made a little cut where the plate would not come out. Hopefully you’d get a shoe like the original!

 

 

 

My new wheel cylinders were not identical to the old ones! Darn! But they were finally made to fit.

 

 

 

Yes, I could have taken the old drums to have them turned, but new drums were not that expensive! It’s quicker just to buy new drums and they’re much easier to paint.

Looks nice no?

 

 

I would hope that after years, the paint will hold up and the brakes will continue to look nice. And somewhere down the line of owners, someone will appreciate the attention to details~ probably not.:(  It’s just a Tracker, who cares about a Tracker? I do, I do!!!;)

 

 

 

As for the master cylinder (old one shown), I actually bought the cheapest one on Ebay! It was like 62 with free s/h. The only things I say about the MC installation~ after all the lines are taken loose, and the two bolts that hold it, vacuum from the power booster kind of holds it and has to be pried off. When I was prying it off, I heard the vacuum release, so vacuum was holding it. Then don’t forget to bench bleed it!! As for bleeding the entire system, I opened all the bleeders to let gravity to its thing, then when Gary got home~ I got him to pump the pedal and bled the brakes the old-fashioned way.

 

 

I hope this has been informative! Sometimes pictures speak for themselves. If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions about this procedure, and don’t forget to subscribe to Classic Cars and Tools! dne’ 😉