92 towncar brake questions

[r3pp3r]

I'm doing a rotor/pad replacement on a 92 lincoln towncar executive edition. I know it has 4 wheel disk and air suspension. Some webpages say that I need different pads depending on if the brake pistons are phenolic or steel. My first question is how do I know if the pistons are steel or phenolic. My second is that I'm used to resetting the piston my simply c-clamping it down until it is fully retracted, does this work on TC's or do i need a special tool. I'd also like to know if the front bearings are separate from the front brake rotors. Thanks for the input.

[Kulluan77]

Been a while since I worked on one but for steel and phenolic, the steel piston has thinner walls like a normal cup where as the phenolic has thicker walls due to it being a composite material. Bad thing with phenolic is over time they may "dry out" and start cracking/breaking up. Difference in brake pad is usually only the clip size on back that holds them into the calipers piston

The rotors should be hub style, complete with lugs and bearing races. Not 100% sure thou but almost all RWD Lincolns around then are.

Using a c-clamp should be fine, just take off the master cylinder cap and go slow so it doesnt put excessive force on the master cylinder etc. Usually not a problem.

The only other thing that you should have to worry about is making sure you turn off the air suspension switch in the trunk.

This is just for the front brakes btw, are you doing rears too?

[r3pp3r]

I'm doing all 4. I was pretty sure they weren't hub style because of the low price of the front disks and the sites seemed to imply they weren't... Oh well looks like I'm gonna have to get a little greasy. Is there any way to know if they are steel or phenolic without taking a look at the calipers themselves (did the 2 kinds come on different models with different options)? It's my dad's car and I'd like to place the order for parts before doing the swap next weekend.

[Towncar]

Originally Posted by r3pp3r

I'm doing a rotor/pad replacement on a 92.......resetting the piston...c-clamping it down.....

Can't say for sure on your 92, but on my 96 the rear pistons screw back down. The c-clamp will destroy mine.

[r3pp3r]

Originally Posted by Towncar

Can't say for sure on your 92, but on my 96 the rear pistons screw back down. The c-clamp will destroy mine.

You use an allan wrench for that?