2001 Ford F150 SuperCrew - Big Wheels Require Big Brakes

We then discarded the old factory calipers and brake pads.

Taking the extra time to install new bearings into the new SSBC hubs is a must. As a common part at any parts store, the new bearings were well greased and installed. It is especially important to replace the outer bearings, as Ford used plastic ball retainers and they wear more quickly.

It took a screwdriver to take off the wheel dust cap. After removing the old cotter pin, an 1-1/8-inch socket was used to remove the spindle nut and outer wheel bearing. After those were removed, the old rotor simply slid off of the spindle.

Next up, we hammered the new inner-wheel seal home.

Ford SuperCrew trucks came with several different lug patterns and several different lug-stud diameters and pitches. Our truck has a 5x135mm lug pattern, which matched the new SSBC hub bearings. But as you can see, the supplied hubs came with 12mm studs and our truck is equipped with 14x2.0mm studs. Keeping the stronger stds meant knocking out the new 12mm studs in the hub and knocking the larger 14x2.0mm studs into the SSBC hubs. This took some extra time, but it wasn't difficult to do.

We were now ready to slide the new SSBC hub onto the Belltech drop spindle. After the hub was tightened down and secured with a new cotter pin, we moved to the SSBC mounting bracket.

A nice feature about the SSBC brake kit is all of its kits were created to work with any type of spindle that was designed around the factory brakes. Making each kit vehicle-specific, SSBC included these F-150-specific caliper mounting brackets. After it was snugged down, it was torqued to the required specs. We were now ready for the calipers and brake pads.

Looking in the toolbox, we had some extra high-temp silicone tubes leftover from Energy Suspension, and so we applied the awesome lubricant to the backs of our new Hawk brake pads, slide pins, and butterfly clips.

Talk about an easy brake-pad change. The new pads simply slide into place and were secured by these pins at each end of the caliper.