Just replaced both rotors and all pads on the rear of my 86 GT,(195,000 miles). I noticed the inner pads were hardly worn but the outside pads were shot. Is this normal? Looks like I'll be replacing both rear calipers as well. Are the calipers a major pain to bleed. Thanks for any input.

you should budget about twice the time you think. Pad wear sounds like either rust on the rotor or caliper sliders seized/sticking.
I believe the rear calipers when bleeding just take patients.

On a floating caliper, like Fiero, wearing the outter pad a little faster is pretty normal. It's a side effect of the design. All single piston jobs tend to do it, some more than others.

This same problem is why proper lubrication of the caliper slide(s) with brake grease is critical. If the rubber bushings are swolen by oil based products then the calipers will bind no matter how good they are greased later. (This is why you usually get new bushings with new slides or in new/rebuilt calipers. The bushings hardly ever actually wear out.)

In calipers like Fiero uses, All years, you grease the entire inside of the slide hole with brake grease to lube it and keep it from corroding.

When you replace the calipers... flush new fluid out the lines BEFORE you connnect the caliper.

Also, you can mount the caliper but leave the line off and bleeder open... then pour fluid into it with a small CLEAN DRY funnel. That will fill them most of the way up so they don't take a year to bleed. This can make rears much quicker. (Rears hold allot of fluid.)

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11-Sept-01, The day the world as we knew it ended.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 01-14-2002).]

my moms year 2 year old chevy van had the same thing, with the one side of the pad wearing out more then the other.

The inside pads on my ford tbird wear out quicker also. Its the pad thats harder to check the thickness because the wheel has to be taken off to view it.