Quote:
Originally Posted by SUPERTOM
my rear brakes are sticking. all of this info is very helpful.
I just orded a used set of calipers on ebay and plan to rebuild them and use my current ones in the process.
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Rebuilding rears may not be that bad, but I became extremely aggravated with how careful I had to be with the right tools not to scratch, right fluids to lube, right cleaning technique, etc... while I was trying to rebuild my front calipers. In the end I gave up and bought all new calipers and I don't usually give up easily at all. It was just taking too many hours.
I would strongly suggest a fill, dip, and soak technique overnight in some dissolving solution and remove all rubber from the calipers and caliper brackets. Let it all sit submerged in the solution overnight. Cleaning these things out manually is a real bitch and I for one don't like having that brake parts cleaner or electronic parts cleaner or engine degreaser cleaner stuff on my hands at all for any duration.
I guess now that I'm thinking about this it would be easier than I had tried before scrubbing everything with my hands.
Caliper brackets - I suppose the best solution is to do what I recently figured out. Set the caliper brackets on a rag or somewhere fairly clean and have the slider bolt bores facing up. Fill the bores with brake parts cleaner to their tops and let it soak for a while. Once you pour it out it should dry fast (make sure its completely dry before reinserting bolts or new grease). I would probably use a round rounded plastic bristle brush on the inside bores before pouring out the cleaner too to ensure all old gunk pours out of the bores.
For the pistons (which will be caked on the sides with gunk) you will need to remove them with compressed air (watch your hands; put a rag and small piece of wood in front of the piston face cause it will FLY OUT). Do not use more than like 15-20psi... maybe just 10 psi. It will come out fast. If I was doing this again I'd find a small container to fill to soak the pistons in - otherwise just cake them several times with brake parts cleaner till the gunk comes off the sides of them.
For the caliper I'd plug the brake line hole with something and flip the caliper over and fill it up with as much brake parts cleaner as I can. I know this is gonna sound funny, but to not waste all your brake parts cleaner perhaps you could get some marbles or a ball bearing or two and put them inside the caliper to occupy space so that when you spray in the brake parts cleaner it'll fill all the way up along all the piston walls/bores while saving you some of the cleaner.
WOW. Maybe if I'd thought of doing things this way originally I wouldn't have had so much trouble rebuilding my front calipers the first time! lol - I would've much rathered keep my stock calipers too cause the reman's I got all have mismatched bleeder valve sizes and I can't use my speed bleeders on one of them cause it just won't thread in as easy as it should and I don't wanna ruin the threads in the caliper.
Personally for the caliper bracket bores I used electronic parts cleaner because it dries much faster and much drier. As long as all debris is removed from whatever it is you are cleaning and you lube it with the proper stuff afterwards using electronic parts cleaner didn't seem to hurt anything.
Oh I just remembered why it was such a pain to clean my old calipers. lol - I wanted to paint them and unless you plan to soak the entire caliper assembly painting old calipers is NOT a good plan unless you have a big dip'n-soak tub with some heavy duty stripping cleaner solution.