Caliper Rebuild

**Pitchlock** · 03-22-2013, 04:23 PM

I have my front caliper not releasing and dragging pretty bad. I want to rebuild the pistons. Are the kits the same for the rear and front. I cant find anything that gives a rear or front description. At advance Auto they have a kit (Tru-Torque Disc Brake Caliper Repair Kit Part No. D670013). I am hoping this takes care of the problem, it has progressively gotten worse over the month. If I cant find a rebuild kit I might be forced to get new calipers. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

**2002ssslp** · 03-22-2013, 04:43 PM

The front and rear calipers are different. You will need to remove the calipers ( please do them in pairs ) and place it on your work bench. Use a air gun with a rubber tip and the compressor set to about 50psi. Put a rag over the pistons and put the air gun in to brake line hole and blow the pistons out of the caliper. once this is done you will need to remove the seals and the bleeder. next you will need a power drill and a brake hone for the cylinder hole and brake fluid in a squirt bottle. put the drill on low speed and squire the brake fluid into the bore and hone it out for a minute or so until you get a nice finish and cross hatch pattern. do this for both bores and both calipers. once done use brake cleaner and rinse out everything and let it dry. put a thin coat of brake fluid with a clean cloth in the bore and put the piston ( if it is clean and does not have pits ) and install the new seal with a tool or if you are careful, a socket. install the new bleeder and fill the caliper with brake fluid. when all four calipers are installed use a mighty vac or power bleeder to get out all of the bad fluid and you are done. Good luck.

**pajeff02** · 03-23-2013, 08:53 AM

Hold the bus...

The problem is most likely the caliper pins and not the pistons. The pins on these cars are notorious for seizing up if not properly maintained. I had to use a fire wrench to get a pin out of the front left caliper on our car after we bought it. Pull the pins and small dust boots and then clean everything up real good. You can hit the pins with a wire wheel if they are real bad, or sand them with some emery cloth. Use synthetic caliper grease for your reassembly and you should be good.

**98TransAmWs-6** · 03-23-2013, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by pajeff02

Hold the bus...

The problem is most likely the caliper pins and not the pistons. The pins on these cars are notorious for seizing up if not properly maintained. I had to use a fire wrench to get a pin out of the front left caliper on our car after we bought it. Pull the pins and small dust boots and then clean everything up real good. You can hit the pins with a wire wheel if they are real bad, or sand them with some emery cloth. Use synthetic caliper grease for your reassembly and you should be good.

Question, will grease for use on suspension components work?

**pajeff02** · 03-23-2013, 05:11 PM

Any grease will work. However, the synthetic caliper grease is especially made for the job -- heat and moisture don't really bother it. I have also used it on suspension components as it is very sticky and stays in place.

**JayTA98** · 03-24-2013, 07:38 AM

I have to agree with Pajeff on this. I just did my wife's car brake. The right side was dragging and it was the pins were seized up. Pulled them out cleaned them real good and re apply grease. The caliper works fine now.

**JayTA98** · 03-24-2013, 07:42 AM

question about rebuild calipers. My car has one that the seal are broken but it works fine. If I was to remove the caliper and push the pistol out with my air compressor, could I just change the seals and not have to hone the piston hole?

**2002ssslp** · 03-24-2013, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by JayTA98

question about rebuild calipers. My car has one that the seal are broken but it works fine. If I was to remove the caliper and push the pistol out with my air compressor, could I just change the seals and not have to hone the piston hole?

Yes you could but why do it half way. Brakes are not a place to save money. They are the only part of your car where you should always spend the extra money to do the job right. Ex. Your driving down the highway doing 85 with the top down or the T-Tops out and you see traffic stopped up ahead. You hit your brakes and the pedel goes to the floor. Most people would panic and steer off the road, some would slowly pull the emergency brake handle but I forgot to adjust it so I have nothing to stop me. Yes, I know we have dual master cylinders but they will draw from the high side to feed the low side and still create a problem. Bottom line is if you have 100k on your brakes or they have not been service in years. Just do them the right way. Our F-body cars have cheap parts unlike the Eurocrap out there. Good luck.

**JayTA98** · 03-24-2013, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by 2002ssslp

Yes you could but why do it half way. Brakes are not a place to save money. They are the only part of your car where you should always spend the extra money to do the job right. Ex. Your driving down the highway doing 85 with the top down or the T-Tops out and you see traffic stopped up ahead. You hit your brakes and the pedel goes to the floor. Most people would panic and steer off the road, some would slowly pull the emergency brake handle but I forgot to adjust it so I have nothing to stop me. Yes, I know we have dual master cylinders but they will draw from the high side to feed the low side and still create a problem. Bottom line is if you have 100k on your brakes or they have not been service in years. Just do them the right way. Our F-body cars have cheap parts unlike the Eurocrap out there. Good luck.

Well that was more info than what i need. I'm aware of the risk of doing stuff halfway. I'm not rebuilding the cylinders I just asked a question about the outer seals. If the calipers are not working right I will just go and buy me replacement ones from the auto part store. That's not my issue here. I was wondering if I just need to fix the outer seals would just pulling the piston out will do the job? Thanks.

**JayTA98** · 03-24-2013, 08:17 AM

I guess I wasn't too specific about what seals I was reffering to when I looked at my 1st post.

**pajeff02** · 03-24-2013, 08:35 AM

The outer seal is simply a dust boot -- just keeps dirt and moisture away from the bore and actual seal.

**JayTA98** · 03-24-2013, 11:28 AM

Yes Scott thats why i will like to fix it so no water or dirt gets inside the bore. That if is that simple to replace.

**2002ssslp** · 03-25-2013, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by JayTA98

Yes Scott thats why i will like to fix it so no water or dirt gets inside the bore. That if is that simple to replace.

If your brake fluid is not clear then you have contaminates in the fluid and with dry, cracked seals you will need to rebuild or repalace the calipers. If you are looking for someone to tell you that you can replace just the dust boots. Yes you can. Is it wise. No. Also, you have to buy the entire rebuild kit to get the dust boots so why not rebuild and be safe.

**JayTA98** · 03-25-2013, 10:27 AM

Ok so you tell me that i can but it not wise unless i rebuild the whole caliper... ok.

**Pitchlock** · 04-06-2013, 04:21 PM

Update. I rebuilt them. The pistons were seized and took over 150 psi and me working them with some channel locks and about 4 hours of work to get them out. I heard people having trouble getting the seals. We have an o'Reilly that only cost $4.60 a side. They didn't advertise they had them but when I call they had them.

**pajeff02** · 04-06-2013, 05:53 PM

Lucky you didn't kill someone putting that kind of pressure to a brake piston. If they were that bad, I would have bought new calipers. Any idea why they were seized?

**JayTA98** · 04-06-2013, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by pajeff02

Lucky you didn't kill someone putting that kind of pressure to a brake piston. If they were that bad, I would have bought new calipers. Any idea why they were seized?

Yes that is alot of air pressure. Good thing you didn't got hurt. Good job on getting them fix. I agree with you Scott sometimes is better to spend the money on certain things. If you get hurt it will be more expensive at the end.

**Pitchlock** · 04-07-2013, 03:36 AM

I build a wooden cage to protect myself and the piston. When I had them out they were very dirty with a thick burnt on crud on them. Cleaned them up and they slid right in with no problems. Put new seals and outer boot and they work great. I figured they were getting damaged coming out and I had to get new calipers or they wore not going to be serviceable and I was getting new callipiers. So I was prepared to get new ones. When they cleaned up no problems at all so I went with them being rebuilt.

**JayTA98** · 06-19-2013, 12:17 PM

I just did mine and it wasn't that difficult just takes a little time. I only used 50 psi from my compressor and the pistons came out easy enough. I did the inner seals and outer dust covers. It wasn't even that messy like some people told me. The pistons and calipers were clean with no rust so I just wiped everything real good. I will rebuild them from now on before I have to buy replacement ones.

I also did the caliper pins, new hawk pads and two brand new BFG GForce Comp 2 tires. The car can't complain today.