Front Brake Caliper Rebuild Question

[Cozza]

Hi Guys

I'm about to rebuild the front calipers of my 240. The rebuild kits I bought have the seals that go between the two sides of the caliper but the Service Manual on XenonS30 suggests that you should not undo the bridging bolts, and if the seals leak replace the complete caliper.

My question are, why would the rebuild kits come with the seals if you shouldn't undo these bolts? And what would you do, replace the seals or not?

 

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers

Mick

[Scoota G]

I have rebuilt toyota calipers on my Zed (V8) and had them apart and replaced the seals. Pulled a neg 1.47 G's on the roadworthy brake test. No Issue.

[gav240z]

Yeah I have been told the same thing about taking them apart. For what it's worth I'm not going to disassemble mine as I have no idea of the torque specs required on the bolts etc.. Would rather not deal with a leaky caliper.

 

On the topic of rebuilding calipers - if a piston won't come out - with compressed air. Does that mean the caliper is probably fubar and better to just source another? I'm rebuilding rear calipers (for another car) and the fronts were fine and the left hand rear is good, but the right hand rear is not moving, there is quite a bit of surface rust on the calipers and near the rubbers. So going to assume the piston has seized and it isn't worth the headache to try and get it out?

[smugley]

Gav

If the piston wont come out with compressed air try using a grease gun . You have to remover the fitting on the end of the grease gun and just screw it directly onto the caliper .

It makes a bit of a mess but it will get any stuck piston out .

Cheers

[Cozza]

Thanks for your input fellas.

Scoota, yeah I normally wouldn't have thought twice about it, just pulled them apart, but for some reason i looked at the FSM before i started.

Gav, Try fitting up to the car and pump the brake pedal. That's what I did with these calipers as compressed air wasn't working (they had been sitting around for some time). The pistons are pitted and will be replaced but the caliper cylinders look fine.

 

Anyone think of any reason why I shouldn't disregard the FSM and pull them apart? Maybe there is some issue with re-allignment?

 

Mick

[Scoota G]

If you stuff them up i have about 3 sets here.

[Zedman240®]

With my first zed, we pulled my calipers apart to fit machined spacers in to fit ventilated discs and reassembled them with no issues. As long as everything is done right and CLEAN, you should be fine.

 

[gav240z]

Thanks also guys. Good tip on the grease gun or putting it back on the car. This is a spare set I'm rebuilding at the moment so the car can be kept on the road. I'm going to powdercoat them and make them pretty with braided lines and speed-bleeder screws etc.. Going to get the fronts done first and see how they turn out.

 

@Cozza - Sounds like Scoota has some spares so may be well worth having a go at pulling them apart? What's the worst that could happen?

[Cozza]

Scoota, sounds good thanks Mate. I pick up the new pistons tomorrow so will get stuck into them then and see how I go. Will let you know if I need another set :-\

 

Dimitri, that's what I wanted to hear, got any photos of your spacers by any chance? Sounds interesting.

 

Gav, the ones I'm doing are a spare set I bought off another member on this forum too. Bit of a pain in the rear that I had to connect them to the car to push the pistons out but, only took half hour or so to pump out all 4 pistons and bleed. I like the sound of powder coating and braided lines.

 

I'm doing brakes and front suspension (kings & Tokico's), will paint all the bits up in satin black before it all goes together, same as I did to the rear end. Will post pics in my build thread once it's done.

 

Thanks for your help guys.

Mick

[Zedman240®]

Sorry, but no pics! Back when I did it there were no digital cameras or phones with cams! I didn't want to carry a film camera with me all the time so nothing exists!

The caliper was split and spacers were made up that "extended" the part of the caliper half that bolts together. Forgot the thickness, but it was made for a late eighties Supra front ventilated disc to fit in the caliper. Extra length pins had to be made also to hold the pads in place. Not sure where these brakes ended up in this country but I'm sure they are still around somewhere. I can make a crude drawing if you want to see what I mean...

[HKSZ]

I've got a set of these spaced out calipers in the shed, the spacer being alloy but think the matching discs are peugeot