Rebuild or Remanufactured Brake Calipers?

[shenrie]

ive painted calipers on lots of different cars, but not the van. vht offers brake caliper paint kits or you can just go buy some good high temp paint and do it that way too.

[E350]

JoeH and shenrie:* Before reading my mind... could you guys at least announce when you're in here... Right now I am at the McDonald's waiting for the area's largest Napa auto parts store to open so I can pick up my special-order rubber hose front brake lines. And I was thinking (since rebuilt brake calipers are painted) that I would probably paint mine. After steam cleaning them, I thought I would use some Rustoleum primer and then some Rustoleum black gloss paint, both in quart cans, which I already have. The rebuilt brake calipers which I previously looked at at Napa seem to have paint of lesser quality, so Rustoleum can't be bad right? I am also planing to steam clean and paint the thing that holds the brake calipers and the ball joints because my guess is that I will be in there again shortly if not now to replace the ball joints and/or to rebuild the U-joints in or replace the 4x4 axles and my thoughts are that the cleaner these parts are the easier it will be to get back in there for more work later.

As far as brake fluid goes, I returned the Motul to Amazon and found that I already had two whole friggin' unopened quarts of Valvoline DOT 3 - 4 synthetic [but still glycol-based so mixes with DOT 3 and 4 fluids and Valvoline's website (unlike Motul's) does not omit specific years of certain vehicles (like Motul's website does)]. So I am just going to flush the brake systems in all the vehicles with the Valvoline.

One more thing, someone suggested that if you open a brake bleeder nipple on your front brake calipers and if brake fluid squirts (rather than drips) out, that the brake fluid is under pressure, which likely means that the rubber hose front brake lines are collapsed internally, preventing the fluid from easily returning to the master cylinder and preventing the pistons from fully and quickly retracting, thereby causing disks to drag. I am looking forward to checking this, this weekend.

* (boywonder is probably rustling around in here somewhere too, but is likely too dismayed by my mind's disorganization to dare to comment.)

[boywonder]

haha.....I'm sitting on the coaster (train) on the way to work.......

Never heard of the collapsed lines before now.....so I'm curious if you find any evidence of this.

One other thing, BTW.......when doing the final fill of the master cylinder, the idea is that there should be no air under the MC diaphragm. On the motorcycles and mountain bikes, I "roll" the diaphragm into the fluid with a rag under the MC to catch the overflow to drive out the captured air.

On mountain bikes with hydraulic discs, many times after the bike has been hanging in the garage for months, the brakes need to be bled. This is a symptom of air under the diaphragm in the MC.

[JoeH]

LOL, good timing.

I'll be doing ball joints soon and repacking the front bearings and cleaning up and painting the axel with POR15 or something similar. I've seen a thread somewhere that had a nice pic with the calipers painted gray. Thought about doing that but couldn't find the thread. I thought it was on the SMB forum but maybe exp portal or pirate. I've been doing a lot of noodling around researching axel rebuild threads as I'm doing a FF swap this spring. Projects keep the mind sharp, eh what?

As for disc brakes on bikes, I've had to bleed them when hanging them on hooks. But usually I can get away with a partial bleed and just pull the air out of the MS. All it takes is one little bubble to migrate up the line.

Thread hyjack

[E350]

I wasn't really going to work on the brakes this weekend, but I wanted to install the Mile Marker manual locking hubs (see related thread) so I did fool with the caliper on the driver's side.

The brake pads looked like they still had a lot of meat left on them (I replaced them less than a year ago in a quick and dirty pads only job) and were not wearing too unevenly.

The caliper now slides like butter. Yep, butter.

This is what I did.

I took the slide pins and their metal sleeves out and cleaned them with brake cleaner and used a .38 caliber barrel brush to clean the inside of the sleeves and also took out the rubber boots which hold the sleeves in place and washed them in warm water and dishwashing detergent and pulled a soap soaked paper towel through them and then rinsed thoroughly and used Turtle Wax 2001 Super Protectant to soak the boots inside and out. (I couldn't find my 303 Aerospace Protectant - that stuff kept the rubber gaskets on a dry top good for nearly 10 years!!!)

I scoured the hex bolts (slide pins) with a scrubby pad and then used the awesome slide pin grease recommend by carringb and reinstalled everything using the 2001 Super Protectant to ease the boots back into the calipers. Then I put some slide pin grease on the pads where they rub on the caliper anti rattle inserts where the pads rub and...

I don't know how long it will last, but these things are silky smooth and with the piston still somewhat retracted they slide back and forth without effort...

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by E350

I took the slide pins and their metal sleeves out and cleaned them with brake cleaner and used a .38 caliber barrel brush......

...Now there's a tool that I don't have........

[BajaSportsmobile]

Originally Posted by boywonder

...Now there's a tool that I don't have........

You could use a .45 Cal just as well.

[E350]

Baja is right, a .38 or a 9mm or even a .45 in a large frame are all great handling brushes. But a .40 is simply an unpleasant brush to handle.*



So, when considering brush (and ski) purchases, I always say "Demo, demo, demo!"

*Although, my guess is that Viejo would disagree...

[JoeH]

I've been noodling around thinking about brake upgrades and I thought I would add to this thread. The Motorcraft calipers are indeed new and you can get them (at least the older pre-2008 E350 front calipers) for $115 ea unloaded from either Autonation or RockAuto. NAPA remans are made A-1 CARDONE and can also be sourced from RockAuto for quite a bit cheaper.

[E350]

JoeH: Just a heads up. I cleaned up my calipers and did not replace them. The Napa calipers I looked at had plastic pistons. My vehicle's calipers had metal pistons. Apparently the two types are different sizes, so if your original calipers had metal pistons you need to stay with metal pistons, etc. or the front/rear brake proportioning valve may not work properly. I also did not replace the front brake lines. My lines looked good on the outside and did not prevent the pistons from retracting. Any hang up I had was due to the slide pins being dirty, which I cleaned and lubed per above, or due to the brake pads where they slide on the brake calipers which was cured with the metal slider sleeve supplied with the new brake pads and some Napa Permatex purple brake slide pin lube. I also bought Napa slide pins and slide bolts, but didn't use them. I didn't use them because they were not grade 10.9, while the OEM were 10.9 hardness and cleaned up nicely. I did use the Napa cheap brake pads. They are soft and stop the vehicle well. My thinking is, I want the wear to be to the pads not to the rotor. They do create a black dust on the front wheels however, which I use a 99 Cents Store spray on spray water on to take off wheel cleaner once a month to remove. I still have the brake fluid total replacement flush yet to do.

In the end, I determined that my OEM calipers, etc. were better than Napa and just needed a thorough cleaning and lubing and have been working great since. No pulling to one sidehoses, the