[alfa] Brake caliper rebuild]

[Jon Pike <jhpike@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Jeff..

BTW,  thanks for the boot rings!  They got here 3-4 days ago..

Hmm..  well, I'm using some kits from IAP,  they are Akron brand.  I'm 
pretty sure they aren't twisted.
There was a lot of crud floating around, and crud stains on the bore and 
piston.  I very carefully rubbed
over them with some 1500 paper and cleaned them up..  the piston and 
bore didn't seem anywhere near
mirror fine finshed,  and didn't look too different after the sanding 
than they did before..

As Murphy would have it,  the inner seals look pretty good, at least on 
the first caliper I'm starting with,
so I really didn't need to change them.  The outer boots were shot,  I 
feared problems from that, and apparently
nobody sells just outer boots.

Perhaps I'll take it apart again and see if there's newly disturbed crud 
under the seals..  Perhaps I'll put in the old
ones and just use the new outer boots. (watch them not fit)  The old 
seals look in pretty decent shape, though I'd
better look carefully for screwdriver nicks and such.

Where do you find OEM ATE kits nowadays?

Jon

Jeff Greenfield wrote:


> Jon - 
> The pistons should go in fairly easily. Usually there is some force required
> initially to get the piston past the seal, but after that they should move
> fairly easily.
>
> If the piston and bores are clean, remove the inner seal from the caliper
> and make sure that there is not crud in there. When install the seal, make
> sure that it is properly seated all the way around and is not 'twisted' at
> all.
>
> It really is pretty simple, there is not much to it.
>
> The only other thing that I question, is what kind of caliper kits are you
> using? I've had problems with the seals not fitting correctly on the
> aftermarket kits, so I only use original ATE caliper kits (which are hard to
> find these days).
>
> HTH,
>
> Jeff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-alfa@domain.elided [mailto:owner-alfa@domain.elided] On Behalf Of Jon
> Pike
> Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 3:29 PM
> To: alfa-digest@domain.elided
> Subject: [alfa] Brake caliper rebuild
>
> Digestians..
>
> For those of you who have rebuilt ATE brake calipers before..
>
> I'm working on a front at the moment,  and after cleaning up and 
> installing a new seal,  I'm having much
> resistance in pushing the pistons back in. 
> It takes almost more force than I can manage with two thumbs to slide 
> them down into the cylinder.  To pop them out
> with compressed air, it takes >30 lbs of pressure to get them finally 
> out,  compared to less than 10 lbs causing them
> to fly out of there before.  I assembled them with a bit of a brake 
> assembly fluid (Mckay's) which is very thick,  after cleaning that off 
> and lubing things up with regular brake fluid it got somewhat looser but 
> is still much tighter than they were.
>
> Basically,  I'm trying to find out if this is normal,  or is something 
> bad going on here?  Will they loosen up quickly
> under real use or not? 
> I imagine that if you have too much friction in the caliper pistons,  
> they won't relax when you let up on the brakes,  and you drag your pads 
> all the time..  Or is "loose enough",  above what lowly human thumbs 
> normally provide?
>
> Thanks in advance..
>
> Jon and Marcia
> 77 Spider
> Irvine CA.
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