Trick to caliper rebuild?

[george gonzalez]

So I thought I would save a few bucks and rebuild rather than get new calipers. Great idea, I thought, $7.99 for a caliper rebuild kit versus $80 for a caliper exchange.

But:

(1) I get the kit and it has boots and piston seals but:

(1a) It has three more small O-rings that I can’t find any use for.
(1b) It does not have a new seal for the parking-brake lever.
(1c) It does not have a new parking brake cable pin or bobby pin.

Not HUGE problems, I can just toss the extra o-rings and the parking brake seal isnt leaking and I can find a #8 bolt to use in place of the brake cable pin and latch.

however:

(2) I take the caliper piston out and like Eric shows in his video, it’s somewhat pitted through the chrome plating and it will never be quite smooth.

(3) I brushed off the rust and sprayed it with primer and then hi-temp paint to make it look nicer, however I did no think this through, in the next phase I’m applying some brake fluid to the parts so the brake fluid gets on the nice new paint and it then rubs off onto my hands so now I have sticky red hands and dark smeared parts of the caliper. Look bad, my hands and the caliper.
I either need to leave the calipers rusty or find some paint that does not come off with brake fluid.

(4) I struggle and struggle and I can’t get the caliper rubber boot to fit! it mostly goes into the inner lip but there seems to be more boot than lip circumference! No matter how I poke and prod there always is a little nubbin that will not lie flat, instead it bulges out like a hernia. I try this for like half an hour before giving up and deciding to do the caliper exchange after all.

So I guess my conclusion and questions are:

(A) Don’t bother trying a rebuild, the rebuild kits don’t look complete and the piston is probably terminally scarred up anyway.

(B) Don’t paint the caliper, no matter how nice it looks afterwards. You’re going to have trouble keeping it nice and clean.

(C) Fitting the boot may be very frustrating! Either it takes some special tool or special technique or you might get one that is a bit oversize. In any case, it may be impossible to do.

Anybody know of any special trick or tool or technique for getting these in properly?

Topic

[Lorrin Barth]

Put the dust boot rubber flange into the groove in the caliper piston bore. Put the dust boot on the end of the piston before the piston is inserted into its bore. Insert the piston.

As for brake fluid resistant paint – maybe epoxy otherwise no. My car came with painted and clear coated calipers. Ninty thousand miles later they don’t look too good.

If the piston is pitted you need a new one.

[Author]

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