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So Did I Ruin The Caliper or What?!?

10musketeer

Jedi Trainee
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Ok, so in a fit of frustration with the manuals saying "diassemble and then reverse procedure" for absolutely every situation I run into, I didn't look into the manual while I was looking at my front brake discs. After noticing a warped area, I thought I would try to remove it. While looking at the caliper I removed the two big bolts that were shouting out remove us! As soon as I turned the wrench and saw the fluid I knew what I had done. So I ignored the "under no circumstance separate" note and now what? Do I just need to replace the fluid channel seal?
 
That's all you need to do. The torque on the bolts holding the caliper halves together is 33.5 to 37 ft.lbs. You may not even have to replace the seal, if you're willing to chance it.
Jeff
 
Oh, Thank you very much. I put it back and it seems to be fine for now! I think I'll order one of the seals just in case.
 
I did the same in my B. Cleaned them up rael good & put it back. All is well. If I had taken 5 more seconds to read......
 
[ QUOTE ]
The torque on the bolts holding the caliper halves together is 33.5 to 37 ft.lbs.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only problem with above Jeff, is that those numbers are for NEW bolts and some sort of thread locker. New bolts are N/A EXCEPT thru a few Certified Re-manufacturers! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonod.gif

And NO, they will NOT sell the bolts. Liability issue. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
Ed
 
the idea of not "separating the caliper halves was to keep liability low"

in fact you really cant do a good caliper rebuild without separating the halves.

"some sort of thread locker" was mentioned earlier.

Some sort was not availiable in those years....torque was the keeper of the tension.

Short answer....replace the square cut o-ring when separating and use new correct length and grip Grade 8 fasteners and torque to 50' # and use blue loctite.

plan b is to buy a rebuilt set.
 
I work for an electrical remanufacturer, and we also do calipers. I'm not advocating any procedures here, but I will tell you what we do and the results that we have seen over the 20 years we've been doing this. In this litigable society I can't condone any practices that I mention, as they are provided here only for information.

We have to totally disassemble all calipers that are in two sections to properly clean and remove all parts inside. When the calipers are re-assembled, all new rubber parts are replaced including the O-rings that reside between the caliper halves. Most are square cut, some have a round section like a standard O-ring. The bolts are re-used and a drop of loctite is put on each one. They are torqued to specs. The specs are generally not available from the OEMs, but we use the grade, diameter and pitch of the bolt to determine that. In the 20 years we have been doing this I have yet to see one leak between the halves if the proper O-ring was used, and they were properly torqued.
 
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