Hi:
My brake calipers and all parts look rather rusty from the salty roads of New England weather. If the pads are rusty, do they become "sticky" and cause constant grinding to the rotor? How to tell when to replace the rotors?
Would it be possible to replace the pads without the calipers? If not, how difficult is it to replace the calipers? Are there special tools or bleeding of brake line required?
BTW, my rear oil shocks look leaky. Do I need special tools to replace them?
Thanks. Erick
The pads don't rust - they aren't made of steel. The disks (rotors) do rust, but the rust will scrape off during the first few minutes of driving.
Yes, you usually replace the pads without the calipers.
If you replace the calipers then a full bleed ot the brakes is required. Without being discouraging, your questions make me think that you aren't ready for caliper replacement.
Year of car?
Grunff:
Thanks for your response.
You are right that the pads don't rust. I meant the pins and hardware in the caliper holding the pads look rusty and might inhibit free movement of the pads. I can replace the pads but I am afraid that if I were to take the rusty hardware apart, I might not be able to put it back into one piece. So I am curious whether it would be possible to just replacing the pads and hardware without messing with replacing the calipers. Besides, do I need a set of channel locks to push the caliper piston back in?
Regarding the shocks, this is for a 1995 NG900.
Thx again.
Eric
Eric, In the past, I've successfully used a "C" clamp to retract the caliper piston. What I do is just put one side of the clamp on the front of the piston and the other end on a flat surface at the back of the caliper assembly, then SLOWLY tighten the clamp, which retracts the piston. A couple of points to keep in mind are 1) you may want to remove the cap from your main brake fluid reservoir, because sometimes this precedure will force brake fluid out the top of the reservoir (If your reservoir is not completely full at the start of this procedure, this may not be a concern.). I also think that removing this cap will lessen the amount of "backward pressure" you will be putting on all of the seals in the system when the piston is retracted by force. (Remember that under normal operation, when you apply your brakes, the piston is forced in the opposite direction from what you're doing w/ the C-clamp.)2) Secondly, forcing the piston back like this may cause some air bubbles to be introduced to your brake lines. All in all, I've used this method many times on many different American and foreign cars, and it seems to work fine for me. Good luck.
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