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Painting Calipers, changing brake lines, flushing Brake Fluid. Do I have everything?
This will be far the most mechanically involved process I've done to a car personally. Been watching video's online to get myself familiar with the parts and locations and steps of everything. It all seems simple enough. Just time consuming.
But there's something in my head that makes me think that something is going to jump out at me, and I won't be prepared for it, or do the proper steps in putting it back together.
I bring this up, because only one video I watched ever mentioned adding lube to the edges of the brake pads when putting them back in.
Is there anything else I need to familiarize myself with when painting calipers, changing brake lines, flushing brake fluid, bleeding brakes? Like the emergency brake line. Will that be something I need to remove? Touch? Or leave alone? I haven't seen any video's mentioning this.
I know there's a lot going on here, and there's no way for you to really know my competence level. So I guess I'm just asking if there's anything that out of the ordinary that you can think of. Messing with the brakes of my own car, I want to make sure I do everything correct. Flushing and bleeding the brakes seems to be the most complicated, and I've watched a few video's on them. And there's nothing about that that's scared me off.
Thanks! And I'm sure I'll post an update after I get it all done.
Well, there's lots of gotchas. You sound like you got most covered.
One thing is the ABS system. You really want to avoid getting air in there. It's not impossible to deal with, but still. Try not to.
It sounds like you've never done the brakes. If I'm wrong, I apologize, and I further apologize for the rudiments below. But it's not difficult, just time consuming, like you said. Still, there's plenty of detail work for this important system, and I go by the book on these, 'cause important. Here we go:
You say 'lines'. Do you mean 'hoses'? Because that's two different animals. The hard lines shouldn't need replacing or messing with unless something bad(tm) has happened. Hoses, sure, if they're bad, or you're going racing, but otherwise, not so much, no. Still, the hoses are straightforward: Banjo bolt and two washers on the caliper side, fitting on the other, and they're out. Installation is reverse, bleeding is as has been done forever and ever. Just keep the reservoir filled up, and go from RR, LR, RF, LF and you're good. Oh, and *never* reuse them washers. Get new ones. Don't not get new washers for that banjo bolt. You have now been warned.
Depending on how long you're going to have the hoses off/open, you want to get some line caps (or what I use, vacuum caps) to shove in the lines to prevent as much air ingestion/fluid leaking as possible.
Finally, it'd be a good idea to get a turkey baster or other thing to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir and then refill with new fluid before you did anything else regarding cracking open the system.
I'd also keep the cap on while working on things until I was ready to do bleeding, it'll help prevent fluid leaks more while things are apart.
Removing front calipers completely: As mentioned above brake hose, two slider pins, remove caliper (and probably the pads too, right?) Rears are same, but also one clip more to remove parking brake cable.
Discard shims and replace if needed. Inspect caliper pistons, sliders and all four seals. The sliders/seals can be replaced. Ditto the pistons and their seals, but I would probably just get new calipers if that happens, the chances of bad pistons and sticking goes up and up.
If painting the calipers, just worry about what you can see. Don't do the insides so much. Tape off the pistons, ensure paint doesn't get in the slider cavities or any other sliding locations, they should be bare metal, and then greased on reassembly. If it ain't gonna be seen, there's no point in making a fuss. But whatever you do, read the instructions on the paint, and also prep the caliper well so the paint can stick. I used VHT and have good results I'm happy with. Powder coating is very nice, but...
Use brake caliper rated grease. It's made to be there, don't use other grease.
Grease the shims when assembling, both sides. Grease the pad backs (or the caliper areas) where they're going to touch the caliper or the pistons to help with noise abatement. It should be obviousish where grease should be applied for sliding/touching bits.
Grease the sliders when installing. Grease the caliper pins when installing, also use blue loctite on the threads, properly torqued.
I also recommend the 'quiet stop' type brakes. I've been REALLY happy with Wagner Quiet Stop pads, they make zero noise and just freaking work, but that's me.
Unless you have reason, Dot3/4 is all you need for brake fluid.
Removing caliper brackets: Two bolts. Paint however you need to. Two bolts back on, blue loctite and proper torque.
Discs: Remove. If from factory, there's a retaining clip thing on one of the studs. Gently rip it off to shreds and discard, it's not needed. They just did that for factory purposes. Disc otherwise slides off and on and gets bolted in place with the wheel. You can paint them, just tape off the friction surface before painting, then paint as if a caliper. The edges and the hubs could get paint and it be ok. Painting the backside of the disc is nice for disassembly purposes, as the painted surfaces shouldn't rust in place.
Yeah, never done car brakes before. I replaced my motorcycle pads this spring. Was super simple enough, so I figured a car would be similar, just more labor involved.
Capping the line was exactly what I was thinking about last night. I am estimating a two day job at least, so I knew I probably shouldn't leave the lines bare.
And yeah, I mean the hoses. Not the hard lines. Figured while I have everything else off, I'll replace them. May do an autocross event here and there, but mainly doing them for the coolness factor of having race parts on it, and saying that I've done it. Plus, I plan on having the car for a while, and figured they'd probably last longer.
Hoses should come with a set of crush washers. You mention loctite on the caliper pins. Anything else get loctite? Guessing Banjo bolt doesn't need it with the crush washers? I've got a stick of that copper anti-seize stuff for when I did my motorcycle. Would I use that on anything?
Some hose kits will come with the washers, some will not. You can just ask for the washers, you'll need 8 of them.
There's no need to replace the hoses, really. Nobody will see them. The OEMs will last for quite a long while unless there's damage due to an accident or there's a hit on you... Although some say the braking action can be improved by having the upgrades, unless you are tracking enough to make it worth the extra expense for that teensy bit of extra stopping... I'm not sure I'd do it for a majority daily driver car. But if you wanna, go for it, I won't stop ya!
Caliper pin bolts, caliper bracket bolts. That's it. The brake lines/bolts you do nothing to, just install dry. The brake hose retainer bolts can use some loctite if you want, but it shouldn't be needed.
You wouldn't use that copper anti-seize anywhere in this.
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I would like to show you some Chris Fix videos. Fantastic about painting the calipers:
Going to try and start this project today. Hopefully someone can give me a quick answer.
Jacking up my car, and looking for a spot to put the jack stands. I'm going to use the K-member in the front, as suggested by CJ Pony Parts. But not sure about the rear. They suggested using the pinch weld, but the problem is that my jack stands don't allow for pinch welds.
So my question is, can I run the jack stand parallel with one side of the pinch weld? Or would that be too much weight on one side of the weld?
Also, what size socket do you use for the Lugs? My 13/16in is just a hair too small.
Edit. I do have jacking rails installed. I know it would be more stable pulling the stands further out, but would be still be perfectly fine putting the stands at the rear of the jacking rails?
And all that works just fine with my pinch welds. And that's where any lift would go as well, so I'm not terribly sure how your stuff can't work with it. I'm confused.
The 13/16 is what I use on mine, no problem. If your lugs are burred up, or there's something wrong with the socket, then they'll not mate up of course. You need to get whatever socket fits as snug as possible but not loose, as that'll round the lugs. And now you have to extract them the bad way. What you'll do is get a socket smaller than the lug by just a little, say a 12/16... er, 6/8... oh, dangit, I mean a 3/4... and beat it on mercilessly with a hammer, then spin the lug off as normal. Use a normal 'chrome' socket, as an impact one won't probably fit in the lug area. And also, you'll need to figure out a rig to beat the ever living crap out of the now 'welded' lug/socket combo to force the lug outta the socket and then repeat for any lugs that won't come off with the 13/16 or whatever you're using.
Bear in mind, you're replacing the lugs at that point, get good ones. Also get sockets you don't care about using again, and I'd also go with 12 points, not 6 points, but that's me.
As far as stand placement, if you're putting all four corners up, the farthest out on the rails you can is best. More stability. Again, those notches are in the pinch welds for a reason. Use 'em.
Mods, I don't know what's going on, but I can't go editing. Only the quick reply. I'm gonna have to investigate, I suppose. But anyway, needed to edit that last bit:
As far as stand placement, if you're putting all four corners up, the farthest out on the rails you can is best. More stability. There are notches in the pinch welds that are there to put the jack stands under. I'd say jack, but you gotta get the jacks there, at least, I am. I typically jack behind the notches enough so the jacks'll fit. Those notches are in the pinch welds for a reason. Use 'em.
There just isn't enough dip in the stand to go around the pinch. The pinch sticks out quite a bit, so all that weight would be put on that pinch. Just didn't seem right.
Almost half way done. Took about 3.5 hours to get all 4 brake calipers off. The hardest part so far was getting the parking brake cable off the rear. I couldn't find a good example of how to do this.
What i did was pulled the parking brake, used a c-clamp to hold it in position on the caliper, released the brake, then vice-gripped the loop and pulled it over the hook. Not sure how I'm going to put them back though.
Now to sand, clean, and try to get a couple layers of primer on tonight.
Side note about the bolt ends. Looking at the photo again, it looks white, but I've actually painted them chrome. I had some hobby enamel paint, so I painted over the ends of the bolts. I originally had them taped off so they'd stay the raw metal color, but they were so tarnished and I couldn't get them 100% clean, it hit me that I could paint over them. The chrome paint looks amazing on them. You'd never be able to tell unless you got up close and inspected them. Which would probably be very hard to spot once the wheels are on.
Dang! So I've run into an issue with the clear coat. The photo of the Mustang lettering is a vinyl sticker that I stuck on before clear coating it. After putting a couple clear coats on, and letting it sit for a couple hours yesterday, the corners of the lettering had curled up slightly thought the clear coat.
I've patted them back down, and am applying very thin layers, and letting them dry longer periods in between, but things aren't as smooth looking at they were.
This kinda has me concerned on the longevity. I don't know that I can get a clear coat on thick enough to completely cover the vinyl over smooth. Wondering how long the lettering will last now over time.
Should have figured out a way to paint that on. I knew stickers could have issues. But thought for as thin as they were, they'd cover over pretty easily.
8/29/18, 12:33 PM
