DansYellow66

Finally got around to replacing the rear brake calipers yesterday due to one starting to leak. (I had to put this off awhile due to replacing the heater core in my air conditioned GTX - another misery). What a pain. First off this of course means pulling a couple knockoffs and flailing away at my precious car with a lead hammer for awhile. Disconnect the first brake line and realize I can't move the line enough to cover the end with cling wrap and a rubber band because I didn't pull the forward retainer clip loose first. Brake fluid everywhere - clean that all up. Fiddle for a half hour finding some way to hold the pads retracted in the calipers so I can slip them on. Go to the other side, pull the brake line retainer clip and seal it off with hardly a drop spilled. Walk around to the first side and realize one of the bleeder screws was not tight on the first caliper and fluid is dripping off it. Another clean up. Get the second caliper on and I try to suction bleed the brakes - but no luck. More fluid leaking out around the bleeder screw threads than out the port. More fluid cleanups. Wait for the wife to return to do the old "slowly push down - hold - let up" routine. What I thought would be a morning job ends up taking all day and after all the leaks and bleeding I barely have enough silicone brake fluid to finish, but not enough left in the master cylinder to safely drive the car. I would never have made it as Mr. GM.

Dan

67TBowl

Sorry to hear that. These mechanical things that we love and enjoy can be a curse sometimes.

w1ctc

A couple of tricks for the next time. They make U shaped sheet metal gizmos that slip over the calipers and hold the pistons retracted and a golf tee works well for plugging the line. When bleeding, get some vacuum hose that fits over the bleeder. Run it down to a clear jar half filled with brake fluid and the tube end submerged. Open the bleeder and push the pedal with your hand until there are no more bubbles come out of the tube. As for the bleeders, I had bad luck with the stainless ones. Hey, we got it easy today, when I first got my car there were no stainless liners and bare calipers cost $100 each from GM in 1971 dollars. A shop would charge $500-600 for a Corvette brake overhaul on a car that was selling for $2000.

magicv8

If you do have the sheet metal caliper piston holders (I do), but don't have them with you in the MT rockies cabin parking lot (I didn't), you improvise

The inner bearing race spun and I needed to get the hub off. I used a pine pad spacer.

The Black Knight

Hmmm. . . I can see it now. Another eBay Corvette tool! Natural pine caliper tool - Buy it Now - $49.99 plus shipping!

66BBDriver

We could market this together with my calabrated stick for C-2's with broken fuel gauges Firedog

67TBowl

Dan,
I used one of those little hand held Mighty vac's to bleed my brakes and it worked very well. It took me awhile, as I am a fanatic and I went around the car atleast 20 times over the course of a few days bleeding each caliper (multiple bleeders on each caliper) and finally got the firm brake pedal I wanted.

This way I didn't have to bother my better half and I didn't have to interrupt her beauty sleep, bon bons, phone calls or______________(insert your own).

Good Luck!
Mark

ffas23

Dan,
I have had a tool that I bought from KD Tools back in the early 70's for doing Disc Calipers. You should see if you can find one out there. The tool opens like a scissor in between the new Disc pads compressing the 4 pistons inside the caliper making for easily setting the Caliper onto the rotor with out doing any damage to the pistons. You just turn the handle that is similiar to a screwdriver handle clockwise to open the scissored part of the tool up. Used it so many times on all my vehicles over the years that I can't count how many times yet the tool still works like brand new and saves me plenty of time.

On top of that I use a Motive Power Bleeder now for the last couple of years to bleed my Corvette brakes. I feel it is the only way to go anymore.

magicv8

Knock offs are OK, but I have the factory original:

DZVETTE, who took the pics in the parking lot, took the spacer home to TX and stuffed and mounted it for me. It hangs above my monitor in IL.

Not trying to hijack the thread - all I'm getting at is that any piece of wood that's the right thickness can be inserted in the caliper to keep the pistons/pads apart. I prefer a wood block to the sheet metal retainers made for the task.

JohnZ

The Motive Products pressure bleeder makes this a one-person job, done in ten minutes.

DansYellow66

Unfortunately I always put off buying a set of those pisons retainers until I need them - and then it's too late. Also, I don't play golf so I wasn't prepared with a golf tee. Surprisingly a found a piece of Kitchen cling wrap and a rubber band sealed the line off tight. I had a self bleeder deal and tried it before finally having to call the wife. I just didn't trust it was getting the job done because I wasn't at the wheel to see what it was doing. But anyway - it's done now and I hope it's several more years before they need it again.

DansYellow66

Mark, I have a Mighty vac and have used it before but it didn't seem to do any good this time. It seems my bleeder valves were a little loose in the calipers and I think it was sucking air around the bleeder screw threads back into the vacuum line. I was also getting fluid leaking around the bleeder threads. I never did pull any fluid into the reservoir. This may be a problem with these rebuilt cores. They probably chase the bleeder threads every time they come in for a rebuild and after 2 or 3 times they are kind of loose.

Dan

DansYellow66

Is the Power Bleeder one that pressurizes the master cylinder? If so I agree that is probably the way to go.

Dan

ffas23

Yes it is and it is the best $60 investment I think I ever made for working on my 2 Vettes.

Hitch

I don't think I understand.. You only need the caliper clamps if you have fluid in the lines. If you just put the pads in and press them back with you hands you will have no issue. Then connect the line and bleed with the two person method.. Dave

ffas23

Don't know who this post is directed at but forum member (youwish2beme) is correct. Noting is really needed when installing a dry caliper. A tool like I use is a great tool to use when installing new pads in a caliper under pressure. The scissor action of the tool will put even pressure on the pads so that all 4 pistons compress at the same time making it easy to slide the caliper right over the top of the rotor releasing the tool as it sits in place.

DansYellow66

The saga continues. I just found one of the rebuilt calipers is leaking from an inner piston seal and dripping on the inner tire sidewall. I haven't even driven the car yet. So I'll repeat - I hate working on brakes.

Dan

ffas23

That is strange, usually rebuilt calipers are put through a pressure check at the rebuilders to test for leaks. Hope you didn't use a screwdriver to push the pistons back to install the pads. I have seen where someone did this years ago and pinched the outer seal.

63 340HP

Have you considered converting to drums ?

After all the ribbing the unmmolested 63-64 owners get whenever we post a brake question thread I could not resist .

Good luck.

6T7L71CPE

It's been a few years but I've gotten two bad calipers from VBP that had "buggered" bleeder seats. The fluid drips down slowly forming a drip at the bottom of the caliper and appeared to be seal issue.