Gen I Front Brake Caliper tale

Mmagus

Observer
After a front alignment on my 89 Monty there was still pull under braking so I set about replacing the calipers yesterday and. I had never dont a caliper job, just pad, and neither on a Monty. So I pulled up "how to change brake calipers" on youtube, took a peek and dove in.

I ordere the calipers from a local vendor. Everything looked right so I got one side up on the jack pulled the tire and got started. The caliper comes off eaily with only one mounting bolt on the lower part. Take it out and a simple pry with a swredriver on the lower side rotated it up and you can slide it off the upper pivot pin. I had loosened the bolts holding the brake line and the tap but not removed them. Which made things a bit tight. The pads and their holder stay right in place so no need to fiddle with them.

After removing the brake line I installed he replacement left caliper and got all the bots and pin started loosly, then I tried to attach the brake line. After trying and trying, thinking that I just didnt have the correct angle (insert 30 min or so) I took the whole thing back off and carefully looked at the thread in the new caliper only to see that it had a bad thread for the brake line. I called the parts place where I got it and they couldnt get one to replace it for at least a day. Since this was not an option and with the Monty up on jacks I got desperate. I started looking around and realized that the caliper bolt was the same size as the line, but a slightly different thread. So I carefully turned it in less thean a 1/4 turn. That tapped into the existing thread and the line caught. WHEW! I tightened everything up and something was wrong. The roter was locked As I loosened the mounting bolt it started to spin. After a bit of head scratching and looking at the old one I realized that the collar/spacer that the mounting bilt goes through wasnt in the new caliper. After putting it in everything worked well.
So...an hour and a half...on to roter two.

Which took , MAYBE 10 minutes.

Here is what I learned.

After jacking up one wheel and removing it...

1. Loosen the line tap slightly
2. Remove the bolts holding the line bracket
3. Remove the mounting bolt
4. Remove the brake line (have something to catch the brake fluid that drips out)
5. Pry the bottom of the caliper up, roatate it so its free of the pads and slide it off.

Bleed the brake lines and you're good to go.

To install the new one simply reverse this process. Make sure that the mounting pin area has a spacer/collar in it. (one of mine did and one didnt.)

M
 
Last edited:

off-roader

Expedition Leader
Nice job & now that you know how easy it is to access those pads, I'll bet you're not worried one iota on replacing them when they wear out.:ylsmoke:
 

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