Caliper pin bushings - remove them?

[wirelessF]

My 02 Silverado uses a caliper pin with a rubber bushing at the end. I'm having a hard time reinserting the pins because the rubber bushing is stuck in the bore. The pins look like this:

The bushings go into the thinner part while the caliper rides on the middle thick part. Also on the other side where I managed to get the pins in, it took a lot of effort to slide the caliper and might worry if the outer pads start dragging or sticking.

Can I remove the end bushings? The rear disc brakes does not use this pin design .

 

[eljefino]

I don't think anyone on the internet will say "yeah sure go ahead and modify your brakes".

I think that bushing is an anti noise thing. Have you tried a grease like syl-glide?

Maybe the bushing has swollen from time. Go in with a slightly bigger drill bit and work it a little?

 

[yonyon]

I think the best thing to do would be to replace the bushings and clean out any old grease that may have ruined the old ones. New bolts should come with new bushings. Use a suitable grease, and not too much.

Either way, the old ones that are hanging up are more trouble than they're worth so lose them.

 

[doitmyself]

I have that type of pin in my '05 Caravan and experienced seizing of the rubber bushing. I cannot confirm the cause or fix, but will tell my story.

I experimented with "new tech" brake lubricant such as the Permatex synthetic green and Bendix Ceramlube. That's when the pins seized. They also dried up with this lube.

I went back to SilGlyde and they seem to be o.k, but there are a number of variables that could be the solution.

I bought replacement pins from NAPA and CarQuest. One set fit better (looser) than the other. Maybe I put too much grease in the first time (Permatex) to cause a "hydrolock" of sorts. Who knows.

I would replace the pins/bushings as they might be swollen. Use the lube of your choice and see what happens. Clean out all the old grease thoroughly.

Best of luck.

 

[The Critic]

Without the bushing, the caliper pin will fit loosely in the hole. This will result in poor pad wear. However, this is unlikely to happen overnight, so you can reassemble it this way for now - but you definitely need to get some new bushings and correct the problem.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Without the bushing, the caliper pin will fit loosely in the hole. This will result in poor pad wear. However, this is unlikely to happen overnight, so you can reassemble it this way for now - but you definitely need to get some new bushings and correct the problem.
It's something to look at when you see uneven wear.

 

[Doog]

Pull the bushings out with a dental hook cleaning tool. Then replace all of them and the bolts. If you use Permatex synthetic brake lube (green) you wont have any issues.

Can I remove the end bushings? The rear disc brakes does not use this pin design

No they will rattle and drive you insane.

 

[mechtech2]

I also have had poor success with the Permatex brake grease.

Good old Syl Glide is not perfect, but is very good.
Get new ones first, then attack and destroy the old rubber parts.
Assemble with lube liberally applied.

 

[steve20]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
I also have had poor success with the Permatex brake grease.

Good old Syl Glide is not perfect, but is very good.
Get new ones first, then attack and destroy the old rubber parts.
Assemble with lube liberally applied.




???details on the Permatex--I've been using it for at least the last half dozen brake jobs-haven't seen any issues yet---what's to look out for?

 

[ChrisW]

I've used the CRC synthetic brake lubricant [the dark graphite/moly stuff] in the squeeze tube, and it swelled up my rubber pin bushings on my Mazda6. I cleaned out all old grease, got a new pin boot kit from o'reilly. The kit only came with two pin bushings, whereas the factory pins had the rubber on both pins [four total]. [interestingly enough, the rear brakes, only the bottom pins have the rubber sleeve on it] I chose to install the bushing on the shorter top pin and leave the longer bottom pin without; bottom longer pin has somewhat of a brass bushing on a part of where the rubber sleeve would have gone. Installing pins without rubber on the top pin at least was a bit loose for my liking. The top pin gets hit first with the rotation of the rotor. No problems with rattles or anything; if it does i suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and order another pin boot kit just to get those two extra slide pin bushings. I used sil-glyde this time from napa. I think if your'e going to not use them, try at least using one on either the top or bottom pin, whichever one allows freer sliding of the pin in the bore, and then just grease the other pin with sil-glyde.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: steve20
Originally Posted By: mechtech2
I also have had poor success with the Permatex brake grease.

Good old Syl Glide is not perfect, but is very good.
Get new ones first, then attack and destroy the old rubber parts.
Assemble with lube liberally applied.




???details on the Permatex--I've been using it for at least the last half dozen brake jobs-haven't seen any issues yet---what's to look out for?


Yes details please...as I have been using it for over 10 years.

 

[ChrisW]

The green permatex stuff doesn't last for me or doesn't seem to as well as sil-glyde does, seems to washout easier and not stick to metal as well as sil-glyde does. I prefer the thicker consistency of the sil-glyde versus the thinner permatex green stuff. However, if I use the green permatex stuff, I only use it on caliper slide pins, and only when I'm in a pinch say doing brakes at a friend's place. If you wanted a product with higher silicone content than sil-glyde and rated among motorcyclists as better, Dow-corning makes a product but it costs more than sil-glyde, I forget the exact name of the product.

I'm not sure about the permatex ceramic enhanced versions nowadays, but I highly doubt your slide pins are ever going to reach the 2000F that the ceramic versions are rated to, if they do, you probably have other problems on your hands. Race endurance cars? Well they usually use a multi-piston mono-block fixed non-floating caliper, think Baer, Brembo, Alcon etc, I don't really recall seeing slide pins on these designs that would necessitate a 2000F ceramic brake lube.

For sure I'd stay away from the CRC moly/graphite/ptfe on slide pins or rubber boots/bushings as for me it has caused rubber parts to swell, I'd only use the CRC stuff on pad to carrier contact points on hardware that wasn't rubber coated [ears] and possibly in-between non-bonded shims and backing plates.