Viewing 4 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #58186
      Ronald Estes
      Participant

        Hi,…this is my first post to the forum. I am the original owner of a 1966 Tiger. My car abruptly began pulling to the right under hard braking, so I inspected the left caliper and found that the outside piston was not functioning properly. I got new stainless pistons and a rebuild kit from Sunbeam Specialities and did a rebuild. The bores only needed mild polishing, and there was no serious scoring. I did not disassemble the caliper into two halves, as I had seen warnings that it should only be attempted by specialty shops. However, fluid seemed to flow freely through the outside bore channel when I assembled the seals, dust cover and piston. I also replaced the brake hoses upon reassembling the caliper. The end result is that the problem persists, with a pull to the right under hard braking.

        Any suggestions?? Are there any other brake system components I should look at? I would break down the caliper halves to inspect if I knew the reassembly procedure ( torquing sequence and torque tolerances). I did order the transfer port seals from Sunbeam Specialities as well.

        Ron

      • #65760

        Ron, welcome to the TEAE forum.
        So with your present troubleshooting, you have piston action on one side, but not the opposite?

        Can you statically troubleshoot the brake system on jackstands with the help of a friend? Have you pressed the pistons back in the whole way and see if they have the same action with a press on the pedal?

        Good Luck,

      • #65761
        Ronald Estes
        Participant

          Hi, Eric,…and thanks. With the caliper off of the rotor, pads out and pistons fully seated, brake pedal pressure moves both pistons out, but the inboard piston moves about twice the distance as the outboard piston.

          Ron

        • #65767

          I’ve always broken them in two and never had an issue. And really, it’s the only way to clean out the dust boot and fluid seal grooves completely. Here’s what I’ve done in the past.

          1 Break the caliper into two pieces, you can do both at once if you want, it’s impossible to mix up the pieces.
          2 Remove the piston, seal and dust boot. Since you’ve already done this should slide right out. In some cases it requires
          heat and other persuation.
          3 Clean out the dust boot and piston seal grooves. I use a Dremel tool with a small cutoff wheel for the dust boot groove
          and a stone for the piston seal. It’s nearly impossible to damage the caliper body with these. The cutoff wheel will
          remove all the caked in dirt and rust and it’s easy to tell when they’re gone and you’re starting to remove metal as the
          feel will change. With the stone you can remove and bumps and rust that may have gotten into the piston seal groove.
          You can also use it to clean up the area from the top of the seal groove to the top of the piston opening since that’s
          where it tends to rust and get dirty. This should allow the piston to move freely.
          4 Optionally you can now clean the two halves and paint them to prevent future rust gathering on them. Don’t paint the
          surfaces where the two halves come together, the piston wells or the mounting ears where they mount to the stub axles,
          althoug I have lightly primed with epoxy the surfaces above the piston seal to prevent further rust formation.
          5 Once whatever cleaning you want to do is complete you can reassemble. Insert the piston seal and dust seal into their
          grooves, should slide in easily since they’ve been cleaned out. Insert the piston. The piston should slide in with no more
          than the pressure of a couple fingers, if it requires much more than it may be cocked or the piston seal might be out of
          place or undersize. Push pistons all the way to the bottom, I find it easier to bleed that way as there is less trapped air.
          6 Reassemble the two halves and don’t forget the square section seal between them. I’ll wire wheel off the bolts to have
          clean threads so I get accurate readings while torquing. I’ve used 45lbs for the small bolts and 50lbs for the larger ones.
          Never had a leak or problems so far and the first set I did have been on almost 20 years. Torque about 1/3 each time, I’ve
          gone smal to small, large to large. But like I said, never ran across anything factory with details.
          7 Reinstall.

          One other thing to note, sometimes you find small shims between the caliper and the stub, these are for centering the caliper in relation to the disc. Make sure you reinstall them if present. And if you haven’t yet, invest in a new set of flex hoses since they eventually will start to fail internally.

          Any questions, please let me know.

        • #65768
          Ronald Estes
          Participant

            Thanks, Mike. You have convinced me to go ahead and split the caliper and make sure the channel is clear and clean. I will reinspect the adequacy of my cleaning job on the bore groves as well with the caliper broken down.

            Regards,

            Ron

        Viewing 4 reply threads
        • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.