Problems with NEW brake calipers.....UGH!

[shadango]

Just a long rant to see if anyone else has run into this...

Son's Volare's left front caliper siezed up while driving....

No big deal....good time to do a hose/caliper/pad swap on both sides.

Of course no one has the parts in stock anymore, so we waited for Autozone to deliver...parts came yesterday, we earmarked today to do the job.

Played the musical car game so we could work on her in the garage....

Left front went goodly til we tried to replace the hose.....of course it was galded to the line fitting....and the fitting rounded off.....soooooo.......pulled the line off the distro block.....took a break so kiddo could run down and pickup a 12" piece of NiCu line , preflared etc....hand bent it.....

I figured that would be the hardest part.

Not.

So putting the left house on the caliper we found we could NOT get that SOB to seal.....the calipers came with brand new banjo bolts (different style than orig) and copper washers....we cranked and cranked, no good. Then I got down on my back (ugh) and watched the leak....

Turns out the copper washers they provided were too big for the casting's washer indentation, creating a leak behind the block.

COOL! Easy fix....replace the washers with the smaller washers provided with the hose.....

NOT.

THOSE washers were too small ID to fit the banjo bolts provided with the hose!

So we ended up using a couple of extra copper ones I had from brake jobs years ago....fit perfect.

OK.....

STILL leaks....

We finally say screw it and crank more....leak stopped.

OK...on to the easy right side.....brake line came right out of the hose, no issues, no leaks yet....

Get every thing put together.....Hooked up the pressure bleeder, pumped to 15 lbs......makes it easy.....no leaks anywhere...WOOHOO!!!!.....started bleeding, get the rears done and moved to the front right.

Mind you, no leaks from there up to now.

We bleed the caliper and are ready to move on to the front left, put the wheels on , test drive and then go for pizza.

NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

DAMN BLEEDER WOULDNT STOP LEAKING on that right front!!!!! THRU the bleeder, not the threads around it.

Pulled the bleeder screw and a major indentation was cut into it...it's white metal.....not sure if its steel or aluminum or what......

Replaced it with a brass bleeder screw from an old spare caliper for my Cuda that seems to have the same dimensions in the important areas.........STILL WONT SEAL!!!!!!

So I figure there is something wrong with the casting on that caliper, down in the bleeder hole......figured we will slap the old caliper on so the system wont bleed out overnight.....and be done for now.

THE NEW HOSE's BLOCK IS TOO BIG TO FIT THE OLD CALIPER CASTING!!!!!!!!!

We ended up putting the old hose and caliper back together and suspending the caliper for now.

Car will be on jacks til at least Tueaday when a new caliper can arrive.

I have never in all my years had a bleeder act like that....nor found BOTH calipers wiuth sealing/mounting issues.

IF were were only replacing hoses, we would have been screwed since the new hoses do not fit the old calipers.

Not happy that we wasted hours chasing issues with BRAND NEW PARTS!!!!!

I was blaiming "cheap ass chineese crap!"....But......The parts boxes say "made in mexico"

Well, I sure hope the new caliper isnt a problem. Will have to wait 3-4 days to find out! Ties up my garage and leaves the son without his hot rod!!!! UGH!

 

[volare 1977]

use mopar copper washers for the hoses. the copper is softer and seal better. the aftermarket washers are junk. the sealing rings around the holes get worn away after rebuilds and the rust removal. you can get new calipers and aspen 500 used them and them fit great. also find quality brake hoses not the autozone junk

 

[Aspen500]

The problem can be with reman calipers, the castings are worn out and may have been rebuilt a number of times over the past 40+years. Also, I've run into some pretty poor workmanship with some reman calipers at work. Even to the extent where they put an insert in the bleeder screw hole,,,,,,,,,,,,and blocked the passage completely so it was impossible to bleed. A coupe times the caliper leaked past the seals right out of the box, etc..... Where the copper washers seat, there should be ribs, or concentric rings. After many years, the rings wear or rust away and the copper washer has nothing decent to seat against.

Too late now I know but on my Aspen, ended up getting brand new stock calipers from Classic Performance Products to replace the reman ones I out on a few years ago and, all the problems were solved.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Poor remans. I hit the same issue doing brakes on my truck. I wasn't planning on calipers but they were signs of leaking once we had everything apart. Parts store had them in stock so ran over and picked them up. Started re-assembly and noticed the piston boot was torn on one. The store was now closed but luckily one place was still open and had a set in stock so ran over and got those.
Got everything back together but noticed a bad ball joint when we started the other side. So more time off the road.
Lately what should be simple brake replacements have become my curse.

 

[Aspen500]

Reminds me of my old '81 D150 I had in the '90's. Rear axle seals were starting to leak so, took it apart to replace the seals. Noticed the brake shoes were getting thin so, may as well replace them right away too. Looked at the drums and they were beyond machining so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,replace them with new. No sense doing all that and using the old hardware. "While I'm at it", put new wheel cylinders in also, which meant making new brake lines for the axle. "Might as well" replace the brake hose, which of course leads to making a new brake line from the master to the rear since the tubing nuts will never turn and being Wisconsin, a new line was almost a requirement anyways on a 13 year old (at the time) truck. The following week I go to do the front brakes and,,,,,you guessed it. Ended up with new calipers, pads, rotors, bearings, hoses and brake lines. It's the way it usually goes when I do something. "Might as well", "while I'm at it" snowball effect type of thing, lol! How do you think my Aspen ended up like it is after 12 years of work? Huge snowball..............

 

[Mikes5thAve]

That's why simple projects suck.
My Chrysler is off the road right now because a couple years ago a mopar buddy of mine wanted me to put something in a car show. So I get it out and notice it has a bad wheel cylinder and everything ended up seized stripped or broken. Perfect time to put my sure-grip axle in. And while I'm at it might as well do springs too and shocks because both were needed. And hey there's also the set of police sway bars that were a someday project. Might as well be now. Needed some new hangers which took a while to find and a project that big wasn't in my plans. Lets not forget since I'm doing the back might aswell do the front. At least there the only thing left to do is the shocks.. so i say now. Yup. Snowball.

 

[Aspen500]

My car started out as a trans overhaul (drive was gone) and SOME body and paint touch up. Well, pretty soon it was a bare shell sitting on casters with literally every thing apart. !2 years later of might as well, while I'm at it's,,,,,,,,,,,,it made it's first trip down the street and back, not yet finished, in 18 years (trans fried in '96, project started in '02) in 2012 and the following summer the bug working out mode which adds up to 12 years in all, along with building the engine again in 2013 after 100 miles (don't ask......). All I know is, it ended up as the type of car I wanted since the beginning of time so, it's all good and how much did I spend on it? Don't know, don't want to know, doesn't really matter now, lol.

The "problem" is, I end up doing that on every project, whether it's a daily driver vehicle, the house, or anything else. Got that gene from my dad. He's the same way.

 

[shadango]

SO as far as the sealing washers, in case this helps anyone in the future, it looks like the correct Dorman part for the sealing washer is 66269..... they list it as 7/16" hole, 11/16" OD, 1/32" thick....and it lists it for 73-98 Chryslers. I compared it to the OEM ones we have (used) and the ID/OD look right but the OEM is twice as thick......

We used one of the Dormans on the left side and it sealed against the caliper fine so far....even at 1/32" thickness

I did find, by way of google searching and a lot of reading, a place called pegasusautoracing.com.......
Soft Copper Crush Washer - Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies
They have the same ID and OD, but a full 1/16" thick.

If we still get leaks I will be ordering these to try since the correct Mopar part # of 6030084 is no longer available.....

We just ordered a new caliper for the right side thru autozone.....wish us luck. LOL

 

[Aspen500]

I have noticed a lot of the newer washers are thinner and in some cases, too thin.

 

[Duke5A]

Did you anneal those washers first? Run them under a propane torch until they get cherry, let them air cool. Softens them up for sealing. I couldn't get the banjo bolts on my rear discs to seal until I did this.

 

[The Director]

I've had an annoyance with my drum brakes a few months ago. One was dragging a lot, and on the other, my emergency brake was partially engaged, and wouldn't come off it. So, I found that the wheel cylinders were screwed up. I got new wheel cylinders. Well, that solved the drag issue, and the emergency brake, well, I'm afraid to ever try using that again, because even though I have new hardware in there, and I manually took it off, I'd rather not rip open that drum brake for another 5 years if I could.

It gets better.

I found out that the guy who had my Fifth Avenue before me actually put "something other than brake fluid," as a mechanic I know told me. (All of my driveway hours of investigation eventually lead to me needing new brake lines, which I don't have the time, space or equipment to do on my own, and those old wheel cylinders weren't coming off without the brake lines breaking.) My new wheel cylinders literally went bad again, and this only seemed to take about a week for the same side to have a clicking sound, and dragging feel in the rear right.

One day, I'll replace those wheel cylinders again.... but then I'll just say screw it, and replace 90% of the whole system, because it's giving me so much frustration, that I don't want even a trace of residue of this mysterious fluid that breaks my brakes in any part of the braking system. What was supposed to be a simple, "I just need some new drum brake parts" turns into, "I need a new braking system."


I feel your pain.... it sucks.

 

[BudW]

unknown fluid in brake system and rust are troublesome, independent from each other.

 

[The Director]

unknown fluid in brake system and rust are troublesome, independent from each other.

Exactly.... it's not nice when both natural forces and stupidity jointly work against a car project. What confuses me is that they found the "mystery fluid," and didn't think to ask if I'd like it flushed while they had the car torn apart anyway. I would've gave them a couple extra bucks for that, since it just would've been logical. But yeah, the rusty brake lines just contributed to the ongoing problem, because it could've been a driveway job if it weren't for that. I have a feeling that this mystery fluid may even have a corrosive property, being that it was seizing up the wheel cylinders and a caliper.