Rebuilding Calipers & Replacing Wheel Cylinders

Hello everyone,

I'll be replacing the rear wheel cylinders and replacing seals on the calipers next weekend.

For those of you who have done it, have you simply bled the brake system dry, done your work, then filled back up?

Or have some found a way to plug/cap the lines as you replace a cylinder/piston seal, without having to drain the entire system?

You can just pinch off the soft lines with a vice grip pliers when the caliper and the line are separated if you wish. I've never drained my system when I've separated a caliper form the line.

For that matter, if you unhook the line from the caliper and zip tie it out of the way where the opening is facing up, you won't lose any fluid, unless you start stomping on the brake petal while its unhooked.

Loosen one bleeder, push the brake pedal all the way to the floor. At this point you can wedge something between the seat and pedal to hold it down. The Master Cylinder will not (should not!) leak fluid with the pedal all the way down.

After you get your work done at the wheels, release the pedal and bleed the system.

If you have late model ABS brakes, you need to follow the directions in the JEEP Factory Service Manual to prevent air from entering the ABS pump system which requires a trip to the Dealership to bleed the ABS pump.

Re: Rebuilding Calipers & Replacing Wheel Cylinders

Thanks for the reply guys. I don't have ABS (luckily, kind of....) so no need to worry there. The front discs look pretty easy to clamp off at the caliper. The rears I'll have to clamp off the line before the splitter, because after it's all hard line to each wheel cylinder. Assuming that the hard lines in the rear lose their fluid, or even a little air gets in the front lines I'd think I'll be OK so long as I bleed the system after all bolted back up in following sequence RR LR RF LF.

For Hypoid's pedal trick, one really nice solution is if you can find an old tailgate strut the right length. Cut a piece of wood or the like for the cylinder end to hook under the steering wheel, and it will hold the pedal down. It's also really useful for one man brake bleeding.