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Stuck Caliper, fixes??

R

robhurlburt

NAXJA Forum User
Location
lexington,ky
Well, today was going good. Finished up the new waterpump instal to get rid of the leak. Was able to take it for a spin for the first time after the lift was installed. Found some death wobble but cured that with a DIY front alignment, then of course, something had to f*ck up.

All of a sudden the jeep started pulling hard to the passenger side, then under braking, pulling hard to the driver side :huh:

At this time I start smelling a nasty burning smell. I get home and look under there to find a slight amount of smoke coming from the passenger side brake caliper, and the farker is hot. Jack it up and the wheel won't spin, at all.

I am assuming the caliper is now stuck. I am going to pull it off and try to diagnose it. I have never run into this issue before, so any help would be thankfull...

-Pull caliper
-check and lube slide pins

I would assume the only way to diagnose this is to try and push the caliper back in, if it doesn't move, well....

Can you rebuild these calipers?

Any suggestions?

I am near the end of my patience, must wheel soon...:wow:
 
robhurlburt said:
Well, today was going good. Finished up the new waterpump instal to get rid of the leak. Was able to take it for a spin for the first time after the lift was installed. Found some death wobble but cured that with a DIY front alignment, then of course, something had to f*ck up.

All of a sudden the jeep started pulling hard to the passenger side, then under braking, pulling hard to the driver side :huh:

At this time I start smelling a nasty burning smell. I get home and look under there to find a slight amount of smoke coming from the passenger side brake caliper, and the farker is hot. Jack it up and the wheel won't spin, at all.

I am assuming the caliper is now stuck. I am going to pull it off and try to diagnose it. I have never run into this issue before, so any help would be thankfull...

-Pull caliper
-check and lube slide pins

I would assume the only way to diagnose this is to try and push the caliper back in, if it doesn't move, well....

Can you rebuild these calipers?

Any suggestions?

I am near the end of my patience, must wheel soon...:wow:
Click to expand...

Rebuilding is not an option for me.
I have a 50-50 chance of fixing the problem, and the cost savings aren't that great.

Almost killed myself once trying to unstuck a caliper on the bench with compressed air:skull2:
 
New calipers are not expensive. But the recommendation is to rerplace both at the same time. Other than the slide pins, check the slides on the knuckle, they can get pitted out and have chunks out of it.
 
found this over at jeep forum:

The caliper sounds stuck. It's usually more noticable when they are hot. To diagnose this properly you need to get them to stick. Once you do this, jack up the axle and verify the wheel does not turn. If you can crack the bleeder and the wheel spins, the problem is on the hydraulic side. Either a bad hose or master cylinder. If it's still stuck, the caliper is the issue. Most likely a stuck piston or frozen slide pins. When you remove the caliper, the two slide pins that the bolts go through should move back and forth smoothly. If they don't move at all, the slides are frozen. If they do move, the caliper piston is to blame.

I realize calipers are cheap, but after all the other crap i have put into this thing, i'd rather not just keep on buying parts.
 
Buy new calipers. Easy peazy lemon squeezy.
 
X2 on buying new ones. Yours and the safety of others is in your hands. Rebuilding them and something going wrong... Saving a few bucks will be the last thing on your mind.
 
I just had a buddy pump the brakes 3 times and gold it while I bled the brakes. Just unscrew the bleed valve, get somone to pump the brakes 3 times (third time holding the brake) and tighten the nut. Worked fine for me.
 
I had the same problem happen to me a few years ago far away from any shop.

I disassembled the caliper (removed the piston from the housing) and sure enough things were not shiny inside. Have someone push the brake-pedal while you try to pull the piston out of the housing with some kinda tool...

To get things up and running, I cleaned the housing, and used a very fine sandpaper with some lubricate like (WD40 - because it would burn off when brakes are applied) to clean the piston - gently rolled the piston in the wet sandpaper. Assembled everything together and voila it worked like a charm.

Well, this was an emergency-fixup by the roadside.
 
robhurlburt said:
anybody know the bleed procedure for these?

I have yet to bleed any car yet, lol.
Click to expand...

start at the rearmost wheel away from the master, do both rears, then do the passenger front and then the drivers front.

DO NOT LET THE MASTER GO DRY!

or if you want to take the easy way out, speed bleeders, worth every penny they cost, and they make trail brake line repairs way easy.
 
robhurlburt said:
found this over at jeep forum:

The caliper sounds stuck. It's usually more noticable when they are hot. To diagnose this properly you need to get them to stick. Once you do this, jack up the axle and verify the wheel does not turn. If you can crack the bleeder and the wheel spins, the problem is on the hydraulic side. Either a bad hose or master cylinder. If it's still stuck, the caliper is the issue. Most likely a stuck piston or frozen slide pins. When you remove the caliper, the two slide pins that the bolts go through should move back and forth smoothly. If they don't move at all, the slides are frozen. If they do move, the caliper piston is to blame.
Click to expand...

ok, i did this, and the wheel spun freely. Took a good 45mins of driving to get it to seize though.

i took the brakes apart and the caliper pins slide freely, and the piston retracted back in no problem. I am going to do the same procedure tomorrow, but not wait so long to crack the bleeder.

thanks for the help, any and all is appreciated. I would like to diagnose it before i just and buy new calipers. This isn't my DD, so no rush, just want to get it right so i can hit the trails
 
The calipers are so cheap I would replace it and not worry about it. I had to replace one last week when installing my YJ brake lines all because the bleeder screw would not come loose and I rounded it off. It took 10mins
 
just bought a caliper and will put it on tonight. if all goes well, the otherside will be replaced as well.

I would assume its pretty straightforward:
-leave cap on resevoir
-pull old caliper off
-pull off old brake line fitting, swap to new one
-reinstall
-open resevoir cap
-gravity bleed, being sure to top off resevoir
-?????
-profit?
 
Also you may want to use some channel locks to pinch off the brakeline so you don't lose a whole lot of brake fluid.
 
200K XJ said:
The calipers are so cheap I would replace it and not worry about it. I had to replace one last week when installing my YJ brake lines all because the bleeder screw would not come loose and I rounded it off. It took 10mins
Click to expand...
I've only broken two bleeders off (out of 4 each on like 6 or 7 brake jobs I've done) and they are fairly easy to get out when you round them off. Grab them as tight as you can (should require both hands) with a pair of vise grips, crank back and forth till it grinds a bit of metal off. Repeat until you feel it's oval shaped enough to really get a grip on with the vise grips, then unscrew it. Helps if you think ahead and oval it at the right angle that you can get a good amount of leverage on it with the vise grips once it's time to start turning it.

Remember to replace the copper crush washers between the caliper and brake line, and between the brake line and banjo bolt. If you don't, you will get slow leaks and the brakes will slowly get worse over time and if something goes wrong (like the hose gets yanked hard) a sudden leak will develop.

If the slides are the problem I might try rebuilding it, but if the piston is jammed it's not worth the trouble and risk. Buy new ones.

Seriously, put speed bleeders on that sucker. The front ones are 3/8-24, a two pack costs ten bucks at autozone. Best thing I ever did, I put them in every jeep I end up bleeding the brakes on.
 
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