Freelander 1 Caliper Slide Pins.

Hello all.
Doing a few jobs on the front recently and noticed the caliper slide pin at the bottom stuck. Iv'e ordered new ones.
It would seem that the top pin differs from the bottom one. The bottom one has a rubber bush set up while the top is of a solid pin set up. Both have a special grease proved.
Can any one explain why?
Thanks in advance for replies.
Gazl.

MULDERKE said:

Hello all.
Doing a few jobs on the front recently and noticed the caliper slide pin at the bottom stuck. Iv'e ordered new ones.
It would seem that the top pin differs from the bottom one. The bottom one has a rubber bush set up while the top is of a solid pin set up. Both have a special grease proved.
Can any one explain why?
Thanks in advance for replies.
Gazl.

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Bottom pin has a rubber bush for damping, and the special grease is silicone paste or red rubber grease. If you use normal grease, the rubber will swell and bind, and the boots will disintegrate.

Clean the holes out with a 9mm drill bit and some emery cloth, then wash all the old crap out. If you’ve ordered Britpart ones, they won’t fit properly - the rubber part is too big. I took mine down slightly on a bench grinder.

Cheers Sir.
And many thanks on this. I now know what caused the problem.
I discarded the grease on the last pad change in favour of copper based stuff. WRONG.

I actually use solid pins from the MG Rover car calipers. These don't have the rubber part, so there's nothing to swell and stick. I had a few MGR spares kicking about, so swapped the rubber LR pins for the MGR plain pins. Not had any sticking and I can now use ordinary moly grease without an problems.

Hi Nodge68.
Now I have spare solid Pins for the bottom, could I do the same? Or would this be a bad move.

Thanks

MULDERKE said:

Now I have spare solid Pins for the bottom, could I do the same?

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You could do what I have. As far as I can tell, the rubber on the pin is there for improved refinement, potentially at the expense of reliability. Like I said, the MGR calipers use plain pins and those work just fine.

MULDERKE said:

Or would this be a bad move.

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I can't see an issue with it myself. I don't know what an insurance company would think, but would they ever know?

Nodge68 said:

I actually use solid pins from the MG Rover car calipers. These don't have the rubber part, so there's nothing to swell and stick. I had a few MGR spares kicking about, so swapped the rubber LR pins for the MGR plain pins. Not had any sticking and I can now use ordinary moly grease without an problems.

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Do you not find the ordinary (petroleum-based) grease rots out the boots?

I’ve even cut the rubber dampers off before. In theory, you might get a click on applying the brakes but I didn’t notice anything. That was years ago.

guineafowl21 said:

Do you not find the ordinary (petroleum-based) grease rots out the boots?

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The boots seem to rot, regardless of the type of grease used.

guineafowl21 said:

I’ve even cut the rubber dampers off before

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I've done that myself, before realising the MGR pins were identical except for the missing rubber boot.