Don't Reburbish Your Rusty Callipers Without ...

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Ipcress

Member
Posts
75
Location
South West London
POLITE SUGGESTION : Don't even think about refurbishing old and long untouched callipers on a D1 without first getting hold of some bolt removers. You'll save a lot of time and cursing, that's a promise .. no matter how much penetration oil/heat/hammer impacts you apply.

So the truck was 'slewing' to the right on braking and the heavier the pedal push the bigger the slew. A bleed all round twice over solved nothing using the Gunson Eeeeezibleeed (great piece of kit). So then I thought, 'well its not dipping at the front under heavy braking, its 'slewing' right. Rear wheels off and lo and behold both rear callipers had either lost their outer steel seals and rubbers and/or seized pistons. (Bought D1 in March '15).

After applying a clamp to the flexi pipe at the rear I then set about removing the pads which were pretty worn anyway and the calliper bolts, first wire brushing them, clumping them with a hammer and applying GT85. The 13mm bolts are double hex (which I know most know, just sayin'..) and three were not going anywhere.

Tried all the tricks including whacking on a smaller socket (1 ruined extension bar), got another off but two simply would not budge even with quite some leverage, endless hammering, more GT85 and that useless Halfords 'Shock & Something' which does the wrong thing in chilling the bolts and calliper - the socket would slip over the bolt heads. Better of driving vehical to warm up callipers & bolts than chilling them.

Bolts then getting rounded a little so tried filing them down for a smaller socket still - no joy; just aggravation, dirt in the eye from being underneath, lots of cursing but getting good exercise from getting underneath, getting out again and back underneath again (down to 13 stone 5lbs now... great :)).

Then I read on Landyzone somewhere (same place that recommended 'Shock & Something/whatever') to get some Irwin Bolt Removers. Screwfix had them as well as another cheaper set that had the right contiguous sizes to 14mm; £11. Best bit of kit you can have for getting pig nuts and bolts off like this. Photos attached.

Calliper Service Kit from Biggred - fantastic. The steel outer rings fit perfectly tho tight without much hassle. Nice pistons etc. Replaced pinched brake pipes which had to be cut to get off the callipers and central t-piece anyhow as an open spanner is no good for undoing the pipe nuts as it slips off - same ole'. Besides, pinched brake pipes are MOT failures.

So both callipers off, stripped but not splitting, cleaned up with Brake Cleaner, rubbers, steel retainers and pistons greased and in, and rehung on the axles. EasyBled again - Job Done!

So, just sayin', if you like spending / wasting time underneath the Landy making no impression on bolts which havent been touched in ages - carry on without relatively inexpensive bolt removers. On the other hand if your time (cost me what seem like a whole day to remove those bolts) is worth more than £11 then do yourself a favour and get a set, they're priceless.

One more tip, when removing the rusted in pistons use the pedal and sometimes the servo to get them out, they too can be pigs if seized, so leave the pipes connected with the calliper and free of the disc, put a piece of wood in the calliper groove and pedal them out if you can... another time & energy saver ;)

Off Road D1V8LPG - Best 'car' ever, and wouldn't swap for anything.. Not even a Ferrari 250 GT (Well, where can you use that?!:)).

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They might be redesigning the site, they certainly didn't have much on it when I looked last week. But I do know that they are the main authority on D1/LR Callipers... have a great reputation, it might be the only thing they do, specialists.

There is the option of sending in PX Callipers or new off shelf, all painted up in the colour of choice, but I settled for a piston & seal kit and glad I did for the satisfaction of having done it.

There are many refurb kit suppliers out there, just as there are many after-market LR/D parts suppliers, but they are not all equal. Just sayin'..
 
I am glad I came across this. I have tried different methods to remove the guide pin bolts on the front caliper so that I can change the pads. The bolts on the other side I managed alright. I have even tried the irwin removers but didn't work as slightly too big. I notice the cheaper ones at screwfix have one sized 15/32 which should do the trick hopefully.

What is the nest step - welding nuts onto the bolt heads?
 
Brilliant. Just been to screwfix and bought the erbauer set and it has worked straight away on both bolts. To be honest I hadn't held out much hope. Well impressed.
 
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