MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

What's up H/T, since I wasn't able to find any tutorials on doing this, I figured I'd make one using the leftover caliper from my brake rebuild.

Disclaimer: This is what worked for me and isn't necessarily the best way of doing it, I'm not responsible for anything that happens to your car or you. If you aren't 100% sure of yourself, spend the $$$ at a shop or for a new caliper. Brakes aren't something to be taken lightly.

Tools needed:

1) Snap ring pliers (long skinny ones, I ended up making some out of a set of needle nose pliers)

2) Gloves

3) Something to unscrew the piston with

4) Brake grease

5) Brake caliper rebuild kit, I used the Dorman D351783 kit

6) Banjo bolt crush washers, 2x per caliper you rebuild, OEM part 46472-568-000 (you can buy cheap copper ones at your favorite auto parts store too)

I should also note that my calipers are clean because I spent lots of time washing it so I could make this tutorial without making a huge mess. Yours will be soaked in brake fluid and nasty grease, and you will most likely make a large mess. Don't do this on your dining room table like I did. Also, the LED flashlight I used did weird stuff to the camera, so excuse the yellow pictures.


Start by reading the WHOLE TUTORIAL before you go remove parts from your car. Do you have all the tools and parts you need? Do you have another means of transportation in case you forget something or **** something up terribly? Go do all that stuff then come back.

First, put on your gloves, you'll thank me for this.

Now, remove the caliper from your car, I'm not going to talk about that since it's covered elsewhere. Remove the parking brake return spring as well as the bleeder screw.

You should have something in front of you that looks like this, minus the shitty paint from a previous owner.

PHOTO #1


We're going to start by removing the piston, since I'm cheap and don't mind scratching it up I used a huge flat-head screw driver. Your will still have the boot and main seal installed.

PHOTO #2


Now set the piston aside and look down into the hole you removed it from. You need to remove the main seal (not shown here) using a small flathead screwdriver or some tweezers. After that's out, look and you will see a snap ring way down in there. Most snap ring pliers will not work for this, if you want a cheap solution, buy a long skinny pair of needle nose pliers and file down the ends to make your own. It's not my fault if your homemade snap ring pliers slip and you get an eyeful of brake parts.

PHOTO #3


PHOTO #4


Now remove this little metal ring/basket thing, it pulls right out.

PHOTO #5


When that's out, you can pull out the rod that the piston screws into, if it won't come out, pull harder.

PHOTO #6


Here is a picture of everything you should have removed up to this point.

PHOTO #7


This next step might not be necessary for you, sometimes this part comes out with the rod that the piston goes onto, sometimes it doesn't, if it doesn't, then this applies. The best way of removing it that I've found is just to turn the caliper upside down and bang it on a block of wood on the ground. If that doesn't work, you're on your own.

PHOTO #8


This step might be optional as well. There's a small black thing that looks like a medicine capsule that is sometimes stuck to the part you just removed, look at the what parts you have and make sure it's not there. You can see it here stuck down in the caliper. If you can't remove it by banging the caliper like in the previous step, turn the parking brake level a few times to try to loosen it up a bit, grease is the only thing holding it in at this point. If that doesn't work, stick something down there and try to fish it out.

PHOTO #9


Here are the two parts after they've been removed.

PHOTO #10


Now grab the parking brake lever and yank it straight out. It will be difficult since the rubber seal will still be there on yours, but it will come out.

PHOTO #11


A picture of it removed. Down in the hole is a cylindrical bearing that the parking brake lever rotates in, it has some of the rollers removed so the capsule thing can move back and forth inside it. I have not figured out how to remove this bearing, so unless you know what you are doing, don't mess with it.

PHOTO #12


Here is a picture of all the parts, in order that you will put them back together.

PHOTO #13


At this point, clean all the parts and remove as much grease as you can from them.

RULE OF THUMB FOR GREASING PARTS: IF IT MOVES/TWISTS/SLIDES/ETC PUT GREASE ON IT

We'll start the rebuild by removing the old O-rings and putting on the new ones from the rebuild kit. There's two small O-rings, one of them is a regular one with a round profile, the other one has a square profile but the outer edge is angled slightly as to form a cone shape. The picture below shows where each O-ring goes, and the arrow is the direction the cone shape should point. Make sure to grease each O-ring before installing it, and grease the O-ring seat as well.

PHOTO #14


Now, reinstall the parking brake lever. Grease up the cylindrical bearing and make sure the open side of the bearing is facing the brake cylinder. Also put a dab of grease in the hole in the side of the lever shaft, that's where the capsule shaped thing will seat. Installing this seal is annoying, grease it up real good, install the seal in the hole, and then jam the parking brake lever down in there. It's not clever but it works.

Moving to the right in the overall picture, we see the round thing with the two studs on it. Those two studs need to line up with the holes you can see photo #9 above. Put a dab of grease underneath the medicine capsule thing, as shown below, and grease the two studs as well. You'll want to have a light coating of grease pretty much over this entire part.

PHOTO #15


Once you've greased up the part in photo #15 and stuck the capsule in the hole (the grease should hold it in place) slide it back into the caliper, making sure to line up the studs with the holes.

Now, move on to the threaded rod part. Make sure to grease up the underside and O-ring, the thrust bearing, and the threads. I find it easiest to put the thrust bearing and the washer on before you install this part. Once it's nice and greased up, stick it down the hole from which it came.

Next up is the spring, stick it back in there with the narrow end against the washer and thrust bearing, then put the metal basket thing over it.

Finally, you're back to the snap ring. If your rebuild kit came with a new one use it, otherwise use the one you removed.

Lastly, you just have the main seal, dust boot, and piston. Grease up the main seal and put it back in the caliper. The dust boot is a bit more difficult and will take some trial and error. I find it easiest to grease up the piston and boot, put the boot on the piston, then slide the boot down so that the bottom lip of the boot is beneath the bottom of the piston. This way, the lip on the bottom of the boot can easily seat in the groove on the caliper, then you just push the piston down.

You do it this way because, when the boot is all the way around the piston, it can't give enough to properly seat in the caliper, so it is important that you get it to seat without the piston sliding down. It will take a few tries but should eventually go, and when it does, then you push the piston down onto the rod and screw it back on.

You're done! Not to bad, eh? Now just go regrease the brake pins and reassemble everything. (if you don't know how to do that, search for it) Anyways, let me know if you have question or comments, or if more pictures would be helpful. I have this thing just sitting in my garage since it's rusting and not useful anymore.

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

Nice write up! I rebuilt a pair of rear calipers recently and would have loved to have this write up accessible. I personally used a combination of the FSM and this how to

Rebuilding brake calipers

Here's a picture of the specialty snap ring pliers. IIRC they're about $25 on ebay.



Great work and thanks for taking the time to write this up!

MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

I can't believe I missed that article. I searched at least 3 times on separate occasions and for some reason it never occurred to me to search for Civic rear disk rebuild tutorials.

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

Yeah I stumbled across that while searching but mostly just referenced the FSM. It has a fairly detailed procedure outlining how to do it. I tried the method/trick in the link for installing the dust seals and had no luck. I did it like you did, install the seals on the bottom of the pistons and work them in carefully. Definitely the most PITA part of the procedure.

Mine were working fine so I wouldn't have had to rebuild them but I wanted to powdercoat all 4 calipers and a complete disassembly is required for that. I'm sure other people are in the same position so definitely good to have this info out there!

eksine

MotorMouth93 thanks for writing this tutorial. it inspired me to make a video about this. not trying to promote it but this is the link for it. thanks again man

Deftones833

Hi! tnks for post, is excellent.

I'm stuck in the step of photo # 8, I've hit it hard and I'm not able to get that piece out.
Anyone else has happened?
tnks!

MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

Remove the big spring at the end of the caliper and twist the parking brake cam back and forth by hand, that will push the piece out a bit and might make it easier to knock it out.

Deftones833

The same thing that you say I've tried, I've been trying for two hours to remove it without being able to move it, with the two brake calipers it's the same.

MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

That sounds rather frustrating, are the calipers rusty on the insides or anything like that?

And there should be a tiny hole in the middle of the recessed part of that piece you're trying to remove, you might be able to use a compressed air nozzle and piece of tubing to force air through that hole and push the piece out. I've never tried it but it's all I can think of, I've never seen this issue in the 3 sets of calipers I've done.

Deftones833

finally I got it. I use Silicone Aerosol and many many many knocks. Tnks!

6jcomshop

where can i buy that caliper kit on that same model? thans

xr500t

Regarding Photo and description 12. The roller bearings can't be removed. If the cage that holds the bearings break, you'll be looking for a new caliper, unless, someone can find them. Dealer diagrams do not even show them. The hardest part of the rebuild is getting the c-clips out.

jetspeedz

great tutorial

rpfn140378

Nice tutorial, spot on.
I will order a calliper rebuild kit, I hope I can find a kit with all the bits including the seals on the parking brake lever mechanism.
I hope with this kit I can cure the ticking noise on my ABS Pump.
Here are the symptoms, a few weeks ago I had to brake hard in order not to hit an idiot who crossed in front of my car. Straight after that, the ABS light was on and off. After 2 days it became on permanently. I started noticing that when I stop at the traffic lights or so, when I release the brakes and start accelerating, the ABS pump starts ticking. This started bugging me.
I checked all 4 wheels brake lines and figured out one of the rear callipers was leaking around the parking lever mechanism.
I’m assuming the “ticking” is because I have a leak. Every 10-15 or so miles I have to top up the brake fluid.
Does anyone here have a different opinion about this ABS ticking / clicking noise?
The car is a Civic 2001 1.4 D14Z4.

zeroptzero

great right up, I always wondered how the rear brakes operated, they seem much more complicated than the front calipers. I'm kind of glad I bought remanufactured rear calipers (relatively inexpensive) rather than trying to do something like this myself lol.

MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

Be careful with cheap remans. I had one of the parking brake cam seals blow out on a "Power Stop" brand rebuild. I ended up rebuilding all 4 myself with OEM rebuild kits and found other problems as well. https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-.../#post51452679

91akira

Could anyone explain on why we would rebuild/ replace the rear calipers? What are the major symtoms? I'm a guy who loves to maintain his Acura.

MotorMouth93

iTrader: (1)

The rubber seals in brake calipers, like any other part of the car, eventually wear out and start leaking, slide pins can seize, dust boots can tear leading to premature failure, etc. You can rebuild all 4 calipers with brand new OEM parts to make them like-new for about $25 per corner, it's a fairly easy job if you're comfortable removing and reinstalling calipers yourself and cheaper than you can get even a used caliper from a junk yard.

91akira

Okay thanks. You mentioned, "slide Pins". Does that prevent the brake pads from touching the rotors? I wonder if mine siezed up. I replace more often the front brake pads than the rear. The rears went more than 8 years without replacing and I was wondering why. I brake hard and drive everyday. Yeah I tackled jobs like axle changes and changing out brake pad and such. I'll use this tutorial one day.

SCR ZC-T

From a google search they are seem to be available in eastern European countries and Russia as an NTN bearing part number.

anthonymance

How do you install the piston seal, I bought the break hardware kit from autozone and The seal fits nice to the piston but not the caliper groove for it it looks a little bigger And when unscrew the piston the seal comes up detached.