I need tips how to replace the front caliper pin guides. | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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I need tips how to replace the front caliper pin guides.

Explorer_PL

Explorer Addict
Joined
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Messages
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City, State
Rockland County, NY
Year, Model & Trim Level
06EB V8
The other night I was swapping the front hub on my 06. Simple task requiring removing the caliper, caliper bracket and the rotor.
I replaced the front rotors and pads using CarQuest stuff earlier this year, maybe 10-15k miles ago. At that time I "reconditioned" the pins and the brackets. Took both brackets on the bench, removed the guide pins, clean them up to the shine, use a skinny screwdriver with a piece of thin cloth wrapped on it and plenty of brake cleaner and cleaned the guide holes in the brackets. Then I applied caliper grease, installed new rubber boots, and they were sliding very nicely.
To my surprise, first of all, the rotors and the pads are in pretty bad shape. Rotors are grooved from the pads, indicating very soft metal used for the rotors. The pads still have 80% material left but are chipped and very flaky, in essence - very cheap materials. I have used eBay sets (rotors and pads) in the past and they performed way better, the only downside was lots of dust on the wheels.

Question:
How do you properly recondition the caliper brackets ? What grease should I use ? Any special cleaning tools ? I do not want to buy new pre-assembled brackets if not necessary.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
 



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Sounds like you did it right first time around, when I did mine my main concern was getting the mount bolts torqued down.
 






Sounds good to me. I'm not sure I understand the question though - do the brackets have excessive wear where the pins enter making them wobble? If so, get new guide pins. The majority of the wear may be on them.
 






Well I have plenty of experience on other vehicles with rusting brakes. Jeep Compass and Hyundai Sante Fe but all its good now after throwing out the oem rotors and with new pads.
If the casting of the caliper is cast iron it may be rusting under the metal plate as well messing up the clearance. Remove the plate and scrap the surface and corners clean of and rust build up. I used a wood chisel and hacksaw blade to rip up the rust. A wire brush won't work. Coat with grease but not too much so it does not ooze out. Coat the metal plates as well. Guide pins should move in/out easily but as the Explorer_PL notice some are tight from rusting and need cleaning up along with greasing again.

I now use a set of "drilled-slotted Zinc plated rotors" no more rusting of porous cast iron (much cheaper steel used) and pads are be torn up by rust after sitting a few days or more. Before i was doing the brakes at least twice a year. Note the caliper holes should be fine despite even pins seize in them, been there and done that on earlier Explorers. Many vehicles also using aluminum calipers which won't have the under plate rusting but some plates are not stainless steel and rust !! Even with Caliper grease on them so I am not longer using that grease.
 






Yep Eddy, I forgot to state the problem.

I could not move the pins without major effort. Not sure if the grease dried out in there or what.
What do I use to keep the slide pins moving freely over a long time ?
 






Maybe get some wire brushes like this one to clean out the slide holes?...
F51660C8-CD9D-47E8-BDA6-939F627804CB.jpeg


...and use a decent anti-seize on the pins.

I just did my front brakes the other day, but my slides were good so I didn’t mess with them.
 






Thanks Partsman -

So am I supposed to use caliper grease or anti-seize on the pins before I replace them back into the holes ?
 






Thanks Partsman -

So am I supposed to use caliper grease or anti-seize on the pins before I replace them back into the holes ?

Good question, I too would like to know the correct way is of doing this. I've done a few brake jobs in my lifetime and always used grease for the pins with no problems, but that doesn't mean it was the correct way...
 






Use specific silicone or moly lube designed for brakes and high heat. Permatex Ultra, Extreme, or Sil-Glyde available at NAPA are popular choices that yield excellent long term results. Also clean and lube ALL stainless hardware contact points.

Permatex® Ultra Disc Brake Caliper Lube - Permatex
Sil-Glyde Silicone Brake Lubricant, Tube, 4 oz - AGS Company AGS Company

This is what happened when a "friend" did a brake job after one year using regular chassis grease not designed for high heat. Gummy and binding caliper pins. Also avoid getting brake cleaner on rubber. Swollen boots in pics below. Lesson learned.

8YjfwXY.jpg
aQ3eevR.jpg
 






On a side note, this is what remains in the caliper bores when the bleeders are NOT opened when the piston(s) are compressed replacing pads. Contaminants back flushes into the expensive ABS system. Brake fluid doesn't circulate
in the calipers or lines until the bleeders are opened.

HVn4g4w.jpg
3E4SxP1.jpg
 






Use specific silicone or moly lube designed for brakes and high heat. Permatex Ultra, Extreme, or Sil-Glyde available at NAPA are popular choices that yield excellent long term results. Also clean and lube ALL stainless hardware contact points.

Permatex® Ultra Disc Brake Caliper Lube - Permatex
Sil-Glyde Silicone Brake Lubricant, Tube, 4 oz - AGS Company AGS Company

This is what happened when a "friend" did a brake job after one year using regular chassis grease not designed for high heat. Gummy and binding caliper pins. Also avoid getting brake cleaner on rubber. Swollen boots in pics below. Lesson learned.

8YjfwXY.jpg
aQ3eevR.jpg

Holy cow. This is definitely what the pins looked like when I did a rear brake job on my wifes 99 Ford Taurus. I'm not 100% sure if it was a botched previous brake job repair or if it was just an accumulation of 16+ years of no service. On all the brake jobs I've done, I've used the same tube of AGS brake grease (not sure if there's a shelf life on this stuff...I've had it for a lot of years, but It's almost empty anyways) -
https://www.autozone.com/brake-and-...lube/ags-sil-glyde-brake-lubricant/752442_0_0

I'm just more or less wondering if brake grease is the correct thing to use on the pins or should I be using anti seize as Partsman109 states.
 






That's AGS Sil-Glyde, even says on the tube. Excellent stuff, don't ever recall reading a complaint about it. Biggest concern with anti seize is it's usually petroleum based and bad for rubber. Here's a good article and site for general auto repair info.

Brake Lubricants
 






when I bought mine and the brakes didnt feel right I found the 2 bottom pins were seized and one only came out with lots of heat and beating.... but Ive always used the same grease I used for packing wheel bearings .... the black synthetic Valvoline stuff and it does dry out but never with in the 2-3 years at most my pads last ..... and with lifetime replacement I usually just swap the pads every spring regardless of condition
 






Thank you all, I think I'll pick up Permatex.

It's interesting how such a simple task can cause so many issues :)
 






Thank you all, I think I'll pick up Permatex.

It's interesting how such a simple task can cause so many issues :)
whats worse is the people that swap pads by only removing one bolt and swinging it out of the way..... i guess they dont know the other pin will lock up and destroy everything
 






^ VERY good point MotorCity, aka "pad slap". Smart choice OP. Just FYI, if you don't need a "lifetime supply" ;) of brake lube, most major brands offer small pouches that contain more than enough for one axle. In fact, if you over grease the pins and bores, they may "hydro lock" enough where the pins can't even be threaded and tightened. A little goes a long way and more is not better in this case. Also remember to clean and lube the stainless hardware and mounting surfaces.

Permatex Ultra Disc Brake Caliper Lube 09977: Advance Auto Parts
 






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