How do you remove the front caliper?

[SyberTiger]

Okay, I've got the tire off and I'm looking at the front caliper. This Explorer has ABS (probaby all third gen's do). Is there something special I need to do to remove the caliper. There appears to be two bolts holding it on. Do I need to take the brake pads out first?

 

[engera]

I don't know what a 2002 is like but on my 2000 you just remove 2 bolts on the back and slide the whole caliper assembly off. You may have a deep groove that is making it hard to slide off so you may have to compress the cylinder some to get it off.

 

[SyberTiger]

Please refer to this diagram: http://home.comcast.net/~bldieska/untitled.jpg

Okay, here's the next question...someone in another thread had stated that you remove two 14mm bolt that hold the caliper to the bracket. I'm not sure what they mean by "bracket"...if they are talking about a bracket that is part of the caliper assembly or if they are talking about where the entire assembly mount to the truck. On this 2002 there are two 15mm bolts (from diagram: #16 caliper anchor plate bolt) and two 14mm bolts (from diagram #17 disc brake caliper bolt). If you remove the 15mm bolts the entire caliper assembly comes off. This requires you to hang it by some wire because you don't want to put pressure on the brake lines going to the caliper assembly. The 14mm bolts appears to hold the hydraulic portion containing two pistons (the inside portion of the caliper facing toward the engine) to the bracket that is mentioned above held on my two 15mm bolts. There is a sliding mechanism (sliding rails) between the hydraulic side and the bracket side. The sliding mechanism has rubber boots covering the slides. Should I remove the 14mm bolts or the 15mm bolts? Does brake fluid come out if you remove the 14mm bolts or is there just a spring mechanism under the boots? I ask this because it appears the 14mm bolts are going into those sliding parts which are in turn covered by the rubber boot. The sliders should not be confused with the main caliper pistons. Keep in mind, my ultimate goal is to paint the calipers while I'm doing the brake job. I was easily able to remove the brake pads by taking off the 15mm bolts. Really my question here is: what happens if I put the assembly back on with the 15mm bolts then remove the 14mm bolts? Is that a bad idea?

 

[JasonF]

When I did my pads I took out the 14mm's. These are the slide pins that allow the caliper to float as the pad wears. No problem. Just make sure to lube the slides with silicone grease and loctite the bolts when reinstalling.


Jason

 

[CDW6212R]

Remove the two caliper/spindle bolts, do not touch the caliper/bracket bolts. Those slide pins are sealed with grease inside of tiny boots. Unles those are damaged(leaking), do niot touch those, leave them alone.

Simply remove the two main bolts after prying between the caliper and pads/rotor. You need a slight amount of play(clearance) for the pads to come off of the rotor, the pistons need to be pushed back in for the new pads.

The proper way to do the caliper pistons is not to crush them back in without opening the bleed screws. That forces dirty brake fluid back up and inside the ABS unit, that is what will kill an ABS unit. For the life of the ABS, use the bleed screw and open it while pushing the pistons back in. Buy the cheap piston tool at a parts store, it's better than a "C" clamp. Good luck,