hi,
have a m16 caliper rebuild kit (and a pair of m16 calipers - which is handy). the rebuild kit has a set (4) of rubber o rings, same dameter as the pistons. stripping down the caliper halves (2 so far) has revealed precious little in terms of ring to be replaced. all the other bits in the kit seem to have a purpouse but cant make head nor heels of the rings.
any suggestions?

also - when reassembling the halves is a seal required between the fluid holes? there wasnt one when i took them apart and nothing in rebuild kit; what to do?

cheers for advice

I was always told never to split calipers

indeed. bought part completed/started kit. BIG MISTAKE. calipers were split, but to be honest not sure how else could have removed pistons.
everything's reversable?

Get some of those nice wilwood M16 replacements

The O-ring between calipers is very important, with out it you wont have any breakes
There should be a groove cut into the caliper about 5mm down, your main seals go in here (1 either side).
Then there should be a dust cap that clips on to a lip on the piston and again a lip on the caliper halfs...

The condition of the pistons is very important .They have a thin chrome plating which if pitted or rusty will rip your new seals in a very short time...

In short if they are not all in good nick get some exchange/new replacements..After all the front breakes have got to be one of the most important part of ANY car



[Edited on 7/4/05 by big_wasa]

you need to remove the pistons to find where that large seal goes, as said its about 5mm down into the bore.

You can remove the pistons with a compressed airline or using 2 screwdrivers under then rim that secures the dust covers and levering out gently!

ahhhh. thanks chaps. will be back in the workshop on the weekend to find that groove.

atb

I will be reconning my cortina (M16) calipers soon and i have read about not splitting the halves. Is this just because of the seals between them? I am assuming that the seals are simply o-rings, if so surely it cant be that difficult to get hold of replacements, maybe not from ford, but from an industrial supplier for bits like that (theres one down the road from me at home).

I appreciate it may be difficult to determine the size of the o-rings, but I should be able to get pretty much any size and section.

I may consider just getting new calipers from brakes international...at only £33 (+vat?) each, its cheap enough.

Cheers,
David

[Edited on 7/4/05 by flak monkey]

Main reason for not splitting the calipers is the bolts.

The bolts holding the two halves together are very special and are tightened to a very specific torque - the value is intended to stretch the bolts.

The stretch is critical and ensures the bolts can hold the clamp loads from the pistons and also don't come loose under vibration

That makes sense to me. I shant be splitting mine then

David

mine have been split about 4 times and have never shown any sign of loosening off, infact every time they have been split again its been a bit of a job to undo them.

Personally i think its a load of crap - but if it makes people buy more ford spares then im sure it must make sence



To ford anyway

Interesting attitude

I work for whats left of Girling and can tell you that this bit of advice has nothing to do with selling you/Ford more spare parts.

At the time it was/is the best engineering solution for use in a mass production environment.

oh well, it aint done me or anyone else any harm ........................yet.