hellish brake job, 3 questions

[aznpoopy]

so i tried to do my brakes on the weekend. dear god, what a pain in the ass. i thought it would take 2 hours at most and ended up taking the better part of sunday (and we didn't finish).

1st problem, we were going to replace all four brake hoses but we couldn't seperate the hose from the hardline. its got some weird ass socket on it. FSM calls it a crows foot socket head or something like that. nobody at any hardware stores has any clue what im talking about. how did u guys get this pos off? i didnt want to screw with it too much for fear of breaking the hardline.

2nd problem, i cannot for the life of me get the pistons on the rear brakes to seat. we managed to find a piston bit that actually fit and started turning but it didnt seem to move at all. as a result i had to put the old rotors and pads back on as the area is a good 1/3 of a inch too small for the assembly to fit over the new pads and rotors... any suggestions? are we doing something fundamentally wrong here?

i have a feeling they are seized... when we went to break in the front pads the car would fishtail a little. i really hope i dont have to rebuild them... hmmm 3rd question - how involved is a rebuild and how long should it take to complete? or should i just shell out $$$ for new ones? ugh. thanks. s14 w/o ABS btw.

[skatanic28]

i believe the hardline connections require a 10mm flare nut wrench. im gonna be installing ss lines this next weekend so ive searched around a bit and thats what i came up with. as for the pistons, did you take the cap of the MC cylinder before trying to screw the piston back in? and have you tried using one of the socket cubes made for brakes (maybe what you called the piston bit?). one of my rears what seized up, instead of the pain in the ass rebuild i just got a reman. for 85 bucks.
well good luck, and tell me what you ended up doin with the lines

[aznpoopy]

yeah i used a 'socket cube.' i didnt know that was what it was called. where did u buy ur remanufactured calipers? i dont really have money for 200 dollar (per caliper) oem replacements... ouch. im gettin to the lines next weekend so ill let u know. be careful taking the clips out btw. we knocked them out with pliers, a flathead screwdriver and a hammer. almost took my eye out... lol.

[sykikchimp]

I just bought 2 used 98' s14 calipers of car-part.com for $75 shipped. They work perfect.

[aznpoopy]

thanks for the suggestion man, i'll have to check it out. i think any s14 rear calipers will work... iirc from that other thread, i guess ur going with the s14 rears with 300zx front set up? good luck with that and keep us posted on the results!

[derrick]

just did a z32 conversion for a friend of mine and we had that same problem with his rears. kind of a long explanation on what we did, but if you need help still when you see this shoot me a pm or catch me on aim. good luck

[skatanic28]

yeah i used a 'socket cube.' i didnt know that was what it was called. where did u buy ur remanufactured calipers? i dont really have money for 200 dollar (per caliper) oem replacements... ouch. im gettin to the lines next weekend so ill let u know. be careful taking the clips out btw. we knocked them out with pliers, a flathead screwdriver and a hammer. almost took my eye out... lol.

not really sure what its called either, but close enough. i got my caliper at napa, and they gave me a discount cuz i found a cheaper one at autozone.
what clips are you talking about, the ebrake connection or the hardline one?

[Andrew Bohan]

the lines do indeed require 10mm flare wrenches
and the rears *should* go in with cap to the MC off. maybe not as easy as you like, but by no means impossible to turn.

[aznpoopy]

the lines do indeed require 10mm flare wrenches
and the rears *should* go in with cap to the MC off. maybe not as easy as you like, but by no means impossible to turn.

based on what you said it must be seized... two healthy 24 year old guys with proper tools, mc open, and we could barely turn one and couldnt turn the other at all. guess its rebuilt or junkyard calipers for me. :(

ska: on the front brakes there are 2 clips that hold the hose in place. one keeps it from getting messed up when you steer (its mounted off of a metal piece near the shock - i think) and the other is by the hardline (i guess it keeps the hardline from moving too much). u'll see it when u try to take the hose off... its impossible to get the hose off without taking those two clips off first. just wedge under it with a screw driver and tap the screw driver with a hammer. my friend was holding pliers so the clip wouldnt pop off violently but i guess he was holding it tight enough. :)

thanks for the advice ppl!

[kandyflip445]

You didn't have the e-brake on did you?

[skatanic28]

based on what you said it must be seized... two healthy 24 year old guys with proper tools, mc open, and we could barely turn one and couldnt turn the other at all. guess its rebuilt or junkyard calipers for me. :(

ska: on the front brakes there are 2 clips that hold the hose in place. one keeps it from getting messed up when you steer (its mounted off of a metal piece near the shock - i think) and the other is by the hardline (i guess it keeps the hardline from moving too much). u'll see it when u try to take the hose off... its impossible to get the hose off without taking those two clips off first. just wedge under it with a screw driver and tap the screw driver with a hammer. my friend was holding pliers so the clip wouldnt pop off violently but i guess he was holding it tight enough. :)

thanks for the advice ppl!

oh alrite i see what ya mean. those ebrake connections in the back were a pain in the ass for me. you did have the ebrake lever down like kandyflip mentioned right? if so i would think its new calipers for sure.

[aznpoopy]

indeed e-brake was down. purchased reman calipers... living on a budget owns me. ska lemme know how ur brake job goes! thanks again all.

[mbmbmb23]

Ya...you need flare nut wrenches. You can get a set at Harbor Freight for about $7 bucks. To get the flare nut loose, you need to untighten it with the clip holding the line in place....otherwise you'll need some vice grips.

For the pistons, supposidly you need to turn them as you push them in. Evidently there is a special clamp tool that clamps and rotates the piston at the same time. Maybe Autozone has a tool you can borrow...or you can maybe take the calipers to a Nissan dealership and see if one of the mechanics can help you our real fast.


Good luck.


-m

[180fan]

1. The flare nuts are indeed 10mm. You should use a flare nut wrench to break them loose. If not use some PB Blaster or WD-40 to work it in, after you get it to intially break, wipe the penetrating lube off and clean off with brake cleaner since you don't want that stuff in your brake lines.

2. The rear calipers are indeed a turn and it should screw in kinda affair. I've already rebuilt my calipers both front and rear and if it's very difficult to turn, you may already have some problems. If you've pulled them off already, you should push them in initiall and get the lip of the new seal into the groove with the lube on it. Also make sure that for the o-ring that's on the inside of the caliper to lube it with brake fluid. That may explain your difficulty in getting them in.

[91rusty240sx]

why dont you loosen the bleeder screw? itll release all that old, dirty fluid that was built up in the caliper, and the piston should just screw right in.

[skatanic28]

yeah so i ended up puttin on my ss lines sunday. couldnt get the damn driver rear hardline connection loose so thats gonna have to wait..how ghetto. also threw on some hps pads with ate fluid. pedal feels a lot stiffer now and these pads bite real hard compared to the "performance pads" from autozone.

hows your's comin along?

[aznpoopy]

good to hear! i managed to seat the pads and rotors in the rear. we used a freaking breaker bar to turn the piston and a c-clamp to hold the caliper while we did it. even then it was hard as hell and took three people. i'm keeping those calipers temporarily until i get my replacements. they were supposed to arrive on thursday but i guess the junkyard got lazy with july 4th. hopefully i'll get them today. whenever i get them i'll put in the ATE and new brake lines, assuming they don't need a rebuild. right now i'm running crappy brand X DOT3. should be good for a week or so.

edit: btw we disconnected the hose from the caliper. yes brake fluid got everywhere but it made the job 10x easier.

[Natty]

Man, this thread has me scared to do my rears. I've donw fronts and those were easy, but I have no idea on the rears. I have the cube bit though :bite:

[thx247]

Most flare wrenches are garbage from what I've found. They all seem to bend at the slightest amount of resistance.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/OBJECTS/20600/20592.JPG

This is the kinda wrench that I found that works, although the ones I bought have even more metal around the side so they don't fit in all the tight places (Acura valve adjustment) but they also don't flex.

[BSeay]

Your rear calipers are seized, good luck getting some pads because the calipers eat pads like fat kids on cake... mine was seized on my S14.. they have a block that fits into the rear caliper at autozone (i got mine) and it clips right into a socket wrench... but just replace them you'll be happier later..

[aznpoopy]

natty : if the calipers are broken better to find out now then while you're driving... fishtailing under heavy braking = scary.

thx : i'll take that into account... for now i bought a cheapo $8 buck flare wrench set... we'll see how that works :X thanks for ur input.

bseay : yeah i ordered some junkyard calipers off a '97. just got them this morning. got a quick look and they look a bit rusty but in much better condition. in partiuclar the rubber boots look like they are in good shape... *crosses fingers*

[tak-]

What thx just linked to is what your FSM was refering to. It is called a crows foot. I had problems with my rears too, on my s13. With the whole caliper off, all hoses, lines, and plugs removed, I still couldnt turn it. Bought new ones.