Sticky front piston

[dstgean]

I'm replacing the front pads in my '03 Sequoia. The first side was a breeze! How cool to use the "race style pad". However, I was struggling to do the passenger side pad on the inboard side of the rotor as the piston wouldn't fully retract no matter what I did with it. I was going to remove the entire caliper and give it the old C clamp squeeze, but the bolt holding the flexible portion of the brake line is broken off at the head. I'll have to drill and tap that hole again just to free up the caliper without mangling the hard line. Once I get the caliper free by either drilling and tapping the bolt or removing and plugging the hard line while I mess with the caliper, then I get to mess with the reluctant piston. Any tips or tricks you guys like there? Should I just replace it? I got the piston squeezed back enough to get the top of the new pad in, but the lower piston won't retract enough to get the bottom of the pad slid in. Right now I'm using an older thinner pad in the interim.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Sal R.]

I'd just replace it.

 

[dstgean]

Good call. I'd have already done that, but the bold holding the hard line to the suspension was previously snapped off and needs to be drilled and re-tapped or I'll end up replacing the hard line too. In the meantime I snuck an old but usable pad that would fit on that side. Not recommended, but not for long either. Just a band aide until I can drill the offending bolt out.

 

[dstgean]

Just replaced it. Thanks. For some reason I thought it might be hard to bleed the brakes after puling the line. Nope. Easy as could be. Starting to gain a little confidence wrenching and having fun doing it. Now that I've done the brakes a few times on my rides in the last two months, I'm helping my brother in law do his JKU brakes.

Thanks all for the pointers and encouragement.

Dan

 

[Whocares]

The fronts were fairly easy. The rear gave some trouble due to the rotors. What brand pads and rotors did you go with?

 

[dstgean]

Just did front pads since the rotors were in good shape. The cailper was a O'Reilly's remanufactured unit. No rears needed yet.

Dan