What do I do with a half seized caliper?

[Binladin]

Is there anything I can do to free up a half seized caliper? I drove my cb9 for 20 minutes and go to wash it, sprayed some soap on the front wheel and it evaporates from a 17 inch rim. Lol... So I waited til it cooled a bit and jacked it up and tried to rotate the tire to check things out, which barely turned by gripping wheel spokes, so off comes the wheel and caliper. The bearing turns free by itself so my caliper is like half seized. I pushed the caliper piston back a tiny bit with a 12 inch long c clamp but it was hard to move. I put it back on and started my car to pump the brakes to see if the caliper was still grabbing as hard, same thing... Is there anything I can do to free the caliper up without buying a new one? It's my daily driver and I just bought brand new calipers this time last year for $126 each. There's no rust even on them(painted) and there's no air in my system. Fresh dot 3 synthetic fluid change and all new lines were done last year with the calipers.

[ol blue]

I would think you could take it apart and clean/rebuild if I am not mistaken. I could be wrong though.

[illinois_erik]

Is there anything I can do to free up a half seized caliper? I drove my cb9 for 20 minutes and go to wash it, sprayed some soap on the front wheel and it evaporates from a 17 inch rim. Lol... So I waited til it cooled a bit and jacked it up and tried to rotate the tire to check things out, which barely turned by gripping wheel spokes, so off comes the wheel and caliper. The bearing turns free by itself so my caliper is like half seized. I pushed the caliper piston back a tiny bit with a 12 inch long c clamp but it was hard to move. I put it back on and started my car to pump the brakes to see if the caliper was still grabbing as hard, same thing... Is there anything I can do to free the caliper up without buying a new one? It's my daily driver and I just bought brand new calipers this time last year for $126 each. There's no rust even on them(painted) and there's no air in my system. Fresh dot 3 synthetic fluid change and all new lines were done last year with the calipers.

Youll need to goto the parts store and buy a rebuild kit, its a square o-ring for the piston and a new dust boot, theyre like 6 bucks, then youll need to take off the caliper, put a rag between the piston and the inside of the outer edge of the caliper and use some compressed air to pop out the piston, make sure the bore of the caliper isnt pitted to shit and also the surface of the piston needs to be nice and smooth. sounds like you had a failing dustboot and some crap got in there. its very easy to rebuild them, finding the cause may not be..if theyre new and its been ~year cant you take it back under warranty, sounds kinda like it was a bunk one anyway

watch this video, our calipers are essentially the same as this dudes


good luck man

[Binladin]

I ended up replacing the whole caliper with a new one and it's still doin the same thing... Half seized and heating the rotor and wheel up after a short drive

['93CB7Ex]

then you have a brake prop valve/mc/brake line problem.

[illinois_erik]

ugh that sucks man..time to flush the lines

[Binladin]

My lines & master cylinder are new( 4-5 months old). The only thing old is the prop valve and flex hoses. I'm gonna get a new flex hose tomorrow and cross my fingers. The caliper is only jammed when I'm constantly on the brakes around town but if I'm on the highway and not touching the brakes the caliper stays cool and unjammed... A mechanic told me the flex hose may have collapsed, it looks pretty old... I also flushed the fluid when I put the new caliper on yesterday. Thanks for the replies!

[Leung]

A mechanic told me the flex hose may have collapsed, it looks pretty old... !

are you talking about the rubber lines?

[Binladin]

Yeah, I mean the rubber line... It was collapsed inside with no signs of failure on the outside. I put a new flex hose on today and the caliper works perfect now! Whooooo hooooo, but now I got a new caliper for nothing that I paid $200 for because I'm not takin my new old one back for the core charge since there's nothing wrong it, just wish I would have cracked the bleeder screw open instead of the master cylinder cap to releive pressure when I tried pushing the caliper piston back with the clamp or I would have known it wasn't a $200 caliper but just a $30 flex hose. Lol... But my rotor has like darker heat spots in it now and I'm surprised it's not warped from all that heat.

What a piss off when u forget your wrap around style fitting wrench and your plain open end wrench just strips the nut(like you knew it would, but it had to be done where I was at) on your fresh lines just done months ago ending up with vice grips on it.