To those who bought junk yard calipers for the 6th Gen BBK upgrade were yours as bad as these? Seem pretty normal?
I think they should be ok with some serious TLC, and carefully examination of the pistons. That being said can you purchase the pistons individually?







I found this decent (generic how to ) and the piston shown is as rusty as mine so thats reassuring.

I am ordering the courtesy nissan seal kit and also had one question on that also http://www.courtesyparts.com/kb_search_result.php?keywords=[41000L]+\(A34&cPath=2668_2669_2760_2761 what is the difference in those two A34 kits?
Thanks in advance for any input.

 

these look terrible. The pistons on my 96 don't look half that bad. I guess you should take the pistons out and make sure there is no rust inside the boots...

 

OMFG dude.. did you pull those out of the bottom of the ocean or something?
I've seen stuff on 30 yr old Zs in better shape than that!

Those are crapola. I wouldn't even use them.

 

That means alot coming from you. The saddest part is the parts had "looks good" in the description.

I am still debating if they are even worth it.

 

Damn dude, sorry to say that mine didn't look anywhere as bad as those.

 

Roger that. Im not sure if.. these would be worth rebuilding.

 

the outside looks like crap but im sure the inside looks smooth. pullthe caliper apart beforeyou get the rebuild kit so you dont waste money if theyare junk inside. if they are ok all you need is a bench grinder w wire wheel andthat **** will comeright off and expose good metal. may still berough but good metal and use the caliper paint. i got minefrom ad auto parts and6 months later still have the silverpaint on them, no chipping. did u get these off car-parts.com?

 

Roger that, comencment asap.

Yes thats what I am anxiously waiting to see, the inside of em. And Yes I got them off Car Parts . com I almost ordered the seal kit today but said the same thing to myself. I also noticed it looks like you can purchase the pistons seperately.

I will post pics of the inside & progress. Thanks all.

 

Those look very bad, but once sandblasted & rebuild they will be like brand new. I've rebuild many so far and once it's cleaned you would not know how bad it was at first.

 

You can say that again, i am gettin em sand blasted asap. With that being said, When you sand blast these things do you typically remove the piston and tape up the area where the piston was removed, or leave the piston in as is so the typical outside elements are blasted?

I also checked out the inside of the pistons and they are great compared to what the outside looks like so they should be ready for work, also just ordered the A34 seal kit from courtesy nissan.

 

I leave the piston in if there is no rust on the seal groove. Once the caliper are sandblasted I remove the piston to replace the seal and see if no sand went inside the cavity. If the piston show no rust inside then your good to go. If you see rust on the seal groove dont take any chance and remove the piston, put a rag tightly inside and have the groove sandblasted as well. Once done you can remove any dust with pressurized air and clean with gas or brake cleaner.

 

Thanks for the response. Thats what I was thinking also.

 

 

If you mail ordered those things from a yard on car-part.com, then I'd call them up and complain. those DO NOT "look good". they look like sheit. you're going to spend a helluva lot of time and money rebuilding crap calipers because they grabbed the ugliest, rustiest POS's they could and shipped them to you since you weren't at the place to deny them.

basically, tellt hem they're crap and to send you a set that actually "looks good". then you don't have to rebuidl or waste time sandblasting.

 

 

Clean them with PPG DX579 or an equivalent.

See here:https://buyat.ppg.com/refinishProduc...8-5fde9dc9cebc

The brake caliper is a caster and very porous so cleaning them with DX 579 will stop the rust process & eliminate all contaminent, then you will be good to prime, paint and clear.

 

All that effort, and you coulda bought Reman calipers for about the same money and saved yourself the hassles.. :shrug:

 

I hear you but it woulda been a hassle sending them back and finding another pair, I luckily had an uncle that could do the sand blasting at his work so that was a huge help. I cleaned them up with some metal cleaner and then painted them up with 2 coats of duplicolor caliper paint (brush no spray)





I am pretty sure but wanted to make sure, Are the torque member fixing bolts interchangable from 5th Gen to 6th Gen?

 

Those were rougher off than some '91 Q calipers I rebuilt.

 

Update: I totally cleaned out the cylinder bodies and they look spotless. I re sealed the pistons with rings and piston boot. I also cleaned out the bleed screw areas. Now I have a question when resealing the PIN BOOTS. Is it critical to remove the old grease inside the torque members?

 

Also another curious question. Is it acceptable that one piston has more give (easier to push out) under the air hose than another?

 

What's critical is that there isn't any hard clumps or debris in there. Getting most of the old stuff out and adding some fresh grease should do the job.

 

considering they were all sandblasted, I'd clean every bit of stuff out of them and repack them with fresh grease. just a few grains of blasting sand in there is all it takes to cause them to seize in short order..

Ideally, you shoulda cleaned all that out with parts cleaner/gasoline before you painted them. now you're at risk of damaging the new finish with the cleaner.

 

Thanks for the input guys, I will do my best in getting anything old outa there and using the new amber grease supplied with the seal kit to lube it up. I left the old pin boots on there during the sand blasting and they still seamed intact after the blasting. That being said I will be sure to inspect inside the pins anyway.

Are there any nice methods in extracting all the old crap in the sliding pin areas?

Yeah after cleaning them up i have noticed the caliper paint became...matte and slightly worn in some areas where there wasnt alot of paint. I am going to redo another coat tonight.
They are being installed tommorow. Thanks again.

 

Best thing I can think of is to hold the caliper so the pins open down, then use a can of carb cleaner or brake cleaner with the little plastic tube on it. shove it in there and spray until it comes out clean.

then soak a q-tip with the same stuff and swab it around in there to make sure you got it all.

since that's bare steel inside, be sure to coat it pretty soon with grease to prevent any rust.

 

Sounds good. Thanks alot.

 

Update: Redoing the Pin Boots went well. Cleaned them up well. Though some of the new seals that go on the actual pin didn't match the same size on there so I just left the existing ones on since they were fine.

The brakes are on and have been properly bedded and felt good. I still have an issue though.

*When going slow speeds you can here a clicking/ contact between the brakes. I drove around alot and Its almost %50 of the time you hear this clicking under 30mph.(anyhigher is probably to fast to hear one click). Any thoughts? Also if i am going slow as soon as I hit the brakes it goes away, but it I let off it 50/50 comes back. Also it sounds like only the driver side

 

Well it is definately the cheap Rotors I picked up. The are not true at all. I need to get them recut !! And the painted black hub area was allready bubbling from the heat with in an hour after being used. I also can see.... what appears to be the zinc coating pealing right off...less than 24 hours of use. You get what you pay for...

Over all I like the upgrade, they feel pretty good other than the slight vibrations due to not being true. (which isnt much compared to how the previous felt) and they look great.. for now.

 

Final install pics,

I would like to thank everyone for thier help and suggestions. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Wow, I wouldn't have believed they could've come out that nice. The sandblasting really worked miracles on those things.

Congrats on the transformation though I don't think I could have been so patient or forgiving of the vendor. Returns are a pain though...


Jeremy