How to Rebuild Front Brake Calipers : How to Assemble a Brake Caliper

In this clip, we're going to talk about the proper service procedure to rebuild a front brake caliper. In this step, we're going to talk about the proper service procedure for reassembling the internal workings of our caliper. What I have here is a caliper rebuild kit. I paid under eight bucks for this caliper rebuild kit. And it comes with a new square cut seal and a new dust boot. Here's the square cut seal here, and the dust boot. A replacement caliper for this Ford truck is about thirty five to forty dollars, so you could see, you save a whole bunch of money by rebuilding it on your own. When you buy a new one, you're going to get a rebuilt one and somebody else is going to have done it for you. I'm going to take some brake fluid and go all the way around it and make sure to lubricate the entire surface of the seal. Once we have our seal lubricated, I can take and install it in the clean caliper bore. The caliper has a groove that runs all the way around, just inside of it. Right in here. That is where our square cut seal rides. Take and slip it into its position, very gently, taking care not to get rust and contaminants onto the seal surface. Right there. As you can see the seal is flat and true all the way around. It's not twisted or damaged in any way shape or form. From here, we're going to take our caliper piston and we're going to do the same thing, pretty much. We're going to lubricate it and start it in the bore. And work all the way around the lubricating process, just like so. You can see it has a small taper edge here. We're going to take and just start that into the bore of the caliper. It is crucial that you squeeze this piston in straight. Once we have it started in the caliper bore, I'm going to use a small C-clamp to take and squeeze that caliper piston in. We're going to use an old brake pad for a cushion for my caliper piston. Slip it right on there like so and begin tightening it down. Hold it up so you guys can get a good look at it. Like I said, it is crucial that that piston squeezes it straight. All right, we're just going to keep continuing to screw down our caliper piston, insuring that it's going into the bore straight. It is imperative that it goes into the bore straight. Right there. Once it's fully compressed, that is all the farther you need to go with it. Take your C-clamp off and set it aside and take your old brake pad out and set that aside, as well. From here, we're going to take and seat our dust boot. This is our caliper dust boot and as you can see, this is the way it goes on front ways, like this. It does not install this way where you can see this inside groove. This is the shoulder that you tap on to get your dust boot to seal. And take and slip it on the caliper, just like so and work it around with my fingers so the boot seats in the groove on the caliper piston. There you go. You can see that that dust boot is seated all the way around on the groove inside the piston. What we're going to do then is take and slip our dust boot sealing ring in position. Now, you may have to tap on it with a small hammer, and an extension or the flat side of a punch. I'm going to use a small hammer. And that is the proper service procedure for re-installing your square cut seal, caliper piston and dust boot.