A brake hose blew out on me recently, luckily not far from home and no collisions. Decided to do a disc/pads replacement along with replacing all the rubber hoses with stainless steel. So far I have been confronted with at least two issues: 1) Every threaded connection is rusted closed, and 2) the driver side caliper won't fit over the new pads. I have soaked the s**t out of the connections but only succeeded in braking a metal line that a DPO had done a not very good splice-in. Is there any way, other than the soak s**t with PBlaster, to loosen the connections? As for the caliper the P side had two flexible attachments while the D side has one fixed, one flex and thus the caliper won't slide over the pads. I was thinking of having a shop take off about 1/32 inch from each pad. Would that be a bad thing? Any thoughts would be appreciated. By the by, this site rocks

Art
Disco 2/SE7/2003

 

1) If PB alone doesn't do it, maybe a bit of heat. Also, get (or make) some flare nut wrenches if you don't already have. They work much better than the standard spanners, esp. for rusted nuts.

2) Machined pads will still work but if new pads will not fit, I would find out why.

Not sure what you mean by "P side had two flexible attachments while the D side has one fixed, one flex". The caliper pins with the little rubber boots? If so, both should slide easily. In not, remove, clean, grease, reassemble.

 

1 you could try "deep creep" or a little quick heat.
2 you caliper either is not collapsed all theway or frozen.

 

P side = passenger side
D side = driver side

Yes, I was referring to the rubber boots. The lower one on the "driver side" is frozen and looks like a solid piece. Are these parts available? I'm not familiar with "deep creep". Is there a brand name? I've had this rig for just over a year and this is the first real problem. I really enjoy it after driving a '72 Series III for more than 10 years. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Yeah, but try removing and cleaning it first. The guide pin should slide in the caliper bracket or you pads will be uneven in short order.

If the boot is torn, replace it. That is why the pin froze in the first place.