The Corolla AE92 GT-S Project

A website about my ongoing project

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Refurbishing the brakes

After all the preparations, the brakes still had to be refurbished too. Toyota sells refurbishing kits which contain all the soft parts necessary to rebuild them.  

 

After the brakes came back from the powder coaters, first thing that had to be done was cleaning the bits up where coating had found it's way where it was not supposed to go. This includes all the threads and the cylinder walls inside the brake saddle.

The threads can easily be re-threaded and the cylinder walls can be cleaned with wire brushes or some fine sandpaper. But don't forget to hone the cylinder walls for proper and smooth operation of the brakes. 

 

Powder coated brakes

The brakes as they returned from the powder coaters.

 

Powdercoated front brake caliper  Powdercoated rear brake caliper

The front brakes on the left and the rear brakes on the right.

 

I didn't take much pictures of the refurbishing process itself. But I have refurbished these brakes before and I did take pictures then. So although the following pictures are not the nice, powder coated brakes that will go on the coupé, I'll use those pictures to show you guys how it was done.

 

When all the parts have been cleaned and honed, they can be rebuild with the refurbishing kit. Don't forget to also re-thread the bleed nipple thread etc. before you start rebuilding.

The refurbishing kit contains new seals, dust boots and even a little sachet with brake grease. 

 

refurbishing kit

 

The new dust boots for the guide pins need to be replaced in the brake anchors. These have a tight fit with their metal base into the holes in the brake anchors. I managed to gently tap them in with a hammer.

 

Brake anchor

 

When the dust boots are in, the guide pins can be pushed back in the brake anchors. Don't forget to liberally apply grease to them as these pins tend to oxidate a little and may become stuck in there, preventing the brake from sliding back and forth.

One of the pins also had a rubber ring on it. Make sure this goes in the right hole and that the rubber goes in nicely.

 

Now we can go back to the brake saddle. This needs a new rubber seal first that fits in a recess in the cylinder.

 

Brake sadle  Brake sadle with piston

The rubber seal on the left, which needs to be greased up liberally. The seal in place on the right and the brake plunger greased up and ready to be pushed back in.

 

Now the brake plunger can be pushed back into the brake saddle. Make sure you haven't placed the bleed nipple back yet, so the air behind the plunger can escape easily. It will take a lot less effort to push the plunger back that way. When all is cleaned and greased right, the plunger should just slide back in and you can push it back in all the way by hand.

 

When the plunger is back in place, the dust boot can be pushed into place and locked in place with the retaining rings. Be careful not to puncture the dust boot with the sharp ends of the retaining ring.

 

Dust boot for piston  Retaining ring for dust boot

The brake plunger pushed back into place, now the dust boot can be replaced and

locked into place with the retaining ring.

 

Now we're ready to re-attach the brake saddle to the brake anchor.

 

Bolting brake caliper back together

 

Now the guiding brackets for the brake pads can be placed back and the brakes are ready to go back onto the car.

 

Brake pad clamps  Brake caliper with brake pads installed

 

 The end result with the refurbished and powder coated brakes for the coupé look a little like this:

 

Rebuild front brake caliper  Rebuild front brake caliper front

The fully refurbished front brakes.

 

Rebuild rear brake caliper

And the fully refurbished and rebuild rear brakes.