Hello, I recently am finishing up my rear axle rebuild. It is out of the car freshly painted on jack stands. Long story short, it bothers me to put my dirty abused calipers back on my new axle so I’m restoring them myself.
First, because it gives me something to do.
Second, it teaches me about my car and saves me a buck possibly.
Third, I’ve thought about Autozone OEM remanufactured lifetime warranty calipers but wonder the real condition of them. My car is a California car as far as I know so weather hasn’t been too bad for rain, snow, salt and such and that may cause pitting in the seal grooves in the reman calipers more than mine have. I feel like I’ll never know how good Autozone calipers really are or any auto parts stores remanufacture calipers for that matter. I know mine have 135k on them as far as I know if they are the originals. You see what I’m saying? IDK, I just don’t want to possibly trade my cores for something that may be worse when I can restore mine. Anyway, they are aluminum where the piston seal sits. My steel piston was pit free, just a little rubber stain that came off with polish and a t shirt. I polished the groove with a plastic dremel brush and metal polish.
How much pitting, (in this case aluminum pitting oxidation or whatever) is allowed before they scrap them? Do reman companies re machine the groove and put larger seals in them or do they clean them like I am attempting to do and put stock replacements in them? I’m guessing the pits you see in my photo are not even a half a thousandths deep. They are just surface pits. I just want some feed back from experiences of those who rebuilt theirs and were maybe worse than mine and didn’t leak? am I taking a big chance here? Also one of my guide pins were stuck and it’s pitted so I’m guessing the cast iron pin guide barrel is pitted somewhat too. I plan on replacing my guide pins and tube brushing the barrels with a drill tube brush. I really want to know if remainufacture Oem calipers have pits. How can this be not possible unless my car is worse than most and ain’t find this hard to believe. Thanks here are some photos.
First, because it gives me something to do.
Second, it teaches me about my car and saves me a buck possibly.
Third, I’ve thought about Autozone OEM remanufactured lifetime warranty calipers but wonder the real condition of them. My car is a California car as far as I know so weather hasn’t been too bad for rain, snow, salt and such and that may cause pitting in the seal grooves in the reman calipers more than mine have. I feel like I’ll never know how good Autozone calipers really are or any auto parts stores remanufacture calipers for that matter. I know mine have 135k on them as far as I know if they are the originals. You see what I’m saying? IDK, I just don’t want to possibly trade my cores for something that may be worse when I can restore mine. Anyway, they are aluminum where the piston seal sits. My steel piston was pit free, just a little rubber stain that came off with polish and a t shirt. I polished the groove with a plastic dremel brush and metal polish.
How much pitting, (in this case aluminum pitting oxidation or whatever) is allowed before they scrap them? Do reman companies re machine the groove and put larger seals in them or do they clean them like I am attempting to do and put stock replacements in them? I’m guessing the pits you see in my photo are not even a half a thousandths deep. They are just surface pits. I just want some feed back from experiences of those who rebuilt theirs and were maybe worse than mine and didn’t leak? am I taking a big chance here? Also one of my guide pins were stuck and it’s pitted so I’m guessing the cast iron pin guide barrel is pitted somewhat too. I plan on replacing my guide pins and tube brushing the barrels with a drill tube brush. I really want to know if remainufacture Oem calipers have pits. How can this be not possible unless my car is worse than most and ain’t find this hard to believe. Thanks here are some photos.