diesel don,

Bendix is a manufacturer and the caliper itself will have some identifying brand marks on it. If you want to know what kind of calipers you have it is likely easiest to pull the wheels and look.

One of the most common reasons for disc brakes to "stick" comes from the wear on the seal you have in your kit. Wear can come from age, dirty brake fluid, corrosion of the piston and other things.

The seal is a square cross section "0" ring, and it is the only part of the braking system that pulls the piston, and therefore the pads, away from the disc when you take your foot off the pedal. It does this by the design of the piston to cylinder wall clearance and the selection of the seal material.

The seal is captured in a groove in the cylinder, and has a high coefficient of friction against the piston. The travel of the piston by design is very small, so the seal gets deflected or distorted when you step on the brake pedal. When you take your foot off the pedal, the seal provides the spring force needed to push the the piston back far enough to release the clamping of the disc by the pads. If the seal wears the design conditions no longer exist and there is nothing to pull the piston/pad away from the disc.

The result is a sticking brake. The most successful fix is to put a new caliper in, as any honing of the cylinder or other metal removal operation on either the piston or caliper cylinder will upset the seal dynamics, making the seal less likely to be able to do its job.

So, if you take your caliper apart and there is corrosion on the piston due to running too long with worn pads (sticking out too far) and being exposed a corrosive environment, you will be best served with new calipers. If everything is pretty clean and moves freely, a new seal is needed and that may work fine. Your kit should include some other protective parts, like the rubber bellows and some other seals. As for a cleaning fluid during this job, I would use brake cleaners and brake fluid. I would only use brake fluid as the lubricant putting the parts together as this is the only fluid that is supposed to be present at the piston to caliper bore seal under normal operation.

Hope this helps, Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)