Can't figure out these calipers
 

I had my indie replace the front brakes on the 300td when I started DDing this car last spring. The old calipers were shot from sitting abandoned and I had zero faith in them. He installed reman calipers I brought him from Napa. When I had an issue with fluid boiling last summer, he told me to take them back to Napa and he would order his own. Done. Flush all fluid, new calipers and pads. New setup worked just fine for the last year.

I'd say I have about 10k on these pads and I've just had the sensor light come on. Pull the wheels, drivers side pads are toast and the passenger have about 40% left. Starting to think this driver's caliper was dragging, causing my poor MPG.

So, I've got more time to work on the car myself now and see that they are Bendix remans. I order Pagid pads for the Bendix. 17.5 mm. But I notice that he had installed the Ate anti-rattle spring/retainer in these Bendix caliper. Crap. Need to order the Bendox clips (epc showed P/N 000 421 26 91). Placed call to MB parts, $43 next day delivery.

Start working on the brakes this morning with very few problems. Retracted the pistons, inserted new pads, reached for the new Bendix springs... uh. wtf.

These clips appear to be too large to fit behind the pads/pins. Very few pics showing Bendix pins, but something has to be wrong here.

The # on the outside face of the Bendix caliper shows 142218 on each side. Any other way to figure out if these are the correct calipers for this car? They fit and obviously have worked for 10k miles. But why did the Ate springs fit and the Bendix clips don't??

you are mixmatching retainers from ate calipers.
put the old ones back in. also, the wire type you have go 90° from the position you have them in. looking at your picture, your thumb is over the part of the clip that rides under the pin that goes through the pads.

Did you replace the brake hoses? They can deteriorate on the INSIDE causing "drag". You are saying he put the wrong retainers on the calipers, I didn't know you could do that, also if he swaps brands, Napa (at least here) will only take the brand you get in exchange so he should have had the correct retainer clips.

Like so?
 

This seems to work better.


for the record, it was the mechanic, not I that put these Ate clips in...

The front brake hoses were replaced last year, as well as the MC in the summer. The only major piece of the brake system that has yet to be touched is the booster, which seems to be working just fine.

Why do they call them mechanics? :rolleyes:

I hate letting anyone touch my stuff. Even the new cars, although dealership tech's seem to be a little better.

Sorry I'm not sure I go along with that - having dealt recently with a so called Mercedes specialist (OK not quite a dealer but sells himself as such) who can't tell the difference between second hand and new parts... I'm doing EVERYTHING my self.

I noticed in your last picture that the pad retaining pins were not in place. Hope you installed them.
Gary
'85 300D
'87 300 SDL

Heh heh. Yes. :D

I was dry-fitting everything in that picture. Didn't even have the paste on the back of the pads yet.

Got it all buttoned up, torqued down and went down to a deserted road for the bedding process. Pagids feel much better than the last pads (Ate). I also wonder if the mech had the wrong pads in here. Does Ate even make pads for the Bendix calipers?

Either way, I've fixed it myself (with help from PP folks) and I feel much better about it. Costs were $90 for the pads and the clips. For a glorified paperclip, $10/ea is pretty steep.

I am a huge fan of the paperclip pad spring over the other style. I have found them to last much longer in rust situations. The flat spring rusts fast, and is very thin to begin with.

This thread just reminded me that I also need to do this.

X2; paying for the occasional mistake I make has cost me way less than paying for someone else's mistake/s and I get some educational benefit also.

Swapped one of the front calipers off the 79 300d to put onto a 85 wagon. Both calipers were Bendix and looked pretty much the same. Both had the paperclip spring you are showing. I wanted to use the hardware (springs and pins) from the 85 caliper on the swapped over 79 caliper but to my surprise the springs were just a tad too long on the ends??? Had to use the springs that came with the 79 caliper. I was wondering why such a small difference in the springs 3/16" longer from the 85? They did have different numbers stamped into them. I am now hoping that the piston is not a different size or something. Starting to think they may have put slightly larger front calipers on the wagons since they are heavier, does anyone know?

The car drives straight and stops straight, but it did so with the dragging caliper.....

I was happy when I decided for the heck of it to check the rear pads, as they were almost done with one side worn on one pad way more than the rest. I thought maybe one caliper on the back was dragging as well once I saw that badly worn single pad. I cleaned them up and found it to work better as well as installed some new pads. I think there was just so much dirt and rust in the moving assembly that it would'nt allow them to release properly. I went from 500 kms per tank on the highway to 700 kms/tank just like that.

I could not tell these were dragging, maybe inexperience on my part, but I will know next time it happens where to head first. The dragging calipers were kitty corner from one another. I wonder if that is why I could'nt tell.

when I had a dragging caliper the wheel cover was noticeably warm. Hop out and check after a long drive.