Ah-Kay - can only be installed one way.

Funola - good idea. You can see pics of the inside of the wheel where it has scrubbed the wheel in an earlier post.

yeah, as mentioned by Vstech already, the scrub marks may be from you putting the wheel on. The plastic will confirm whether it is pinching or not. Try it and report back.

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Funola - yes; you are correct. Will try after lunch. Would be interesting if the caliper is OK and I have messed up the doggone rotor.

Is this on the new caliper?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Affirmative.

Well, if one piston is stuck, the pads cannot float. That may be your problem. Still worthwhile to do the plastic test.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

No, that was on the old, original caliper that I am replacing. Pads are perfect on the new caliper. Nothing floats.

To get enough room to take out the old brake pad, I had to use a crowbar to get the inboard piston to move back just a little so I could pull out the pad. Wonder if I messed up the rotor. They are pretty tough.

it's possible you damaged your caliper mounts...
that's why I want you to post some pictures of it installed... I should be able to tell what's wrong.

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Wild guess, Your tire is touching your jack stand? It's post 54 so grasping at straws.

Looking at your last picture in post 7, it looks like the clearance between the caliper and the outer edge of the rotor is very tight. Remove the caliper and take a file to the mounting surface of the knuckle. A couple of strokes should do it. You just want to clean it, not take off metal. A slight ridge of dirt or rust could tilt the caliper slightly. The mounting surfaces of the calipers are not always exactly the same so a larger clean surface on the knuckle may be required.
That does not however explain why the rotor turns freely without the wheel mounted.

Didn't all W126's come with vented front rotors?

Mine are not vented.

Interesting thought about the jack; will take a look.

Thx.

You do know that there are 2 versions of w126 brakes right? There are gen1 and gen2. The gen1 are made for 14"wheels and the gen2 are made for 15"wheels. If the wheels spin with the old calipers but not the new, they most likely they gave u the wrong part. I upgraded my brakes on my w123 from solid rotors to w126 vented rotors. The gen1 w126 calipers are made for the same diameter w123 rotors, but gen1 rotors are vented, thy is the only difference. The gen2 w126 calipers are made for a slightly larger diameter rotor, hence the use of 15" wheels. Just throwing it out there if this may be your problem.

Hurrah; it is resolved thanks to Rick76. As he suggested it was the jackstand. I had it too close to the wheel. When I put the wheel back on, it hit the jackstand and went catywampus. As soon as I tested this by moving it back, the wheel went on perfectly and in three minutes I was ready to bleed.

All done and good brakes now.

Thanks for the help.

Perhaps another case of Occam's Razor.

lol, glad it turned out to be something simple.... we all do thing like that....

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Yes, but frustrating.

I do appreciate the help from everyone though. Great forum.