Do the rear calipers on an 83 TD ever really go bad? I'm looking at the price for them and all I can say is WOW. I'd like to do pads/rotors/calipers and brake lines on all four, but the calipers alone for the rear are $500 a pair... now that's too much. The rotors an pads and event he front calipers are dealable... I'm just wondering if folks ever really have a problem with the rears.

Thanks,

Pete

Eventually, the seals and the boots go bad. In the case of the SDL, both of them failed within six months.

The cheap way out is to rebuild the caliper with a seal kit. It's a bit tricky to remove and reinstall the pistons and it takes slightly more than one hour to thoroughly clean and polish the piston and the bore, but the cost of the kit is about $15.00.

I've done several of them without too much difficulty. Getting the pistons back into the bores can be problematic due to the difficulty of putting a C-clamp on the pyramid surface.

Thanks Brian!

Stupid Question:

How did you know they needed to be replaced? Sticking open or closed, etc.?

What about the fronts?

Thanks again,

Pete

The empty reservoir and the loss of the rear brakes kind of clued me in to a problem back there.

The fronts can also be rebuilt in the same fashion. Depending on the caliper, you might have a heat shield to deal with. It's very difficult to get the heat shield over the piston without bending the hell out of it. A special tool is made for this. Most folks don't use it.

I had the rear passenger caliper stick on me. I must have been changing the pads when I realized one was sticking. But I was able to get it free again and haven't had a problem since. So yes they can go bad, but they may be fixable.

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