Need help installing brake caliper piston dust boots...Grrr!!!

BottleNose · 03:58 PM

Hi All,

I've been rebuilding the front brake calipers on my '67 911. I did all the hard parts...getting the pistons out, soaking, cleaning, re-install the pistons, etc. Just when I'm getting excited about installing the calipers back on the car, I run into trouble installing the new piston dust boots that come with the ATE caliper rebuild kit. It's the last step....Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

The ones I removed were installed with a circlip which has a break in the middle to allow expansion so it can fit on. These new boots have a press fitting which *almost* fits on but not quite. You can tell they are meant to be pressure fitted and need even pressure around the circumfrence to work. I tried using several C clamps but couldn't get that to work either. The ATE instructions show some kind of a dust boot installation tool. Never heard of or seen a tool like that! Does anybody have one or know where to buy one? Any alternatives or tips?

I'm *so* close to getting this beast back on the road...thanks for any help!

BTW: 101 projects makes no mention of the tool.

Zeke · 04-29-2007, 04:38 PM

No doubt that is a PITA. You have any brake silicone paste? That will help. If not, a small amount of brake fluid will also help. You're not likely to get them in dry.

Work the seal around to one accessible side, as level as you can, then tap the high spot in with a small piece of hardwood and a hammer.

BottleNose · 04-29-2007, 04:51 PM

Yeah...I greased them up good with the brake silicone stuff (which really made installing the pistons easy). They are stubborn buggers. The problem is that they come up on another corner if you try to tap the high spots down. Will give it another try.

CarreraDan · 04-29-2007, 04:53 PM

Ah yes, those pesky little brass rings that were obviously designed by someone who had way too much time on there hands. We had a Pelican get together to do my brakes a while back and were all scratching our heads when we got to the retainer rings. Then KCinBr shared his secret--take a pair of vice grips and bend every third tab flush with the ring. They will still take some effort to snap on but they will go. Before this we used everything imaginable from pieces of pipe to baby food jar lids--nothing worked.

Later on I asked a friend who is a very well respected Porsche wrench how he did it (assuming he had some special Porsche tool)--he said bend a few of the tabs flush and they snap right on.

BottleNose · 04-30-2007, 09:48 AM

Finally got them all on! Mine weren't brass and didn't have any "tabs" on them...it was basically a rubber coated ring integrated with the boot that was just a little smaller than the lip on the caliper.

In any case, I used a 4" C-clamp and the old brake pads to do the trick. The old brake pads have a tough metal backing plate and are a good size to mostly cover the boot/ring. Inserted the old pad back into the caliper just as you would when re-assembling the brakes. Placed the top of the C-clamp in exact center, made sure the boot/ring was in place, and clamped down. Bingo! Thanks for you help along the way...

01sport · 04-30-2007, 06:38 PM

I used a 2" PVC SHED 40 COUPLER. Cut it down to half length, put it on top of the dust boot, place a piece of wood on top of the half coupler and use giant C-clamp (top on wood, bottom on outside of caliper) to seat the ring. Read this somewhere on Pelican.

Fallinggator · 02-03-2017, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BottleNose

Finally got them all on! Mine weren't brass and didn't have any "tabs" on them...it was basically a rubber coated ring integrated with the boot that was just a little smaller than the lip on the caliper.

In any case, I used a 4" C-clamp and the old brake pads to do the trick. The old brake pads have a tough metal backing plate and are a good size to mostly cover the boot/ring. Inserted the old pad back into the caliper just as you would when re-assembling the brakes. Placed the top of the C-clamp in exact center, made sure the boot/ring was in place, and clamped down. Bingo! Thanks for you help along the way...

HOLY CRAP!!! Thank you so much! I thought I was going insane, that these particular centric rebuild kits were just really bad, that I was an idiot, or that I just simply had the hand strength of a 5 year old. I could not for the life of me figure out what to do to get these on. I still haven't quite yet...waiting for the caliper to cool down after sticking it in the oven hoping that would let the seals expand enough to get them on. Hopefully that will work. I kind of tried some similar things, so I'm still a little worried... fingers crossed though! I've got a 38mm and a 42mm piston to seat, and I really don't want to have to buy not one but two special tools that I will probably never use again.