Caliper Dust Cover Retainer Insanity

[carsngolf]

Concerning rebuilding brake calipers on my '65, it ought to be a simple thing to pull the rubber dust cover over the piston, into the groove and then install the metal retainer spring. Very likely the factory had a machine to do this in mere seconds. Sadly, I am not the factory. I have tried without success for several hours and finally retreated. I even turned a mandrel on my lathe which is the correct diameter to expand the ring slightly and allow the it to be slid off the mandrel onto into the groove. No luck. I tried modifying a pair of "O-ring" pliers to spread the ends of the ring sufficiently to slip it on. Not a chance.
There must be an easy way but #^&*(!! if I can find it.
Any sensible help deeply appreciated.

[Early_S_Man]

My method involves three steps ...

1. Lubricate the inside of the boot/dust shield, and the inside of the retaining ring with a sparse amount Dow Corning 4 or 111 silicone grease except for 1/4" on either side of the split!

2. Get a dry and clean large flat-tip screwdriver [12" - 13" long] and slip the tip of the screwdriver in the split of the retaing ring, sliding the ring upwards a bit onto the wedge/tapered part above the tip. You want the handle of the screwdriver in the same plane as the ring.

3. Start the ring onto the seal in place on the caliper & piston opposite the split. You want to use the upper corner of the caliper vertical OD where the seal will reside as a fulcrum for the screwdriver tip as the gap in the ring slides down the wedge/taper of the screwdriver. The retaining ring may bite, or jump off and attack humans!

This becomes intuitive as you have everything in front of you ... and on a second attempt you probably won't need to have the bite warning repeated!

[jevvy]

I feel your pain, I wrestled with mine for ages before I raided my food cupboard for round things, the lid off this popped them all on in about 2 mins once I found it:

[carsngolf]

Many thanks guys. I'll give the screwdriver idea a shot later on and report back. I couldn't find a circular part the right diameter in the shop so I turned one out of aluminum (sorry - aluminium) stock on the lathe. I couldn't get the ring to slide off correctly though and the rubber boot kept sliding off, complicating matters. The silicone grease might be just the thing to keep it in place. Film at 11.

[djpateman]

Did you clean the groove first? If there is too much crap in there it can cause a taper. After about 100 calipers my experience is that the ease of reassembly is proportional to the amount of prep work done.