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97 Legacy

 

On the front caliper the cylinder that the bolt goes through and which slides inside of the rubber boots is seized. This is the lower one, the one the bolt goes through that you remove.

 

I'm trying to get it out to clean it up and grease it, but it's in there tight.

 

Using a combination of things i've managed to "press" it partially through, until it bottoms against the caliper on the side i was pressing. Now how do i get it through the rest of the way?

 

The others were all tight as well, but this one (the last of course :-\ ) is much harder.

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Could you use a two jaw puller against the support bracket with an appropriate socket against the caliper piston to pull it off?

 

Sometimes petroleum based greases can cause the rubber bushing attached to the end of the slide pinto swell inside the bore, making them very difficult to remove.

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I'm having trouble getting a visual of what you're doing.

 

I will say that they used to make a tool to remove door hinge pins for your house that I used to use a lot on the brake bolts until I lost it. Just a U on the end and it's bent at a nice angle so that you can hit it. One piece of stamped metal if I remember correctly. Perhaps 6 inches long. Kinda looks like a trim removal tool. The trim/plastic plug removal tool may work - and I can get a pic of that if you don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Whatever works please post it here. I just had this problem with a VW last week and that's when I realized that I lost the door hinge tool. Turns out I just hadn't sworn at it enough!

 

Dave

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i ended up torching the rubber boot...toasted it until what was left was brittle and fell apart. then i proceeded to "press" it out with make shift combinations of things. very annoying.

 

i placed the caliper on wooden blocks and pounded the caliper slide bore with a hammer and it still wouldn't budge a millimeter.

 

i used a combination of washers, sockets, and bolts to "pull" it through. push a bolt through, place a socket on the other side and a washer. the socket rests against the caliper so as not to prevent the pin from coming out as you tighten a nut on the end of the bolt. the bolt head lies against the shaft of the slide bore and pulls it through. tighten the nut/bolt combo and the bolt head begins to "pull" or "press" the slide bore (whatever it's called - the cylinder that the caliper bolt goes through). it pressed it through until flush and maybe into the caliper a bit.

 

then it just got so tight and cramped in there as the bolt headed collided with the rubber boot that passes through there. this is where i needed to torch all of that rubber to get it out of the way. i tried cutting but that was annoying. i torched it and that worked.

 

turns out XT6 caliper boots were a perfect match and i have plenty of those around! i had some off of calipers from old XT6 parts cars and the boots were in excellent condition on those. don't know how that happened, but at least one thing went well!

 

when comparing to my WRX and RS calipers it looked like a different set up, they didn't appear to have this "through boot" that i had to torch and burn up. or maybe i just didn't look at them long enough, either way it's a done deal now.

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Sad to say I tried everything to get my pins out. Including a puller (it bent) and a torch. I even tried a giant pipe wrench to break it loose.

 

I ended up getting new brackets and pins. Still way cheaper than having a shop just do the rotors and pads.

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I had the same problem with my 96 OBW when doing the brake job last summer. Ended up destroying the rubber boot getting the pin out - and having to buy a Subaru's caliper rebuilt kit (all new rubber boots, piston seals, clips, grease for $20 - covers both front calipers). Well worth it rather than trying to save the original boots from sticking slider pins....

 

.02

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  • 1 year later...

Those pins are NFG when they get stuck. I still managed to pass inspection last year, and only noticed when I went to change the pads this year that I couldnt fit two new ones on. The rubber boot of the lower pin must have been damaged (probably by the rump roast****s at Subaru syracuse) and allowed the grease to get out and salt to get in.

I worked the thing for an hour with liquid wrench and tapping/hammering/torquing alternatively.

I ended up using a pipe wrench and about 15 minutes of a cheap propane torch. I think what gets it stuck is the rubber boot, so I are basically going to just be melting the rubber until you break the vacuum inside. My bolt came out with the force and sound of a gunshot, so be ready for that.

Nice work finding a bolt and boot kit for $20. I can only find kits for both sides, and I gotta go to the nice folks at my local dealership for them.

Good luck, this was major PIA.

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Torch to heat it up real hot, and an air hammer to knock it out. Have the air hammer ready, as soon as you take the heat off it, start hammering. I've never had a problem doing it that way, quick and easy. I just did one today that sounded like a gun shot too,haha. :)

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I've seen a few get stuck but nothing that I ever had to use a torch on. Gawd that rust does suck.

 

I would imagine that if I moved to the rust zone my garage would be much less zen-like than it is now. I just don't run across stuff like that often and when I do out comes the blue wrench and things start getting red-hot and melty.

 

GD

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  • 9 months later...

To prevent stuck caliper pin/slide problems on future brake jobs, I lube up the pins and bolt threads with anti-seize. I even put it on the facing of the rotor that meets the back of the road wheel, also on the threaded studs for the lug nuts. It doesn't take much extra work to do this, but eliminates in the future all the stuck pins and bolts headaches you guys are describing.

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To prevent stuck caliper pin/slide problems on future brake jobs, I lube up the pins and bolt threads with anti-seize. I even put it on the facing of the rotor that meets the back of the road wheel, also on the threaded studs for the lug nuts. It doesn't take much extra work to do this, but eliminates in the future all the stuck pins and bolts headaches you guys are describing.

 

 

 

it's not me that did this it's whoever the last owner was.. trust me not only was I cursing because I bumped my elbow into one of the lug studs but also because who puts the bracket back on without lube!?!? and ALL the others I had no issues with..

 

I'm going to try the torch today... but I might have to call these pads done... the pad is pushing too hard still when off the brakes that you can still smell them.. and the sucky part is the pin is stuck in the main caliper body.

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it's not me that did this it's whoever the last owner was.. trust me not only was I cursing because I bumped my elbow into one of the lug studs but also because who puts the bracket back on without lube!?!? and ALL the others I had no issues with..

 

I'm going to try the torch today... but I might have to call these pads done... the pad is pushing too hard still when off the brakes that you can still smell them.. and the sucky part is the pin is stuck in the main caliper body.

 

Yes, I realize it was not you that caused the problem. You are just the poor SOB that is now having to put up with someone else's prior poor workmanship. My post was to advise others how to avoid these problems in the future.

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i'm not sure how the shop did it, i didn't watch but they used a torch to remove the seized on out of mine. it took awhile for it to cool down so they hit it good. maybe it's as "simple" as heating up all the metal around it, i haven't really used a torch much? they said they do it all the time, they weren't surprised or hindered at all by it, rust is pretty terrible around here. the coal dust or whatever that black abrasive stuff is they toss all over the roads in the mountains here cuts into stuff and let's the moisture/salt get a healthy start.

 

hope you get it figured out, annoying to toss a caplier just for a pin.

 

i don't recall anywhere having them in stock, i think i was able to reuse mine or i had an extra. you'll need a new boot if it's intergrated with the pin, not sure which style you have, there are a few.

Edited by grossgary
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i'm not sure how the shop did it, i didn't watch but they used a torch to remove the seized on out of mine. it took awhile for it to cool down so they hit it good. maybe it's as "simple" as heating up all the metal around it, i haven't really used a torch much? they said they do it all the time, they weren't surprised or hindered at all by it, rust is pretty terrible around here. the coal dust or whatever that black abrasive stuff is they toss all over the roads in the mountains here cuts into stuff and let's the moisture/salt get a healthy start.

 

hope you get it figured out, annoying to toss a caplier just for a pin.

 

i don't recall anywhere having them in stock, i think i was able to reuse mine or i had an extra. you'll need a new boot if it's intergrated with the pin, not sure which style you have, there are a few.

 

Stupid question but they did it with the caliper on the car? wont that heat the brake fluid up to boil it? I still need a flush anyways... and the boot is not part of the pin.

 

the funny thing is my first Subaru was a 95 impreza.. so clean but when Ii was looking at the ECU pinouts I found out it was a CA model :mad: you can tell where most of these cars been that's for sure...

 

I will try the heat on it.

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i took just the part to them, they didn't do it on the car. i don't recall opening the brake line, but i can't think of how that would be unless it was part of the bracket instead of the caliper? subaru made too many caliper/pin changes for me to keep straight, it's really annoying. i was thinking of swapping my 96 legacy caliper to this 99 with the seized caliper but the calipers were different in some way and i couldn't. thank you subaru caliper freaks!

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I feel your pain on this. Had the same thing happen on my front caliper, ended up keeping the bracket attached to the hub and being able to hammer the caliper off the bracket/pin with a BFH. Soaked the pin with pblaster too (cleaned it well afterwards). Maybe you can try just heating that section of the bracket behind the stuck pin (where it bolts on)? Does this year have the rubber "seal" on one of the pins? Hope that doesn't melt...

 

For me the bad part is that been always seemed to still stick afterwards, even when i greased the heck out of it... ended up with some used WRX calipers....

 

Good luck!!

 

(+1 on the minor caliper/pin differences between seemingly ever year!)

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I haven't had to deal with this yet on my OBW, but I have on my Jeeps. As was stated, it's a part of living in the "rust belt". It definately sucks.

 

Heat works well to break loose frozen components. I tend to use it a lot for under-car issues. Regular blue bottle torches tend to not be able to get parts hot enough in many cases. I use a MAPP gas torch as they're the next best thing to acetyline. Cheaper also. I have a set of oxy-acetyline torches, but use the MAPP because it's too easy to get carried away with the oxy sometimes and place too much heat if you're not real careful. These are the commonly available hand torches with the yellow fuel bottles. They work better for plumbing repairs also. You shouldn't have to use so much heat that you create a boiling effect on the fluid. If there are rubber or vinyl parts adjacent, they will burn every time so have a extinguishing source handy. If the part is real stubborn, I'll soak it in PB after it starts to cool some then give it a few minutes and more often than not, this combo does the trick.

 

Two reasons why one would have ongoing issues with the same sliders after a stuck pin is freed is if the pin is not cleaned well before it is reused and if the guide hole in the caliper isn't well cleaned out also. What I do is to run the pin over a wire wheel on my bench grinder and clean all the built up corrosion off very well if I try to reuse it. I also use a wire wheel attachment on my Dremel for the caliper hole. I'll spray brake parts cleaner on both areas to clean out the residue after cleaning with the wires to get rid of the crap broken loose. Using anti seize then is a good thing to do to help keep them from corroding again. This stuff tends to be more resilient to the elements than many other types of lubricants. Just make sure you don't get it on places you don't want it to be, like your pads. I've had a lot of success doing it by this process. If you have occassion to replace the calipers, use the anti seize on them from the start. If you reuse old pins, clean them well before you attach them or you introduce corrosion into the holes of the new caliper and start the process prematurely.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited by Allpar Mod
more info, afterthought
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