My 98 OBW brakes seemed weak, so I thought it might be time to check things out, and lube the slides. On the LF, the caliper bolts to a bracket with two bolts. Upon disassemble, the caliper bolts thread into a slide pin receptacle that has a rubber accordion boot cover. One of the slide pin receptacles moves easily in and out, the other seems really stuck. With pliers, I can get it to rotate left and right, but not in and out. Is it suppose to move in and out? I am thinking it is suppose to move in and out, but I am not sure. Maybe corrosion is holding it back. I need good advise. Please help.

Yes, they both should move in and out. Shoot it with BP Blaster and work it out. If you can't get it out, it's time for a new bracket and pins.

 

I have several if you need them.

 

Larry

Yes, they both should move in and out. Shoot it with BP Blaster and work it out. If you can't get it out, it's time for a new bracket and pins.

 

I have several if you need them.

 

Larry

 

Thanks, I will use the PB Blaster. I am thinking the spray wand is needed to squirt the fluid inside the rubber accordion boot. Is that how to do it?

Yes, just push up the boot some and then spray the blaster in and let it soak.

 

One pin has a rubber seal on the end, so if you end up using heat it may melt.

Yes, just push up the boot some and then spray the blaster in and let it soak.

 

One pin has a rubber seal on the end, so if you end up using heat it may melt.

 

Thanks! Rooster2

Seeing this posted like it's an anomaly cracks me up. When I was working in a garage up here in Manie 95% of brake jobs on 90's, and even a lot of early 2000's subarus had at least one frozen slide on each side.

 

Take the caliper off and heat around where the pin goes in really fast with an oxy/ace torch. If you heat it slowly with a propane one you'll get too much heat in the piston/seal area and you'll ruin it. You need a lot of localized heat really fast.

 

Be warned, most of the time the pin comes flying out like a rocket. So aim it at something that's not going to get hurt.

 

If you melt the rubber seal or boot on the slide pin, replace it. If you try to wrench the pin out with vicegrips you're going to ruin the pin, the bore, and mar everything up. Been there, done that. It sucks.

 

 

But you said it move a little bit... maybe you'll get penatrant in there to free it. The ones I had to deal with were frozen, solid.

Seeing this posted like it's an anomaly cracks me up. When I was working in a garage up here in Manie 95% of brake jobs on 90's, and even a lot of early 2000's subarus had at least one frozen slide on each side.

 

Take the caliper off and heat around where the pin goes in really fast with an oxy/ace torch. If you heat it slowly with a propane one you'll get too much heat in the piston/seal area and you'll ruin it. You need a lot of localized heat really fast.

 

Be warned, most of the time the pin comes flying out like a rocket. So aim it at something that's not going to get hurt.

 

If you melt the rubber seal or boot on the slide pin, replace it. If you try to wrench the pin out with vicegrips you're going to ruin the pin, the bore, and mar everything up. Been there, done that. It sucks.

 

 

But you said it move a little bit... maybe you'll get penatrant in there to free it. The ones I had to deal with were frozen, solid.

 

 

after they came free, what were your best techniques for smoothing them back out/rebuilding?

after they came free, what were your best techniques for smoothing them back out/rebuilding?

 

The ones I pulled out by brute force were destroyed.

The ones I heated out were never ruined. And I've done quite a lot of those.

Took a soft wire brush to clean up the pin and used a brush thing that goes into the bore (whatever those are called). Put it back together with grease, and it's fine.

 

Basically it's fairly tight clearance, so it can't really get a lot of rust in there. When you heat it that breaks the rust bonds completely and it comes apart.

Since these were cars on the road, they started losing braking power, grinding when pads wore down, etc. So they weren't left to rust for a super long time. I assume if you took one that's been sitting in a field for 10 years it wouldn't come apart so gracefully.

 

 

I did it to my own car about three years ago. I had the whole thing apart last week doing major rust repair and rebuild some stuff. The caliper pins were still nice and free. No sigs of contamination.

Edited April 2, 201213 yr by 987687

Update..........this Saturday afternoon, I did a brake job on the front of my 98 OBW. I used PB Blaster to free up and remove a very tight slide pin. The PB worked great. I could see that the pin had been sticking and holding the pad against the rotor, as one side of the pad was worn down a lot more then the other side. So, I installed new pads on both front sides. All went well. Brakes work really well now. Thanks for all the great advise, especially the idea of using PB Blaster squirted in, with the wand that comes with the can. It easily squirted under the rubber boot to free up the pin quickly.

My son recently did a shadow assignment for his career tech center with a local shop here in Northern Michigan where it seems every other car is a subaru, ( i own three myself). Luckily he was assigned to work with the resident subaru guru and while doing a brake job the mechanic told my son that he removes the rubber grommet that is on the lower pin as it tends to swell and makes it difficult to remove. This morning while doing my annual spring checkup on my brakes lo and behold it was the lower pins that were both stuck so im going to try it and see what it looks like next year.

My son recently did a shadow assignment for his career tech center with a local shop here in Northern Michigan where it seems every other car is a subaru, ( i own three myself). Luckily he was assigned to work with the resident subaru guru and while doing a brake job the mechanic told my son that he removes the rubber grommet that is on the lower pin as it tends to swell and makes it difficult to remove. This morning while doing my annual spring checkup on my brakes lo and behold it was the lower pins that were both stuck so im going to try it and see what it looks like next year.

 

Well, you certainly know what to look for, and how to unstick the pins. I had replaced pads numerous times on three different Subies, and never knew to grease the pins/slides. Never had any pin trouble until now. I certainly learned how to fix the problem. Thanks to all on this forum. You all are wonderful help!