Rear Caliper Disassembly Question

[2nerkid]

Has anyone disassembled their rear calipers before? I'm trying to get this unpainted bracket off but I'm not sure it's even meant to come off. It turns and springs back fine but I want to take it off if possible, because I'm getting the caliper powdercoated and it would save a lot of tricky masking.

 

[Volumetrik]

Have you removed the piston yet? You have to spin it out. There may be a bolt inside the piston bore to untie that pivoting part.

 

[2nerkid]

Have you removed the piston yet? You have to spin it out. There may be a bolt inside the piston bore to untie that pivoting part.

Yes, got the piston out. The inside of the bore looks like this and I can't figure out any way to get that threaded rod out. It rotates along with the bracket. I tried pushing the rod in a bit with a C clamp but it wouldn't budge, unless I'm not trying hard enough. Didn't want to try too hard though in case I'm right and it's not meant to slide out like that.

 

[TDavis]

Should be a bolt and nut back there.

 

[2nerkid]

There's a nut on the outside, on top of the bracket, but I've already removed that and it didn't free anything up. However, I did take a closer look at the inner bore and saw that there is a retaining ring inside underneath the... whatever that inner piston looking thing is called. If you look at the one o'clock position you can make out one eye of the retaining ring, there's another at 11 o'clock (it was hard to get a decent photo of both together). I'll try using a snap ring plier to fish it out.

 

[TDavis]

 

[2nerkid]

Yes, I've removed both of those. The Torx bolt on the bottom frees up the bottom bracket but it's trapped by the top bracket. The top bracket doesn't come off even with that nut removed... it does seem like it's supposed to though, my calipers may just be that seized. I had hit one of them with Liquid Wrench and it still didn't budge but I'll try Kroil on both.

 

[2nerkid]

Soaked in Kroil for four or five hours, tried pulling the bracket, no dice. Have you taken these brackets off before? I see the outside threaded rod has a spline so it stands to reason the bracket should come off of it, you reckon I should rent a puller tool from Autozone and try that?

 

[HAHAFiST]

Pretty sure mine is starting to stick. Is that why you're taking yours apart?

 

[2nerkid]

No, I'm just getting them powdercoated. These are actually a spare set that I bought from someone else's car, mine are the nonpainted version and still on my car. For all I know this set had the stuck ebrake problem and that might be what I'm encountering now.

 

[the duke]

it's on a spline and pulls off. Remove the nut and pry it off.

 

[2nerkid]

Update: two pry bars wedged between the brackets did the trick! I may still try to remove that snap ring from the inside bore to disassemble the caliper further but if I can't, hopefully this is enough for my powdercoater to work with. If I do get it more apart, I'll post the results here. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!

 

[Intuit]

Under all the heat, road salt, abrasive brake dust, etcetera, isn't interesting how well the glossy red paint holds up on these calipers?