• A few people have been scammed on the site, Only use paypal to pay for items for sale by other members. If they will not use paypal, its likely a scam NEVER SEND E-TRANSFERS OF ANY KIND.

Front Brake Calliper Replacement

gz3cx8

New Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2019
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Chester
Visit site
Hi everyone,
I have finally taken the plunge and tried to replace my front brake pads. With the inevitable help of you tube and a number of posts on this forum I set about the 30 task this morning.

Removing the calliper was not a problem, pads out - not a problem, pistons fully home - ok - new pads in - all good - Calliper back on er no.

I cannot for the life of me get the calliper back onto the disc, it just won't line up. It is almost as if the disc is in the wrong position.

I am clearly doing something wrong but cannot figure it out ? Do I need to align the wheel to the calliper, or is there some sort of magic trick to get the calliper back on ??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

For reference I have replaced with EBC FA196, and if I put the old worn pads back in I can get the calliper on no problem. 30 minutes job turned into an unsuccessful 3 hours and lots of swearing.
 
Hi everyone,
I have finally taken the plunge and tried to replace my front brake pads. With the inevitable help of you tube and a number of posts on this forum I set about the 30 task this morning.

Removing the calliper was not a problem, pads out - not a problem, pistons fully home - ok - new pads in - all good - Calliper back on er no.

I cannot for the life of me get the calliper back onto the disc, it just won't line up. It is almost as if the disc is in the wrong position.

I am clearly doing something wrong but cannot figure it out ? Do I need to align the wheel to the calliper, or is there some sort of magic trick to get the calliper back on ??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

For reference I have replaced with EBC FA196, and if I put the old worn pads back in I can get the calliper on no problem. 30 minutes job turned into an unsuccessful 3 hours and lots of swearing.

Just take a flat or Phillips head screw driver, wrap a sock or wrag around the tip, stick it in between the pads and pry them apart so that they open up. Be careful not to exert too much force doing this, or orient the screwdriver (or whatever you use) in a manner to where it could mar up the pad. It's a simple procedure, no need in compressing the pistons all the way or anything else. Just simply swap the pads (which you've done), pry them apart a bit to clear the rotor, reinstall the caliper. Fairly simple, straight forward procedure.
 
The pistons are only on one side behind one pad. The other pad goes on the opposite side, or the frame of the caliper. The whole caliper has to slide laterally on the pins attached to the caliper support, to locate the whole caliper centered with the disk. Does the caliper slide easily on the pins? Did you by chance jam it all the way at one end of the pins' travel? Or, maybe the pins need to be cleaned an lubed.

Another way of saying it is if the caliper is no longer centered in the disk, it needs to be moved/adjusted/slid on the two pins laterally until it aligns with the disk.
 
Last edited:
He said he can put the stock pads back in the caliper and it goes on fine, so long as he ordered the correct EBC pads (easily told by comparing shapes side by side), the only difference between the two scenarios should be pad thickness of old vs new, which means he just needs to open them up a bit more right before trying to slip the caliper onto the rotor.

I can't think of any other reason it wouldn't go on if he can stick his old pads back in it and it will go on fine. Unless his old pads are oem and the ones that utilize a shim and he is trying to re-use the shim with the EBC's, which is a no-no. No shim should be used with the EBC's.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
He said he can put the stock pads back in the caliper and it goes on fine, so long as he ordered the correct EBC pads (easily told by comparing shapes side by side), the only difference between the two scenarios should be pad thickness of old vs new, which means he just needs to open them up a bit more right before trying to slip the caliper onto the rotor.

I can't think of any other reason it wouldn't go on if he can stick his old pads back in it and it will go on fine. Unless his old pads are oem and the ones that utilize a shim and he is trying to re-use the shim with the EBC's, which is a no-no. No shim should be used with the EBC's.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Agreed. Sort of. "Opening them up" involves pushing the pistons back to create clearance for one pad. It also involves sliding the caliper on the pins to create clearance for the other pad. If you push the pistons back only, and then install pads significantly thicker than the old ones, the caliper will be off center to the disk until the caliper is slid laterally on the pins to realign it. I should clarify that by pins, I don’t mean the little pin that holds the pads in place, but the bolts covered by rubber boots that secure the caliper frame to the caliper mounting bracket. The caliper frame sides on these bolts. This mounting bracket is then bolted with two more bolts to the lower fork leg.

I can totally picture that if the pistons were just pushed back, and new, significantly thicker pads are installed, the caliper will not align with the disk until an attempt is made to slide the caliper frame on it's mounting bolts.

I did not confirm the OP’s FA196 pads are the correct pads for the bike. If they are incorrect, then all bets are off.
 
Last edited:
I highly doubt they are the wrong pads as I think there is quite a significant difference between the 2 pot and 3 pot pads in the different year models, it'd be pretty obvious to him that they were wrong.

I would imagine the caliper body would align itself after being installed, it should freely slide, you kinda made it sound like you would have to set the alignment or something when I read your first post, but see what you mean now.

Even if it is "stuck" to where the caliper body won't slide all the way out on the pins, I'd still think you could spread enough clearance between it and the pistons to get it back on the bike and then after pressing the brake lever a few good times (once caliper is back on the rotor) it would work itself back out.


Any progress on this yet? Get it back on?
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
Put the caliper back on without the pads in. Then slide the new pads in with the outboard pad first. Slide the pad retainer part way in, far enough to hold the outboard pad in place. The slide the inside pad in and push the retainer pin all the way in.

For future reference you don’t have to remove the caliper to remove or replace the pads. The thickness of new pads can make it difficult to lineup the caliper.
 
Back
Top