jedijeb

I have an 85 XJ and well to stop you need to plan ahead, very far ahead lol.

I am looking to do the brakes and most here say new calipers, but all I find are the reman one locally. Would most use reman calipers or should I order something new if I can find it? The rear wheel cylinders were replace just before it was parked about seven years ago so I imagine those are still ok, but will be checking the boots and seals just to be sure. The fronts look to have almost new pads but I think the rotors and pads have glazed and now don't work well, I have driven maybe 25 miles so far and it doesn't look like any of the small rust spots have even worn down yet.

I imagine new front soft lines are in order too, maybe rear too.

Any advice on things I have missed? Reservoir is still full even after pumping them a lot so I don't think there are any leaks in the system.

Turbo X_J

"parked about seven years ago"

Replace everything.

caged

look into the dual diaphragm booster upgrade

jedijeb

I was looking at that on the Bleepin Jeep youtube video. I just have to find time to find a replacement booster in a JY. If I can ever get away from 6-7 day work weeks maybe I can

Anyone have an opinion on remanufactured calipers? Are they good to use?

CPCP-94XJ

My opinion on remanufactured components is that they areperfectly acceptable to use, unless if it was say a high performance vehicleunder more demanding conditions…. The brakes calipers have very few parts thatwould need to be replaced when it is rebuilt and considered remanufactured. I believe the only thing that really get replaced is the square edge seal, or possiblythe piston itself. (I am not positive)



I would put some NEW pads and rotors on it and find some reman calipers for it. I would actually even skip the calipers until I knew they were **** before I replaced them, pad a rotors just go hand and hand, but that’s just me and my bush rig.

PocketsEmpty

Remans are fine, I've put them on friends' cars already, with no issues. Just make SURE that you take the old caliper with you, bolts and all, and compare them closely. I had to go back to Autozone to get my old bolts back because the new/reman caliper I got had the wrong bolts.

inarschenk

Take off your rotors and hubs and have them turned at a local orelllys or autozone. I recently found out that AutoZone has some brakepads that have a 'lifetime' warranty if you plan to keep your jeep around awhile. I replaced the pads with Autozone's Cmax ceramic pads and they are extremely quiet and stop well. As for the other parts.. reman'd parts are going to be just fine for you. goodluck with it!

jedijeb

Thanks everyone.

Looks like reman is about the only thing you can get anyhow. I do see some calipers that are listed as "loaded" but not sure what that is yet. Does that mean they have the bolts and such versus not having any at all?

Definitely new rotors too, which is much better on this than on my F150 where the rotor and hub are one assembly and a pain to switch out.

jedijeb

Ok, changed the front brakes this weekend. New calipers, pads, and rotors plus flushed the fluid which was brown and cleaned sludge out of the reservoir. Brakes work much better now, can actually stop without planning a quarter mile ahead of time

Now the problem. Before the new brakes I did have a little shake at 55mph, not severe, but now I have full blown death wobble once I get above 45mph. It was sitting on jack stands over night while I was working on it and they were placed as close to below the spring perches as I could get them, I hope that didn't have anything to do with causing it.

Going to work through all the rest of the front end now to refresh bushings and such, just hope I can find the source. Might just need new tires, but I doubt I can get that lucky.

belvedere

Was it sitting on those tires for the 7 years? May have flat-spotted them.

jedijeb

Yup at least that long. They look like almost new Uniroyal Tiger Paws. I am getting some General Grabber AT2s soon.

I have driven it into town a few times, about 5 mile each way, and they have done well so far, but I don't trust them for any more than that. They don't seem flat-spotted, but no telling what the insides look like. Just seemed weird that the shaking got like 10x worse after changing the brakes.

I did put a shot of grease into the upper ball joints and tie rod ends while I had the wheels off, maybe I loosened up something in the front doing that.

mentalbreakdown00

The only diff you can possibly do to a brake caliper is the stock pistons, and remans have phenolic , there is aonly a couple places you can buy steel ones... Reman calipers is about all you will find for the most part though. I would say check the slides, have the rotrs turned, possibly slap new pads on the front, and on the rear get the drums off and see if axle seals are leaking, wheel cyls are leaking etc, turn the drums and make sure they are adjusted properly. Bleed the bee jesus out of them and get the old fluid out.

jedijeb

I am still thinking about changing the soft lines on the brakes and worry that I will end up needing to cut the end if the nut rounds off. Would something like this, in the proper length of course, be good to just replace the hard line from the master cylinder down to the wheel well to connect to a new soft line?

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...0833&ppt=C0066

I wouldn't really want to invest in the flaring tools for brake lines but if these with the ends already on would work I think I could attempt this type of repair.

Turbo X_J

It doesn't matter if the hard lines fall apart (after sitting for 7 years they probably will anyway). Borrow a flare kit from Vatozone, & here's how to use it:

jedijeb

Cool, looks similar to copper tub flaring except for the part with the die on the first stage. I have done copper before for natural gas in the house, probably just need the extra die part for my tool.