Rebuilding Kelsey Hayes front disk brake calipers?

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LovetheA's

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This will be my first attempt at replacing the rubber bladders that are on top of the inner metal sleeves inside the calipers. I accidentally melted a couple of them because like a dummy I didn’t take the caliper apart before trying to heat up the frozen nuts on the cross over lines. So now I figured why not try to replace the rubber bladders. I don’t know if it’s a big job or can be done at home fairly easy? Is this something I shouldn’t be afraid to tackle and is there a kit to order that would be a factory replacement? Keep in mind the disk brake setup and calipers worked fine before I destroyed two of the rubber bladders. I would appreciate any guidance. Thanks
Carl
 
It's probably time to rebuild the caliper. In addition to the rubber 'bellows' on the outside there is also a rubber "O" ring inside that seals the piston to the housing. These are hard to replace because usually the pistons and bores are heavily rusted and corroded leading to boring and sleeving the calipers and replacing the pistons. I prefer to let professionals rebuild them so they can provide whatever is needed.
 
After attempting to rebuild my kh calipers years ago, one came out good and the other kept leaking! Rubbers were a pain in the ***! Reason for rebuild was the pucks were freezing up! I said screw it and found a brake vender can’t recall who! Sent my cores to them and sent me rebuilt ones that were sleeved with stainless liners! Money well spent! Never looked back!
 
n.y.340 dart said:
After attempting to rebuild my kh calipers years ago, one came out good and the other kept leaking! Rubbers were a pain in the ***! Reason for rebuild was the pucks were freezing up! I said screw it and found a brake vender can’t recall who! Sent my cores to them and sent me rebuilt ones that were sleeved with stainless liners! Money well spent! Never looked back!
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Stainless sleeves were the norm on older Corvette disk brakes when rebuilding them for the same reason.
 
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@hemi71x rebuilds these.. He is a member here. I tried getting some from rockauto and all they had was one side. I ordered it and it was the opposite side as described.
 
n.y.340 dart said:
! Sent my cores to them and sent me rebuilt ones that were sleeved with stainless liners
Click to expand...
IIRC the company that puts the SS sleeves in is in Florida.

My dad rebuilt his calipers many times and I remember him commenting that the design was bad because the piston seal being on the piston left the bore exposed WHEN the outer seal leaks. If the piston seal was in the upper end of the bore the bore would be protected as the piston moved in and out, WHEN the outer seal leaked. The piston might get damaged but much easier to replace.
 
You can definitely do it yourself, I did it with a brake hone tool that goes in a drill and a rebuild kit, getting the pistons out is challenging, especially if any are seized in the caliper like one of mine was. Overall, the project is a bit tedious, but very doable.
 
You may also be able to buy new calipers on an exchange basis at your local auto parts place. But I rebuilt a set once back in the 80s. Wasn't a bad job — as a west coast car it wasn't rusty. But everything that involves brake fluid is by definition a messy job.
 
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