jeffsqartan
Expert
- Nov 21, 2012
- 1,302
- 83
The internal seal looked OK. The boots on the outside were in better shape than I expected, considering those insanely high temps they just saw. There was a little bit of a hole on one boot, but I had no rebuild kit and no ability to get a rebuild kit (truck and car both down and wife gone) so I said effit and threw it back together. The hole was not enormous, thankfully.Good call taking the trans apart. It needs some attention.
On the brakes make sure the square cut seal is good and clean and can't roll up on its edge. It will pinch the piston and it'll stick. Also make sure all the ports inside are open and not corroding closed. I don't use grease on the seal or piston, I only use fresh brake fluid. Some people lightly grease it with a thin silicone base. The seal and dust boot do the majority of the work and is where binding on the piston can occur.
Also, I did use brake fluid to "lube" the pistons when I put them back in. I'm sure that caliper will need to be replaced on the next go-round. The second piston that I popped out, actually flew out, smoked the side of the Stang, and rolled under the car. I'm not sure if the chunk of piston was missing before or after that incident. But there is a small chunk of piston missing at the very end, just before the metal plating that's on the outside of the piston. It shouldn't cause any binding issues because it's so far up on the piston, but it might cause binding when I replace the brakes in a year or so and have to depress the piston all the way in.
Also, I called up a local parts store to see what I was going to be looking at for both calipers, rotors, and cheap pads.
The best price they could give me was $650, $100 core included.
Rock Auto was going to be $430, and that was with all four brake hoses included in that order along with an $80-$100 core charge. Literally almost half the cost.
Figured I would at least see what happens before ordering parts, but there's no way I'm going to a local parts store. They're out of their friggin minds.