I have a 1996 Ford F250 Powerstroke. While attempting to remove the front brake calipers in order to grease the front wheel bearings, I have encountered a problem.

My truck apparently has a rail slider type of mechanism holding the caliper on. It is apparently necessary to drive this rail through a slot in order to remove the caliper. My problem is that after I bend the tabs at the end of the rail and try to drive the rail through the slot to remove it, I can't get it through the slot because a large piece of the rail does not clear the disc of the brake and thus prevents the rail from being removed.

Could anybody help? I'm sure I am missing something (perhaps a brain???).

Thanks!

 

When removing the slide type pins nothing should be "bent" to remove them, just drive them out, making sure you rem which way they came out as they have to go back in the same way. I use a long 1/4" extension to drive them out.

 

FordPerf300, I cannot see any pins to drive out, and surely nothing that a quarter-inch rod would fit. All I see is what I assume they call a rail made of thin metal with the tabs holding it in on the end. The Haynes book says to "Use pliers and squeeze the caliper retaining pin while prying the other end until the tabs enter the pin groove. Drive out the pin with a punch and hammer." I guess it's this term "squeeze" that caused me to try to bend the tabs out a bit to try to drive them through, but for the life of me I can't see any "pins" as I would ordinarily define the term. All I see is what seems to be termed as a "rail", made of light metal, and I can't get it out.

I know I'm looking but not seeing. I'm sure it is something simple, but it sure has me stumped so far. Maybe it's the hot sun that's melting my candle.

If you or anyone else have any other observations, I sure would appreciate them. My truck's on blocks in the driveway as I type.

Thanks for the help!

 

MichaelP

That type of caliper uses a metal rail bent on both ends that is in the shape of a rainbow. You can't drive it towards the rotor you have to drive it out from the backside and it will come out. Use a hammer and punch to get it out. You don't ever bend the ends of the retainer. The retainer is spring steel and as it is driven in it expands between the caliper and the caliper mount to hold the caliper in place.

John

 

JTMerritt, the Haynes manual shows a picture of the pin/rail/whatever being driven from the outside of the truck toward the inside (where the suspension spring is shown) side of the brake. I've gotten ahold of a Ford publication that has a drawing which appears to show the same thing direction. Neither source mentions the direction the pin should be driven, but the illustrations show this.

The Ford publication mentions the use of a "Hydraulic Caliper Pin Remover", and observes it should be used first by driving the pin with a notched end of the tool against the caliper pin's retention tab half at a 45-degree angle from the pin retention tabs; tap the tool with a hammer to compress the retentiion tabs, and as the tabs are compressed, move the tool to gain a straight approach to the caliper pin, tapping the pin through the caliper/spindle groove. Then, it says to use the same procedure on the lower pin.

As I noted in an earlier post, I managed to get the tabs into the slot, so I should have been able to drive the rail/pin out. However, the rail/pin has a part that projects downward and thus hits the brake rotor on the way out, preventing it from moving any farther.

This little project is driving me nuts. It seems so simple. But not simple enough for me. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Two manuals with pictures, and I still don't get it. Glad I don't make my living this way. I'd be the thinnest man on the planet. I might have to ask my wife how to do it. Save me boys.....

 

Well, I solved the mystery of the problem relative to removing my F250 calipers.

The problem was that the Haynes manual did not reference the fact that the 1996 Ford F250 had TWO types of calipers (for some damnable reason). Fortunately, after reading and rereading a Ford reference source, I realized that there were two types, and my type was not the sliding rail type that Haynes described, but a sliding pin type. When I realized that, I took another look at my setup and sure enough, it was as simple as backing out two bolts ("sliding pins") with a half-inch socket...a heck of a lot easier than taking out the sliding rail type as described by Haynes, actually.

I knew there would be a simple solution. It was finding the solution that was not so simple.

Thanks for the help guys!