My brake caliper fell off!

[matt-jenkins]

So, I was driving myself back down to the coast from my friends place in Princeton BC (3 hour drive through mountains, no cell service) about 45 after leaving his place I start to notice a strange knock on my passenger side when I hit a bump. I had no place to pull off at the time and it got louder and louder. Before long every time I hit the brake the truck would pull to the right, i would feel it in the pedal and I would hear grinding. I pull over, got out and wiggled the caliper and sure enough it was loose. I got back on the highway and pulled off again about a kilometer later in a bigger pullout with enough room to pull the tire off. When I got the truck in the air and the tire off I crawled under it, grabbed the caliper and it proceed to fall off in my hand. Needless to say I was quite puzzled. This is the moment when I realized that I was in deep doo-doo. I realized that the caliper was not held on by two bolts like most others I was familiar with but instead what looked like two clips shoved between the caliper and the steering knuckle. I put the tire back on and lowered the truck back down and, luckily able to flag down a highway truck and hitch a ride an hour into the town of Hope BC, now this is when the story takes a humorous twist. I had among all my personal effects my Remington 870 and PSE compound bow in the truck with me, I decided I'd rather take them with me then Leave them in the truck on the side of a remote highway. When I get into town and the guys drop me off I realize that It would be in poor taste to walk around with a shotgun slung over my shoulder and a bow in my hand. I go to the Local RCMP detachment and explain the problem and ask if they can hang onto them for me which after much confusion they finally did. As I am leaving the detachment after giving them the gun/bow I realize I left my backpack in the bed of the highways truck! I walk to their yard about a block down the street from the cop shop. After some good detective work on behalf of the 3 employees in the lunch room I get the phone number of the guy who drove me into town. I give him a call and tell him about my bag, he offered to drive a half hour from his house to the restaurant I was at to get my bag back to me, I offered him $20 and even dinner or a slice of pie but he turned it down, I was quite impressed by his generosity. So meanwhile while I was waiting at the restaurant my friend was racing up from Langley(another hour and a half down the road) in his 02 Twin Turbo cummins with a flat deck trailer to tow me home, I figured filling up his truck was alot cheaper then a 200KM tow truck. All said and done a trip that takes me between 2.5 and 3.5 hours traffic/weather depending ended up taking me 9 hours, I am extremely lucky considering how bad things could have been and am thankful for how it all played out.

So, here is where I need your advice, three weeks ago I had my truck in PDR(Piers Diesel Research) where my friend with the dodge happens to be a mechanic getting the passenger side ball joints replaced. Should I go back there barking up there tree for putting those clips on incorrectly when re-installing my caliper or would it be normal for these clips to come out on their own? Seems curious that in the 18 months since I have owned my truck I have never had a problem with the clips, yet three weeks after the Caliper was off the clips pop out. Curious? I think not.

Here is the inside of my wheel after getting rubbed with my caliper for god knows how long:

You must be registered for see images

And here is my poor Wendy on the trailer home:

You must be registered for see images

 

[itsacrazyasian]

I replace mine everytime i do brake work on my truck. Cheap insurance. I actually have a good used pair in my glovebox.

Bummer dude but atleast everyone is safe!

 

[matt-jenkins]

I replace mine everytime i do brake work on my truck. Cheap insurance./QUOTE]

I was kind of thinking if that was the case, most fittings like that are a one time use kind of deal.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

I had this problem happen a few weeks ago, happened to be a worn out pin. Try replacing your caliper pins then you should be good. For a good measure I kinda pull my pins apart a little to give them a little more springy to them.

 

[franklin2]

This is a fairly common problem, usually tells you though by a clunking noise when you hit the brakes. The rubber is just bonded to the two metal pieces, and when it gets old it comes loose. But one thing you do have to look out for are the little "ears" on one side of the caliper retainer piece. If they are put on correctly, these "ears" will lock in and keep the retainer from sliding out.

 

[Alex S]

crazy that it fellout

Funny thing but i had the same problem last year when i went up to 70 Mile House. I noticed 1/2 way there around boston bar. The caliper sliders had falled out. But there was very minamul clearance between the rim and the caliper so it was not going to go anywhere so I drove on till I got to 70 Mile and put big bolts in in place of the sliders and that worked till i got home where i replaced the cailper

 

[Exekiel69]

Most maintenance manuals will recommend replacing this every time You pull the wheel for brake work or repack bearings, however it is not likely for this to just fall off. I don't see how could a mechanic miss something like this but then again I have not visited one for several years thanks to this site.

OB

 

[LCAM-01XA]

This is a fairly common problem, usually tells you though by a clunking noise when you hit the brakes. The rubber is just bonded to the two metal pieces, and when it gets old it comes loose. But one thing you do have to look out for are the little "ears" on one side of the caliper retainer piece. If they are put on correctly, these "ears" will lock in and keep the retainer from sliding out.

Those ears are there just to keep the spring/slider assembly from being caught and pushed out by the brake caliper during its normal operation (small in-out motion with respect to the rotor), and they do their job just fine so long as the rubber is there to push the steel sliders against the caliper and the knuckle. If the rubber is gone the sliders will collapse on each other and will slide out, which is what I think happened to Matt Jenkins... And I don't really think these clips can be installed upside-down, I mean sure they can but that would take a lot of heavy hammer action at which point any semi-competent mechanic would know something just ain't quite right with the picture.

 

[franklin2]

I have installed them wrong before and caught myself. Looking at them from the end they look similiar side to side, two "v's" facing each other, and they will slide in either way.

But the little ears I am talking about need to go toward the caliper bracket, not the caliper. The retainer snaps in place right around the bracket if the ears are installed toward the bracket and not the caliper.

It may be obvious to some, but it was not to me until I happened to pay attention to what was going on with it after getting it backwards. Hopefully he will look for it since I mentioned it.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Hm, well last time I had my calipers off (like a year ago, if not longer) I remember that the two V's were actually a bit different - one was narrower and deeper (goes towards the caliper), while the other side was wider but shorter (this goes in the knuckle)... Maybe yours were of somewhat different design? But yes, you're 110% correct on the "ears" orientation - they do indeed snap around the knuckle and allow for very little wiggle room for the whole slider assembly.

 

[Black dawg]

Ive seen lots that both sides were the same other than the ears.

I would definitely tell them about it. you will learn if you want to take your truck there again or not, and the guy who did the work needs to know this happened.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I would definitely tell them about it. you will learn if you want to take your truck there again or not, and the guy who did the work needs to know this happened.

Agreed!

 

[matt-jenkins]

Do think his actions were a direct result to there failure, or could they just have worn out? It got down to -38 new years eve, and it was -25 the other few days I was up there, maybe the cold and their age just took its tole on them. I dont want to go into PDR looking for them to fix it unless im confident it was partially their fault.

 

[itsacrazyasian]

wow i just went back to read that someone at a shop serviced your ball joints. It says in ALLDATA and Mitchell to replace pins when servicing the brakes! If they were new, they won't fall out. Guy needs to know they have quite a bit of resistance when removing and installing and if they don't they need to be replaced. Seriously its 2 bucks for a pack of 4.

 

[matt-jenkins]

wow i just went back to read that someone at a shop serviced your ball joints. It says in ALLDATA and Mitchell to replace pins when servicing the brakes! If they were new, they won't fall out. Guy needs to know they have quite a bit of resistance when removing and installing and if they don't they need to be replaced. Seriously its 2 bucks for a pack of 4.

I looked it up in alldata as well but didnt see anything about replacing the clips, i'll have another read and print it out for when I take it in to pay them a visit, thanks for this.

Edit: I'm looking at Alldata Pro online now and it says nothing about removing the caliper or replacing those clips, What page are you looking at?