chrismustang

Did a front pad swap on 3rd gen firebird. When I slid the caliper off the rotor two small spacers/washer fell out, I think they were between the calliper and the caliper mount, with the caliper bolts going through them. They look like small length of steel tube, half inch long and half inch diameter.

Trouble is now with the new pads bein thicker, these spacers won't fit back in.

What an I doing wrong?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like the bushings that are supposed to be inside the holes in the caliper where the bolts go.

Time for new calipers. They're SO CHEAP, not even worth worrying about. MUCH cheaper than the pads, amazingly enough. About $25 for both sides.

chrismustang

Can I simply push them back into the holes for now then? I'm in UK so takes a while for parts to arrive

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yes you can do that, temporarily; problem is, they're mounted in some rubber rings up inside there, and if they came out, it's because the rubber has disintegrated. So they'll still work, but might be noisy or otherwise not be right.

TreeFiddy

You might be able to pick out the remnants of the little rubber isolator ring, and improvise a new one with a piece of rubber hose of the right size, with a little work. I recall doing something similar on one or my rears, could not source a caliper pin kit over here or online at the time.

If the rubber rings are in fact ok, the metal spacer thingies will be a pretty tight fit inside. Lube them with a little bit of light oil, and use locking pliers etc to press them back in. They will need to be positioned fully back inside the caliper ears; iirc looks like they work their way outwards as the pads wear.