Replaced front pads today with Jimbo486 and the left boot on the piston is disintegrating. I figure I'll just go the route of replacing the calipers on both sides and start fresh. I know nearly nothing about what to replace them with. What valuable information can the forum throw my way? All knowledge is welcome and appreciated!!

David

 

Read through this for tips and such . . . https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/....html?t=143024

 

Dave, We had your instructions up on the laptop in the garage all afternoon. Very nice work. Got the pads replaced and all is good but I want to replace the calipers after finding the bad boot not rebuild them. What's the best calipers to get in your opinions?

 

I went with the A1 cardone calipers that I finally found at oreilly's after searching from store to store for six hours. I found that this part is just a remanufactured part and that not much can go wrong with something that is basically what my truck came with from the factory.

My truck had the 1/4'' rubber seal that sticks out of the caliper and I had a hard time finding the right pair that I needed that also fit my brake pads that I hammer tapped to fit onto my original calipers. I saw others that had a metal seal that didn't stick out much but was flush with the socket of the caliper, unlike the one that came off my truck which folded up underneath the socket, and stuck out 1/4''.

Mine were also the pneumatic piston calipers im not sure if it would have been better or not to go with a metal piston or not, but that's all I could find without special ordering some from dallas.

I had to go to Advanced auto parts and Orielly's to find each different side of calipers that matched up to the ones that came off the truck.

I almost had a match on a set of the calipers that had the flush metal seal in the socket , but one side of the match I found was bright gold and said made in China, so I said No Thanks to that pair and kept looking.

I hope you don't go through as much trouble finding a nice set as I did, it might help if you live close to a auto parts distribution center in your area to order the set from them and tell them you want to pick them up after ordering a pair from an auto parts store, and then show them which set you need and they can look through a larger stock of parts then an individual store will carry which is one set, and your lucky if they match, every place I went they didn't have one single exact match, just my luck I guess.

 

In the thread mentioned, I did replace my calipers.

As far as who's brand? I just got the basic (rebuilt?) calipers from Loop Road Auto Parts in Garner.