Hello All:

I have just finished (I hope) with a 4 wheel complete brake job on my '92 245. The rear brakes (ATE) weren't too much trouble, except for getting the emergency brake cables to back off enough to allow the rotors to come off.

The front brakes were a nightmare, entirely due to the fact that the bottom caliper pins were totally seized on both sides. When I say seized, I mean really seized! I soaked the pins for several days with PB Blaster and tapped gently with a small finish hammer (yes, I did remove the retainer clips). No joy! Fine, if they won't go out, maybe they'd rather go in. I gently removed the heads on the pin with a cold chisel (very mild steel pins), and tried tapping inward, this time with an appropriately sized drift. No luck! At this point, I tried heat, which did nothing except roast the dust boots. I ended up drilling out the pin center and tapping the remainder out with a nailset. I picked up new dust boots from a local steering and brake rebuilder (gave them to me for free!).

The other side brought more trouble. After a brief but futile round with the drift, I decided to jump right to drilling it out. I did, and then tried to gently hammer out the remainder left in the calipr. The caliper casting broke at the top of the pin hole!

I reassembled the brakes with the new rotors, pads, shims and Volvo factory hardware. The dust boots on the driver's side seem fine so far. The passenger side seems to operate fine with the pin only partially captured on the broken outboard side (slightly more than a semicircle of casting is left). I put that pin in backwards so that the retaining clip would be held in place (i.e. clip and the head of the caliper pin on the inboard side). Everything seems fine, but I will pull the wheels in a week and inspect both calipers for evidence of trouble.

I coated the new caliper pins with a liberal smear of antiseize, lubed the dust boots and sliding surfaces of the calipers, pads and shims with Silglyde silicone grease.

This car has only been on salty roads for less than 5 years. I have not had trouble with any other fasteners being corroded to the point of being unworkable. I do suspect that the previous owners never used new brake hardware-- something I will do every time from now on!

Did I miss any other techniques for pin removal?

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Herb Goltz, London, Ontario, Canada '92 245 w/102K mi