OK, I need to know if I screwed up. I am restoring a 1967 "S" code coupe that I rescued from the wrecking yard. While waiting on a sheet metal order I decided to use the time to rebuild the calipers and so I disassembled them. That is I unbolted the two pieces of the caliper before reading the maintenance manual which said not to unbolt the parts. Yeah, bad habit of mine reading the instructions last but I don't know if I have a problem or not. Has anyone done this and is there a problem?
There is something that will kill you. The seal groove in the caliper must be absolutely clean. The part you can't see is where corrosion an dirt will hide, personally I'd use a Dremel tool with a tiny wire wheel to clean it out. The seal is square, but the groove is a trapezoid. This allows the elasticity of the seal to slightly retract the piston and pad. With crud on the groove, it won't retract, and might not even seal.
Thanks, I think I had the groves clean but I am going to use my dremal tool to make sure. great info, thanks again.