I just changed mine on 2001 but had to replace calipers cause locking up

 

I am the OP on this thread. Summary on my problem with my 2003 2 door LT 4WD. Both rear calipers were stuck, but for different reasons. One was stuck because of a stuck cal. pin. The other side was stuck due to a frozen cal. piston. I decided to go ahead and replace both rear calipers with Cardone re manufactured ones. I had heard that Cardone did the best reman. They don't-- from my experience. The brakes were ordered from Advance Auto and came complete with all necessary hardware. They both went on straight forward. The problems came with the bleeding of the brakes. I attribute that to trying to do the 'one man' bleeding method. Here's the rest of the story. The driver's side R&R went well. The bleeding went well. I thought this is easy. On to the passenger side. I put on the new caliper, new hardware, and new pads. Every thing looked good, until I tried to bleed this side. It leaked at the banjo bolt. I tried the steel washers supplied by Cardone .....I bought new steel washers with a pattern cut into them. I bought copper washers by Dorman. I even put the original aka old washers back on. They all leaked at the same spot on the banjo bolt. I finally took off the caliper and saw the problem. On the cal. banjo bolt seating surface was a big scratch. This scratch was impossible to see while the cal. was mounted. I sent the entire caliper back to AAP and they sent it off and returned it to me with no problems....other than more lost time. Until I mounted that cal. back on the rear. The bleeder screw was a different size than the rest. The stock bleeder screw bolt is 10 mm, but this one was 8 mm. Oh, well, it is inconvenient, but I dug up an 8 mm and went to bleed it. The bleeder tube was also a smaller size and I didn't have the unusual size tube. Oh, well. I'll drive into town =13 miles one way-- to get the correct size bleeder tube on a Sunday afternoon. No auto parts store in town had that size bleeder hose. I went back home and tried to cobble up an adapter to fit this odd size bleeder screw. It kept popping off the bleeder. Remember I am doing the one man bleeding system ! It may have been at this point that I let the master cylinder run dry. I never got this side to bleed properly and the brake pedal went to the floor. I ended up getting a roll back to take it to the local indie shop. They had the special ABS scanner to address the dry master cylinder and ABS system.
The outcome is the Blazer now has a firm brake pedal and it stops straight and true every time. Previously the Blazer felt like the emergency brakes were always on, Now it coasts freely and I am sure the gas mileage has gone up considerably. Costs? = Two AAP's reman. calipers, 2 sets of ceramic brake pads, many banjo washers, one Battery Tender, Jr., and a towing fee. Oh, yes, the indie repair shop charge for the bleeding and the ABS scanner. Why the Battery Tender? That was to keep the battery charged while the Blazer was sitting on the ramps during this ordeal" Dates; Nov.30, 2017 to Oct. 30, 2018. I love happy endings.
Footnote: I bought the reman. calipers by Cardone from AAP. Calipers were ordered without brackets and pads. I got the ceramic pads separately from AAP. I worked on the frozen caliper pin and mounting bracket with a brush and brake clean. The shop bled all four brakes. I do not like having 3 calipers with the same 10 mm bleeder screw and a standard bleeder nipple. One Cardone reman. caliper with an 8 mm bleeder screw and odd size bleeder nipple. That still irks me.