What to do about siezed up rear calipers?
 

Ok so over the past week I had a rear caliper sieze up on each of my Blazers. Luckily(?) it happened to be on opposite sides so all I had to do was swap out and have my dd back on the road.
But now I'm not sure what to do about the bad set. Do I:
A) Rebuild them ($)
B)Go pull a set from the boneyard($$)
or
C) Buy new/reman. ($$$)
Bear in mind I have never rebuilt a brake caliper before.
I can afford any of these options but like to save whenever possible.
What would you do and why?
Thanks!!

junkyard...not 100% sure if any better than yours, of course, unless they look and are brand new. Not my choice.
rebuild..I wouldn't
parts store and get a re-manned caliper or new-whichever your store has to offer and depending on price. I wouldn't shy away from either new or re-man although someone may prefer one or the other. I myself would by a known brand name, whichever was less. It's nice in some cases to get the bracket as well then your preparation time is reduced.
good luck-Jerry

Well since rebuilding seems dicey at best, and you really don't know what you're getting at the boneyard until you go through the trouble of installing and actually using it, I'm going to buy either new or reman units. But man, there are so many choices. Looks like at least $100 minimum, which isn't bad.
Now to figure out where to buy from and what brand. Research time. Thanks!!

Ordered reman units with ceramic pads included for $104 with free shipping on Ebay. Best deal I could find.
Also ordered ceramic front pads from rockauto for just under $20, including shipping.

I am on rebuilt calipers on BBP parts for over a year now. No issues, work as expected.

Good call on the remans. While you're replacing things, I would recommend new caliper brackets for the rear as well. They are fairly cheap insurance as to not burning up your pads again due to a sticking slider pin(s). The caliper brackets on the rear of these trucks like to cease up regardless of how well you get them cleaned up and lubricated during a rebuild.

Just checked and the kit comes with new brackets. So much the better 😁👍.

The caliper I swapped onto my 02 from my 01 is leaking now. It wasn't leaking before I swapped it so I know it's something I messed up. I bolted it up just like it was. Where did I go wrong?

Leaking from where, banjo bolt or piston?

George

Appears to be banjo bolt.

Make sue that you have a copper washer on both sides with clean surfaces. If that doesn't solve the problem anneal the washers with a propane torch (bright red) then 400 grit to get them shiny and flat and you'll be good.

George

Will do. Thanks!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...a3e31db653.jpg
Doh! Just read this. Ordered new ones.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...44fc5c8b07.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...aa97840461.jpg
found a pack at O'Reilly with 2 of the size I need to get me by in the meantime.

I had a similar problem on my 2003 2 door LT. 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 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 Reman. calipers, 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. I love happy endings.

Installed the new washers. Seems ok for the time being. It's been raining here nonstop for days and shows no sign of stopping until weeks end so it will be difficult to determine if it's leaking (unless of course the fluid level gets noticeably low). Will keep results updated. Thanks everyone for the feedback and horror stories. 😁