Issues Upgrading Front Brakes to GX460

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I've personally never used Akebonos before. If you have stock-sized tires, I'd get a low-dust pad. If you have larger tires, I'd get whichever pad is more aggressive (as it will create more dust).
 
I've been running Akebono PRO-ACT pads and Centric semi-coated all around on my rig. No complaints from me. They've done well for my driving style to include a few panic stops from idiots thinking cutting in front of a 5300 lb. vehicle was a good idea. If they were low dust, I wouldn't really know as I just let the rain wash the pig.
 
Matsui - it looks like we’re dealing with this at the same time. I just bought the same oem calipers and rotors with the part numbers above, and I bought Akebono pads. From my research I didn’t see the different part numbers that you linked to - I looked on the actual Akebono website, and it showed that the pads we need are the ACT976 pads. These cover both the gx470 and the 2010-14 gx460, they’re the same pads and the only option they show that fits. I’m not sure why partsgeek is showing multiple other part numbers, I’m not familiar with that site at all. I’m still waiting on my parts, so I haven’t yet installed them, but that’s what I found at least. I’m still not totally sure myself, but that’s what I’ve found and ordered.

Also, I’m a little confused about the slide pins - usually the non-oem pads will come with the needed hardware, but I don’t see how the slide pins can be the same for the gx470 and the gx460 - the calipers and rotors are thicker on the gx460, so the pins need to be longer. On the gx460 Powerstop calipers that i installed and had issues with, the slide pins were longer than my gx470 slide pins. So I’m confused why the Akebono ACT976 would work for both models, unless they don’t come with slide pins - maybe those need to be purchased from a dealer as well.

All of my parts should arrive tomorrow so maybe I’ll have some better answers then.
 
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Did you get the proper year? The later GX460 use larger mounting bolts and it would allow the caliper to shift around if used in earlier year without the bolt spacer.
 
New problem!!! I bought the 2010 gx460 calipers and rotors, OEM from a local dealer, the part numbers above in this thread, and Akebono ACT976 pads. I put the first one on, and it doesn’t seem right at all to me. I don’t want to proceed without getting some thoughts. The outer side of the caliper only clears the rotor by about 1/16 of an inch, while the inner side clears the rotor by at least 3/8 of an inch. Also very concerning is how the pads sit in the caliper - there’s a 3/8” gap between the rotor and the pad on the inner brake, and the outer brake has no gap at all - it seems tight enough that it will constantly rub on the rotor, even with the pistons fully compressed like they are right now. See pics. I can’t think that this is normal? (I know the pins and retainer clip aren’t installed yet, I stopped immediately after seeing this. And the rotor is sitting correctly and tight.) it’s like the rotor is not centered in the caliper. I have no clue what to do, very frustrating..

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..and I would assume that the seam of the caliper would sit directly in the middle of the rotor, and that’s not the case either. I’m measuring from the outside of the rotor to the seam in the caliper in these pics:

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The actual caliper itself "floats" on the slide pins, so it should re-center itself after the first time you use the brakes. The caliper bracket (bolts to the steering knuckle, and has the slide pin recesses) is the only thing that is fixed relative to the rotor position. You should be able to test that by manhandling the caliper until it's centered - either by hand or with a small prybar/screwdriver. If the caliper was fixed relative to the rotor, the rig would not stop well at all (this does happen if a slide pin gets seized, after which the vehicle will pull to one side during braking and one pad will wear out quicker than the other)

FYI - i did take a picture of my caliper-to-rotor clearance. It's about 0.090" with nearly a year on the rotors (it should be less with brand new brakes like you have). Presumably my caliper is centered from regular use. So IMO your measurements aren't out-of-whack and will probably correct themselves during bleeding and on the first test drive.
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Thanks for your quick response Rednexus. I’m a little confused what you’re saying about the caliper being able to move on the slide pins though. These calipers are a different design than anything I’ve worked on before, so maybe I’m just not understanding them correctly. They don’t have the standard slide pins, the calipers don’t move at like normal. The whole caliper frame shells are fixed and bolted to the knuckle, they don’t move at all and just the pistons move, correct? Am I missing something - there are no slide pins with this design right? Like you said, it’s affixed to the steering knuckle and from what i gather, the caliper frame doesn’t move and can’t recenter itself like other calipers do. That’s my concern, the caliper frame is off-centered and doesn’t have normal caliper pins to recenter itself. Here are a couple pics showing the caliper frame being off-center, a big gap on one side and basically no gap on the other. Let me know if I’m wrong about that..

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You are right, upon checking the parts diagram, I confused the GX470 caliper (which does have slide pins) to the GX460 caliper (which does indeed not have them). When I did the upgrade I bolted things on and it worked on my rig, although I did not go to the detail that you have in checking clearances. I agree with making sure the rotor is tightened and perhaps bolting a tire on and rotating it. If I have some time later I'll pull a front wheel off of mine and measure clearances for you.
 
iwashmycar said:
Do you have a couple lug nuts tightened on the rotor in these images? If not you need to.
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Yeah I did have 2 lugs holding the rotor tight. I took the caliper off, made sure the rotor is seated fully, and put it back in, same thing.
Rednexus said:
You are right, upon checking the parts diagram, I confused the GX470 caliper (which does have slide pins) to the GX460 caliper (which does indeed not have them). When I did the upgrade I bolted things on and it worked on my rig, although I did not go to the detail that you have in checking clearances. I agree with making sure the rotor is tightened and perhaps bolting a tire on and rotating it. If I have some time later I'll pull a front wheel off of mine and measure clearances for you.
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That would be awesome if you’re able to, I’m hesitant to do anything else for now - if I put a tire on and try out the brakes, I don’t think I’ll be able to return them to the dealer if I need to at that point.
 
Here you go. Hard to measure on the inside of the rotor but it appears to be bit more than the 0.090" clearance I measured on the outside. Everything certainly appears centered on mine. The rotor was tight to the hub. If your rotor is not 100% tight it could cause it to appear non-centered - might be worth bolting a wheel on and turning it to see what happens.
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Well, issue solved. Got everything together, bled and and test drove, works great. It ended up being that the rotor wasn’t fully seated after all - I just had the lugs on hand tight holding the rotor in place, which I thought was enough, but tightening a bit more popped them into place fully. Stupid mistake on my part - I think I was worried enough about the gx460 brakes not fitting or having issues again after my other powerstop experience that I was half-expecting to have to return them, so I was being more careful to keep the parts clean than I should’ve been..

Rednexus - I really appreciate you pulling your tire for me - that’s what ultimately made me keep going with these - I was about to pull them off and go back to gx470 calipers and rotors. Thanks man!

And thanks for everybody’s input!

So here’s my takeaway from my gx460 front brake upgrade experience: First, stay away from Powerstop gx460 calipers, rotors and pads. Second, OEM gx460 (2010) calipers and brakes, paired with akebono pads, definitely fit as others have said, no need to be as cautious as I was.. lastly, if anybody else ends up going this route with parts, fyi the oem calipers came with the brake pins, but neither the calipers nor the akebono pads came with the brake pad separator clips (not sure the correct name, but I think it’s part 04947).

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Hey Andrewz...glad everything is working out for you according to the plan. Keep us posted.

I also got the Akebono ACT976 brakes as well. I dropped it off at the mechanic yesterday, but the mechanic told me I got to have the extended brake lines since I have 1.5 or maybe 2" lift. So I quickly bought the Freedom Off-road extended steel braided brake lines from Amazon to be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully everything goes well as planned without any hiccups as I want to enjoy driving it rather than be worried about this issue. I've also been having vibrations above 70mph for a while and hoping the brakes address this issue as well. I'm pretty confident with my Indy mechanic to figure everything out as he is really meticulous and the best as they come. I will report back once everything is squared away.
 
Glad you got it working! Definitely a great upgrade for these rigs!
 
Good luck Matsui, I’m sure now there won’t be issues! I’ll update once I drive it more, but I don’t expect issues now.

The previous owner of my gx470 used Powerstop rotors and pads, and I thought he knew what he was doing with “upgrades”, so that’s basically why I originally went with that Powerstop brand. The brakes were always way more sensitive than my Land Cruiser 100 - I never liked how sensitive they were. Now I’m pretty positive it was the powerstop pads. Hopefully that extra-sensitive braking is gone now. I’ll update when I drive it more.
 
Got the front calipers, rotors and brake lines replaced today and now braking is perfect. Unfortunately, it turned out that I need to replace the rear brake caliper which is seized, and requires replacing the pads and rotors as well. I thought that the rears would be less expensive than the fronts, but when I looked up the price of the rear caliper, it is $285 each after a $70 discount. The cost is getting way out of control as I've already spent close to $1400 on the front with OEM parts and labor by indy mechanic. I'm thinking of buying just OEM rotors and Akebono pads, and get aftermarket calipers if there is any good quality option out there. Any advice based on personal experience? I've already been burned with replacing Powerstop front and rears within 2 years, so I'm skeptical for going anything aftermarket at this point, but on the other hand money is so tight...
 
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