Anyone recently rebuild their front brakes completely?

[bigblock73]

I rebuilt and reassembled my front brakes a while back...after being apart four plus years. When I was almost all done, all I had left to do was put my pads in the calipers and slide the assembly over the rotor...this is when I encountered my problem.

The assembly would fit...the mounting holes on the caliper wouldn't clear the spindle. The outside pad wouldn't allow that to happen. It appeared the pad was too thick or something.

I double checked the rotor, calipers, and pads were correct for my application since these were all new parts from NAPA. Everything checked out correct.

Next, I checked to ensure the bearing in the rotor were seated correctly over the spindle...this was OK as well.

Well, after lots of thought and scratching my head, I pulled everything back apart again and started over.

This is when I realized the seal that sits inside the backing plate hole was the culprit. The seal was basically too thick and did not allow the rotor to slide all the way onto the spindle...and also caused drag when trying to rotate the rotor. Once I realized this, I remember it looking different that the original I pulled out four years ago.

Now for my question.

Is this seal necessary???

With the seal out, the rotor spins freely, and more importantly, everything seems to fit together perfect.

Just wondering what you guys did, or would do in my situation.

Sorry for the long post by the way.