purpose of brake pivot bolts? Just wondering...

[eightangrybears]

I am in the process of rebuilding the brakes on my 78 GL1000 and just wondered, for my own edification, what the purpose of the pivot bolts on the front brake calipers are...When installing them, they just sit in a tube and then the caliper bolts attach to them and that's all that really holds the brakes together besides the actual interference between the caliper and mount. So, do they slide the caliper away from the mount to prevent the brakes from actually LOCKING on the discs? They don't really "pivot" since the heads of them have flat spots that sit in spots on the bracket, so they can't possibly turn. Since they aren't bolted in place, I am thinking they use the fluid suction pressure within the tubes to rebound when they are forced open under braking...

Am I WAY off base here? My background is in structural engineering with a relatively decent sense of mechanical workings but I can't seem to find much on the subject elsewhere...

[newday777]

The calipers slide back and forth not swing.

[WingAdmin]

As the pads wear, the caliper has to move to accommodate that wear. In addition, if there is runout on the rotor, the caliper has to move to prevent binding as the wheel turns. The caliper slides back and forth along those pins in order to allow this to happen.

[eightangrybears]

This is exactly the type of answer I was looking for. Thanks so much for the info. Along the lines of what I thought but more in depth and no knowledge is unwanted here for me. Thanks again WingAdmin