Rear caliper sticking

[mcandmar]

Is it possible to dismantle the handbrake mechanism on these callipers, both of mine have now seized up to the point they only move with a large hammer

And is anybody using the stronger ford return springs? ..i know sounds wrong

Thanks,

Mark.

[S2central.net]

I think they can only be rebuilt by Girling brake reco specialists. To be honest they aren't that expensive... Here's a trick, take them in and say your car is an S6 or S8 - you know with the 280mm vented rear discs. They'll supply reco'd calipers for that application, then you just need carriers and discs to complete a decent rear brake setup. Ahhh but you have the 20VCQ which might give you pain unless you are changing to 5x112 hubs. ****


Paul

[volcano rs]

yes it is possible ,the hand brake mechanism siezes up you can actually free it with lots of wd 40 time and patience are they standard s2 calipers ?use pliers to move them side to side and keep spraying wd 40 it will free itself eventually .

[mcandmar]

**** is right, i have the same problem with doing a big brake upgrade on the front. Might have to give in someday and buy new wheels to go 5 stud.

I was hoping to dismantle them to clean everything up and re grease. I'll give the WD40 a try and see if i get any success,

Thanks,

Mark.

[PeterS]

I rebuilt a rear caliper last week, took a bunch of pictures, which I will post later. The disconcerting thing was that the caliper only appeared to be a few years old. The caliper ebrake mechanism had a new seal, but little or no grease...hence the failure.. It took me about an hour to rebuild the caliper, and a second set of hands to compress the caliper spring cage. In the meantime, here's some info on a stop gap measure: http://www.20v.org/brakprob.htm#caliper

Lucas rebuild instructions here: http://www.20v.org/brakere.htm

BTW, the caliper e brake mechanism fails due to moisture working its way through the seal into the caliper body and corroding the ebrake mechanism - rebuilding entails replacing the seal, polishing the ebrake caliper piston, and ensuring the use of sufficient quantity of high temp, waterproof caliper grease....putting a stiffer spring won't prevent the corrosion :-)

[mcandmar]

Perfect thanks

[PeterS]

rear caliper internals

2nd try on the internals

[Nuvo]

Peter, the above JPEG looks to be heavily compressed? The image is very blocky.

[PeterS]

more on the ebrake mechanism

[PeterS]

Ebrake mechanism on the caliper...

look at the rust in the cylinder bore...

[S2central.net]

Gawd I love this forum... logged on tonight in search of good info on stripping a rear caliper - as my left side has seized handbrake mechanism... hydraulic piston action is fine so hopefully I can loosen up the handbrake.

Making it a sticky thread too.

[S2Phil]

I remember having the same problem a few years back, called Audi for a price on a new caliper and they said there was a service exchange item avaliable. Hmmmm I thought, if they are offering service exchange then there must be a way to pull them appart, so after about 10 minutes of getting the caliper on the bench it was in bits, and hour later seals out all nice and clean and put back together.
Audi wanted £140, glad I had a look.

[AndyP]

I'm sure Rob ( GT500 ) has mentioned before that he drills and taps his to put a grease nipple in them. Maybe he could post up some pics?

[mcandmar]

This thread goes back a while

I have had to do this many times over the years. Trick is to find the right sized socket so you can mount the calliper in a vice while compressing the spring inside. Also wear some eye protection when removing the c-clip, it has a tendency to spray brake fluid at you when it pops out. Getting the c-clip back in will take a bit of patience, not a difficult job just a bit fiddly.

[Error404]

I have rebuilt a set of rear calipers and my advice is don't bother - massive PITA as the spring mechanism is really (really!) hard to reset without the right specialist tools to compress the spring. I'd never bother to attempt it again, just buy some recon exchange ones IMHO

However, I have the weird internal long nose 90deg circlip pliers you'll need if you decide attempt it, drop me a PM if you need Paul