SpaniardV6

Hello everyone!.

I have a problem with my hand-brake, it don't work nothing!.

I check the hand brake wire, and its OK, when put it, in the rear disc I can see a metal part moving, but the wheels don't get braked.

This is a picture of my rear brake:




When put the hand brake this part moves with the wire movement:






What can be the problem? back pad its bad? bad piston?

And... where I can buy this parts?

Thanks very much , best regards!

85IrocZ-28

Do you feel like your back brakes are doing any braking at all when you apply the brake pedal? The movement of the handbrake on these calipers keeps the piston adjusted so that the rear brakes and parking brake work.

I am having troubles with mine right now too. I can hear my drivers side pad flopping around. When I let off of the brake, my pads retract a little from the rotor. I have been told to work the handbrake over and over to adjust it, but this hasn't seemed to work for me. Hopefully somone else will have an answer that will help both of us.

ws6transam

Wow, it's surely been a long time. The problem you are experiencing is due to corroded adjustment springs that reside inside the pistons of those calipers. They fail, stick to the adjusting screw, and the pads pull away from the rear rotors leaving you virtually no rear brakes and excessive pedal travel. What you need to do is replace the calipers or rebuild them yourself.

More details are found here on this old web page I created in 1999 or so.
http://www.ws6transam.org/1LEbrake.html#repair

Don't expect to find the parts that are listed at GM anymore. What you'll need to do is head off to the NAPA store and order some rebuilt calipers and swap out yours as cores. That will fix it and you'll like the results.

85IrocZ-28

WS6, I read your page a while back when I was researching this problem. I have installed rebuilt calipers from Autozone. I have tried two on the drivers side, and the problem still persists. As they are new rebuilds, I do not think that parts inside are corroded.

I have tried to adjust them by moving the park brake handle up and down as they should self adjust. Should this be done with my foot on the brake pedal or off?

Apeiron

Cheap rebuilds don't always come with the repaired pistons.

87GTAj

iTrader: (4)

Did you guys try adjusting the equalizer nut for the hand brake? If the caliper lever moves, it may not be moving far enough to actually lock the brakes. Adjust the equalizer nut near the driveshaft until there is no slack in the line and then try it.

85IrocZ-28

If you are talking about the adjuster above the driveline, I have done this so that the hand brake does engage the caliper. However, the pistons retract so far from the disc anyways that it doesn't have any real holding power.

So if they are retracting, even though they are new/rebuilt calipers, how can I make them work? I paid $75 a piece for these stupid things and am wishing I hadn't wasted money on cross drilled rotors, hawks pads, and junk calipers. I should have upgraded. But now that I am in this far, I would like to make them work.

Any additional details that can be provided on the manual adjustment of the piston to get it out into place would be appreciated. Sorry for the hi-jack David, but hopefully the responses will help both of us.

85IrocZ-28

Do you have information on how to rebuild them? I have read many threads. I have spent more than 10 hours searching through and reading info about brakes. Any additional advice on the rebuild procedure would be appreciated. I did find one article about adjusting them that said to dissasemble the park brake mechanism on the caliper, use a compression tool to keep the piston compressed, and turn the e-brake screw counterclockwise to back it out. The thread said that this could be done little by little to adjust it. I tried to do this with the caliper still on the car. I made sure the piston was compressed...I had the rotor, a wedge, and the pad holding the piston in place. It didn't seem to work for me, maybe I just need to take the caliper off and do it as stated. Any additional info is appreciated.

Apeiron

http://members.shaw.ca/crussel/recalls/86c28/86c28.html

87GTAj

iTrader: (4)

If you're looking for the rebuild kit, you can get them for about $5/caliper at any parts store and the procedure is straight forward - an air compressor works well to remove the piston. I had also read about adjusting the e-brake nut at the caliper to ensure proper function. Never had to do it myself, but did your rebuilt caliper come with the e-brake lever attached, or did you have to reuse the stock one? If you reused the stock one, chances are it does have to be adjusted. I don't know if it is a MUST that the caliper is off the car, but that may be why your attempts didn't work. Keep us posted.

85IrocZ-28

I had to re-use both e-brake levers, the new calipers didn't come with new ones. I may try and adjust one more time before purchasing re-build kits. I now with I would have kept the old calipers and just rebuilt them.
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GREAT LINK! Thank you.