I'm in the middle of a full brake overhaul (new master, hard lines, flex lines, calipers, pads, rotors, parking brake cables) on my '88 and I'm having some issues with the disc brakes on my 9 bolt. The driver side caliper (stock replacement) is incredibly tight to the point where I had to use a rubber mallet to get the caliper and pads to go over the disc. In neutral, the wheel doesn't spin. It's possible that my parking brake cable is too tight (not sure yet), but I'm in the process of bleeding the system as well. In case I need to take my caliper back off to make adjustments, how am I supposed to do that without disconnecting the hard line and re-bleeding? The passenger side has a flex line between the hard line and the caliper, but the driver side has a hard line that goes directly from the T on the axle all the way to the caliper. Even for a routine pad replacement, how would you do that without a flex line?

 

That one caliper might be a defect. Even if it is new.