Parking Brake Cable Adjust

[Peter Schulz]

Scott:
I'm with Bernie on this one..
<Gasp>

I'm one of the folks that has rebuilt a set rear calipers on one car and replaced a set with rebuilt ones on the other.

I think that upgraded springs will only delay and mask the real issue - which is that the either the grease in the ebrake mechanism cavity fails and dries out  or rawhide seal around the shaft fails.  I took the rear calipers from a 170k Mile New England  200 apart (read salted roads) and found the following: Rust in the ebrake mechanism cavity AND in the bleeder. Took them apart, cleaned them up, put waterproof synthetic brake grease in the cavity- the brake mechanism returns easily even W/O the spring.

For the Shop owner, as yourself, it probably makes no sense to rebuild the calipers for customers. (especially since re-assembly of the caliper piston spring and cage are SO much fun.  NOT)

Btw, Frank Amoroso had posted previously that this was indeed a rawhide seal and not an o-ring.

I've seen "quality" rebuilt rears (such as those from Morse) only last a few years in this climate...which makes me wonder about the thoroughness of the rebuild.


Here's a good reference site for the audi rear calipers: http://heneghan.members.beeb.net/audi/parkingbrake.html
Here's one that I hastily put together  (and the ONLY one that I have seen showing the caliper internals): http://users.rcn.com/peter-s/caliperpage.htm


I'm ccing Kaptain Krusty (aka John Larson, 90 20v lister and shop owner to get his input )
-Peter




At 09:21 PM 5/4/2003 -0400, QSHIPQ at aol.com wrote:
>--
>[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
>Just FYI Bernie, audi/Girling agrees with Phil here.  If you get *new*
>girling 36 or 38 rear from audi or aftermarket, the spring is larger/stiffer
>than what came on the car originally, or what rebuilders don't replace (they
>sure paint it nice tho).
>
>I personally think rebuilding rears is a complete waste of good Nascar TV
>time.  When watching DE2, better and more rewarding time is spent doing R&R
>on seat heater pads.  Spend a couple hours (or have your mechanic spend a
>couple hours) on a rear rebuild, someone will be back there sooner than

Peter Schulz
1990 CQ (awaiting S2 3b engine transplant)
1991 200 20v TQW indigo mica
1991 200 20v TQW titanium grey
Chelmsford, MA USA
peschulz at cisco.com