Parking Brake Cable Adjust

[Phil Rose]

At 10:28 AM -0400 5/5/03, Peter Schulz wrote:
>Scott:
>I'm with Bernie on this one..
><Gasp>

The Horror!!!

>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

Yes, but if a stronger spring is installed on a new or rebuilt brake,
it could keep the system working for a significantly longer period of
time (than otherwise); nothing wrong with that, is there?

>  - 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.

But Bernie claims that dismantling and restoring the ebrake internal
mechanism isn't necessary since the cause of the problem is usually
just sludged up hydraulic fluid around the piston. Scott and I don't
buy that, and it doen't sound like you agree with that either.

>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
>
Thanks for those great references and for your photo showing the PB
internals!!! I've never had one apart and simply could not get a
clear idea of the pieces involved until now. I have an old set of
rear calipers lying around and I intend to get into them one day for
a complete rebuild.

Phil
--

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net