Two 4kq Q's

[Kneale Brownson]

At 04:21 PM 07/04/2003 -0700, Gary Brown wrote:

>  Guys:
>
>  1)Has anybody here ever sucessfully rebuilt a 4kq rear caliper to get
>the parking brake working?

I just had a rear caliper off a 4kq off to redo the rubber bits and try to
reduce rust on the piston.  The assembly is the same as a 5kq rear caliper
I took apart a couple years ago to figure out how the parking brake system
works.  You CAN get to the innards of the parking brake system and you CAN
replace the lubricant in it so that everything works smoothly.  I didn't
have a need on the 4kq because the parking brake system was totally functional.

To disassemble, you need a long-reach circlip tool (I used a pair of long
needlenose pliers with their tips ground down to fit into the holes in the
circlip).  There is a spring-loaded flat washer beneath the circlip, and
the spring has some force in it, so you need to be aware of that for when
you release the circlip.  Once the flat washer and spring are out, you
remove the threaded stem the caliper piston screws in on by prying with a
pair of screwdrivers.  It's a tight machined fit.  Beneath the threaded
stem you'll find a small peanut-shaped rod that sits into a detent machined
into the rod the parking brake cable attachment arm is attached to.  The
peanut-shaped rod has to be removed to allow the cable arm assembly to
slide out of the caliper body.  The couple of Type 44 rear calipers I've
disassembled had a grease that looked like heavy petroleum jelly filling
the parking brake assembly cavity.  In one, it was all dried up and the
cavity was very rusty.  In the other, the lube was clean and no rust was
present beyond some on the cable attachment arm where it sits in a seal at
the entrance into the caliper body.

I bought a tube of brake caliper lube from an Audi dealer a while back that
looks identical to the stuff I found in the clean caliper I
disassembled.  It's part # G052150A2  and it says it's a Lithium
lubricating grease for use on brake caliper parts.  That's what I would
refill the parking brake assembly cavity with if I were redoing that part
of a caliper.