1990 80 G54 rear emergency brake mechanism

[Tony Hoffman]

Kneale and Cody pretty much hit it all, I'll just add this:

You can buy the seals separately, but I think 1mm shorter. Part # 6405 at
NAPA. BTDT plenty of times, they are about $7 or so these days, IIRC.

I like to pretty much fill the ebrake cavity with high temp grease. This
ensures that down the road if water hits the area, it will be repelled as
much as possible. Been working great for years on mine.

Tony

On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 8:45 AM, Kneale Brownson <kneale at knitknacks.com>wrote:

> If the hydraulics aren't shining up the rotor, you have a couple of issues
> with the caliper.  First, the piston isn't pushing the brake pads against
> the rotor when you're braking.  Most likely, the pins the caliper ride on
> are too corroded to let it function.  These need to be cleaned and relubed
> or replaced.
>
> Second, you have a leaking seal around the parking brake actuator lever
> (#4 in the illustration in this link: http://www.20v.org/brakere.htm ).
>  That lets the lever (#3) and the inside of its housing become corroded as
> in the photo at the bottom of the link.
>
> If you're really into it, the best approach is a rebuild, as in:
> http://forums.audiworld.com/**showthread.php?t=2770104<http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2770104>
>
> The slacker approach to the parking brake issue is to disconnect the cable
> from the lever arm, remove the spring, spray the seal area repeatedly with
> penetrating oil and work the heck out of the lever until it moves smoothly.
>  A month later you may be doing the same thing again.  As you can see from
> the links, the whole lever arm becomes corroded on both sides of the seal.
>  The chamber into which the actuator goes is filled with a high temperature
> paste.  I've seen that paste, which is sort of a clear-white like petroleum
> jelly, turn rusty red.