Re: Rear Girling Caliper Troubles

[Brett Dikeman <dikemanb@edison.ma.ultranet.com>]

At 1:23 PM -0400 on 5/9/97, Sdbigelow@aol.com wrote:

>  BTW, I use a big-ass C-clamp to retract the pistons on the front.
a couple people mentioned vairous implements/clamps to try and squeeze the
piston back in...after changing the brake pads all around the car, my
father developed an "Audi Piston Tool"...
-take a moto-tool engraving bit and use it to clean out all the loose rust
-gring  the head of a bolt down for a perfect fit into the hole
- fit on a nut at the end of the bolt...use epoxy for a permanent locktite :)
Tada!

This has two advantages:
1)parts are a lot cheaper than some humongous allen wrench
2)You can use it with an "auxiliary" tool, ie, a socket wrench

Unfortunately, if you don't replace the pads often, and have the original
pistons, the holes get very rusted, and you can strip them very easily.
The little tool works nicely, because you can pound it into place with a
plastic hammer(which usually gets it wedged in nicely), and then use the
socket wrench to turn it.
_Don't_ buy a allen socket for your socket wrench from Sears!  The little
allen wrench part snaps in and out of the chrome socket piece very easily,
which is extremely annoying!  You tend to remove the wrench and leave the
little allen bit, which you then have to pull off, grrr...

One other note...my father stripped the two allen-head bolts on a rear
caliper because they were badly rusted...if you do the same, he came up
with a neat little solution...he took the handy moto-tool and ground two
very large flat sides on the bolts and removed them with an adjustable
wrench.(BTW, this was because the whole caliper needed to be replaced...the
parking brake kept freezing up on that caliper.

   Ugh...we also had to replace rear bearings...that was fun...dad did one
side, I did the other.  Ugh.  What a pain in the butt.  One was badly
worn(the inner bearing race was badly pitted on the bottom, causing a
"moaning" noise) and the other was _very_ loose.  Very odd.  We also
discovered the rear discs were very close to their wear limit, so those got
replaced too, which was pretty easy if you've got the hub off to replace
the bearings!
If anyone's in the middle of replacing the bearings/discs/calipers and
having some problems, I might be able to give you some pointers/suggestions.

Brett

'87 5kCST

------
Brett Dikeman
dikemanb@edison.ma.ultranet.com	dikemanb@stu.beloit.edu
~)-|
Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.  Qui annus est?
Te audire non possum.  Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
------