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Re: Brake Squeal
Posted by Herb Hickman (more from Herb Hickman) on Wed, 6 Mar 2002 23:02:54
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

I've just recently done the front brakes on my duaghter's 1982 900 Turbo. The
pads were about totally gone, but not metal-on-metal yet.  The handbrake had
been working, but only barely with the lever pulled almost to a vertical
position.  Then the passenger side began leaking brake fluid. I planned to
put just new seals plus new pads.  However, as the old pads wore down, both
the indirect and the direct pistons corroded on the precision ground
surfaces.  The surfaces that are used for sealing gradually protrude

farther as the pads wear off.  While they have rubber covers, they still
rusted.  Also the inside diameter of the caliper bore rusted, on the portion
outside the seals.  So the calipers both had to be replaced, in turn. The
second one replaced (driver side) came all assembled with everything

including the pads in place.  (That gave me an extra half-set of pads.)  On

that pre-assembled caliper, the handbrake did not work at all -- so there was
no handbrake.  Something suggested that the self-adjusting handbrake
mechanism would take care of the situation, but it didn't, at least for some
time.  I found the instructions on these handbrakes uncertain and confusing.
Sources said that rotating the piston clockwise while forcing it into the
caliper would 're-set' the self-adjusting handbrake mechanism.  I found no
explanation of how or why.  The way that I resolved this and got the balky
handbrake to work was as follows:  Removed the pin, spring clip, and inner
pad only.  Rotated the piston COUNTER-clockwise without any extra force on
it, until it 'screwed' outward so there was clearly no longer room for the
inner brake pad.  THEN followed the usual directions -- turning the piston
clockwise while applying a prying force with a big screwdriver pushing it
inward.  (I had to make the tool for this, as shown in the Haynes manual.)
Kept checking with the pad and pushed it back into place when there was
barely room for it.  Then manually working the handbrake arm met with
resistance indicating the mechanism was working.  Working on these parts
SHOULDN'T affect the cable adjustment much. However, YOUR handbrake hasn't
been working in the past, so you should definitely check that adjustment.
Suppose one can surmise that your caliper pistons are not badly rusted, since
you were able eventually to get them to retract without great difficulty. In
MY poor understanding, though, I don't see how you could get them to retract
without 'screwing' them in.  If you look at the drawing in the manual (Haynes
manual in my case), it looks as if the threaded shaft should prevent that.  I
could only guess that yours have been badly maladjusted for a long time.

Posts in this Thread:
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