I'm putting some new emergency brake calipers from Speedway on my 81 Trans Am rear in my fitty chevy, and they're giving me 9 kinds of hell getting them on. I know there's some trick, but can't quite figure it out. I know the oldies manuals are online, does anyone know if there are any manuals online for the 2nd gens?
Take a look at the autozone website, they may be able to help. I would be interested in the installation as I have a 2nd Gen rear under mine but don't have the emergency cables hooked up yet. I have them cable tied up out of the way at the moment.
I already have a set of new cables from the stock torque tube rear....since no one seems interested in taking it off my hands, I was thinking I might just figure out a way to use those on these calipers....especially since I'm going to have to do my own rig for the handle/etc. I don't know about your car, but is your driver's caliper on the front of the rotor, and the passenger caliper on the back of the rotor? I bought a new L and R E-brake caliper, only to find that there was only a way to have one mounted correctly. Then I just plain confused myself thinking that I should have ordered two of the same side....then I got back on track again and just realized I needed to unbolt, rotate, then remount the backing plate!!! I felt so dumb. I wonder why they did it that way in the first place? The main problem that I'm having is that I can get the caliper on there with the inside brake pad on..but not with both. I can see that there's plenty of room for both once the caliper is in place, but the fit is just too tight if you're putting it on with both pads. I'll get this thing whupped....somehow.
Open the bleeder valve on the caliper and push the piston back into the caliper with a large screwdriver. Leave it bolted to the housing makes this much easier. ( I hope this is what you are describing? Just like installing new front pads on disc brakes?) Lisle makes a tool, but the screwdriver works great.
you have to turn the piston as you compress it to get the piston to go back in, they screw in so you dont have to adust the parking brake all the time
I think we *may* be talking about the same thing, I'll give it a try and report back. AH, that makes sense. We'll see how it goes.....if I can make it out in the cold, cruddy, wet weather we're having up here in NJ
DO NOT DO THIS!!!! repeat DO NOT!! As r759ca has mentioned, the pistons screw in, and you stand a good chance of wrecking the caliper if you put a clamp on them and force them in. Not trying to be dramatic, this would just pop up from time to time on the Camaro/Trans am boards, usually just after someone wrecked a new and expensive caliper. Also, if it is a second gen. rear(not a third) the rear discs would be a Trans Am only option, so you'll have better luck searching in that direction, and don't waste your time with a haynes manual, it won't tell you anything.
Glad you said something, I went downstairs and looked at the calipers just a bit ago, and they were fully open anyway....lucky me, I guess. The clearance problem is due to those little chrome clips on either side of the shoe that goes against the caliper. I have no idea what their function really is, though. I know there's a sweet spot on the backing plate where, if you insert the caliper correctly, it will drop right in; however, it'll only do that if you either don't have any shoes on it, or just the one next to the caliper. If you have both on it...no dice. I also tried keeping the lug nuts off so that the rotor would have some play, thinking that might help...no luck either. I'm going to play around with it some more, but if it doesn't work, I might either bend those clips or grind a little off that backing plate so that they can clear. THANKS AGAIN!!!!!
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