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Rear brake pad and rotor change...help, please.


HikingOnThru

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Hi.  1989 Pewter (sole owner).

Good evening.  I am in process of getting my Reatta back into road shape.  I was the first owner, dated my wife and went to college in this car.  As our family grew, the car was less,practical.  Left it with family to drive from time to time, but it eventually sat.  Just needs paint and brakes.  My teenage boys want to help with the restoration.

 

So, today I set out to change the brakes.  Front went fine.

Rear looked simple.  But not so.  Got piston compressed, but no room to get pads in.

Read on here one has to remove the parking brake bracket?

 

Can someone walk me through the process for the rear park brake bracket removal or point me to a good resource?

 

Thanks in advance.

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Welcome to the forum!  The problem may not be the parking brake but it could be that the piston adjuster screw may need to be screwed back in. There is a self adjusting feature built into the caliper piston that has to be screwed back in to give more room for the pads to slide in.  Below is a photo showing what I mean and a photo of the tool needed. I think some other tool might be substituted to screw the piston in. The tool fits into the notches of the piston shown in the first photo.

 

brake_piston.jpg

piston_tool.jpg

piston_explode.jpg

 

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BTW, the tool fits on the end of a ratchet and extension as shown below.

 

brake_piston_retractor_tool.jpg

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Ronnie, thanks for your input and suggestion.  We were able to fully compress the piston all the way using a similar tool.  Good thought.  I took a picture today that may help illustrate the issue I am running into.

 

I can get the bottom caliper bolt/guide pin out.  However, when I try to lift the caliper (A) along the dotted line to rotate it up and put the pads in, the whole shebang rotates as a unit.  The brake line (C) limits how far it can rotate.  Also, the rear part of the parking brake bracket (B) rotates down hitting other structure and limiting how far up the brake calipers can be rotated up.  I would like to know if there is a way to take off the parking brake assemble so I can get the top caliper pin (D) out.  The pins need to be greased with silicon anyways.

 

Thanks

Reatta brakes 2_LI.jpg

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For fun, here is a picture of my Reatta back on prom night 1990 when she was barely a year old

Prom night 1990.jpg

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this is from memory but I believe you have to pull the emergency cable spring back and then you can remove the end through the groove. This will allow you to remove the bracket to then be able to remove the caliper. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/12/2020 at 6:55 PM, HikingOnThru said:

Ronnie, thanks for your input and suggestion.  We were able to fully compress the piston all the way using a similar tool.  Good thought.  I took a picture today that may help illustrate the issue I am running into.

 

I can get the bottom caliper bolt/guide pin out.  However, when I try to lift the caliper (A) along the dotted line to rotate it up and put the pads in, the whole shebang rotates as a unit.  The brake line (C) limits how far it can rotate.  Also, the rear part of the parking brake bracket (B) rotates down hitting other structure and limiting how far up the brake calipers can be rotated up.  I would like to know if there is a way to take off the parking brake assemble so I can get the top caliper pin (D) out.  The pins need to be greased with silicon anyways.

 

Thanks

Reatta brakes 2_LI.jpg

Here is what my 1990 repair manual says about removing the parking brake cable.  Judging from the pictures it looks to be the same as the 1989. steps 4 - 8

IMG_20200426_0959376.jpg

IMG_20200426_0959491.jpg

IMG_20200426_0959209.jpg

IMG_20200426_0959272.jpg

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