Rear Brake Callipers And Handbrake Lever

[Ginettamad]

Just freed off my Sticking handbrake levers on the Girling callipers but wondered if it was safe to undo the nut holding the lever on to the calliper? Would this allow better access to Lubricate or would it ruin the Calliper? My crap H manual says they are not servicable so all I could do was hold back the seal and add oil and work the arms. Does taking the lever off help as I could clean up the surfaces and seal before adding grease?

Warning, I found working the lever up and down almost pushed the piston out by the self adjusters with the calliper top swinging loose so on the other side I left the calliper with the pads in so the piston was jammed in.

Winding the Piston back in was not easy until I held the handbrake lever half way to catch the threads to screw it back. Must get a wind in tool sometime!

H

[oafcowl]

Mine did just the same, both sides were seized. All I could do was tap the arm up and down to free it and using some WD 40 until they freed off. I have greased them up with grease but this is the 2nd year in a row they have done this. I also replaced the pads at the same time, it took 2 of us to wind the pistons back in, one person turning them with a pair of pipe grips whilst the other wound them in with a G clamp!!.

[seatkid]

For

[oafcowl]

I did that and replaced all the brake fluid also as it was in very poor condition.

[f0ster]

I did that and replaced all the brake fluid also as it was in very poor condition.

 

to get the caliper levers off you have to unscrew the piston untill it comes out, once it is out you will see a snap ring

in the bottom of the caliper body holding the screw thread in place, once this is out and the screw thread is out

the lever should then come out, it is a bit of a fiddle getting the piston back in because the gaiter shrinks down

when the piston is out, the best way I found is to put the gaiter on to the piston and push it down to the bottom

of the piston, then carefully insert the lip of the gaiter in to its slot in the caliper, then screw the piston in to place,

(make sure you clean out any rust from just below where the piston seal fits, it is not necessary to replace

the piston oring, if it has not been leaking it will not leak when it is put back, be very carefull not to tear the piston gaiter,

(there will be some colourfull language when you put it back together) it can be fiddley,

[Ginettamad]

So by taking the 13mm nut off the back of the HB lever on the calliper does that still not let the lever come off the spindle to allow better greasing?

I'm not going to risk breaking a bleed nipple to strip the whole calliper as all is well for now at least?

Has anyone got a scrap calliper to see what happens if I take off this 13mm nut? The reason I ask is would the fluid be lost if this was undone as I dont want that to happen obviously.

Cheers

Harvey

[Rallim]

The drivers side rear calliper handbrake lever on mine has stiffened up a few times now, you can tell by the handbrake becoming looser and also the heat coming off the rear wheel! When it first happened I did undo the 13mm nut to try and remove the lever to loosen it but the lever did not want to budge. I had more success 'waggling' the lever back using the nut to free it up so it would release properly. I have bought a set of callipers off ebay from a 3 year old galaxy but the handbrake hasn't misbehaved for a while so they remain on standby.... (at one point it got to the stage where I had a 13mm spanner readily accessible in the boot to free it up again when it occurred!!)

 

I think even if you did manage to remove the lever you would only gain a little more access, I think as per the previous post, the only way to do it properly is take the calliper apart.

 

Gordon.

[marinabrid]

i had this trouble kept reoccuring, so now i spray the levers with wd40 every month and seems to keep them free

[Ginettamad]

All working well at the mo as I put anti seize grease behind the seals over the H/B lever calliper pivots.

Do the wind back tools have to be right hand thread to screw in the pistons as most I have found are LH thread?

H

[seatkid]

Wind back tool is a rh thread i.e. clockwise to wind back piston

 

I bought Laser Tool p/n 1314 from GSF for