Rear Brake Help

[flybuddy]

Trying to change rear pads and ran into a glitch. To remove the rearmost caliper hex bolt I simply rotated the parking brake by hand which exposed the rear bolt head enough to remove it. I've installed the new pads and the forward hex bolt BUT the parking brake assembly will no longer rotate enough to expose the bolt hole. I've looked it over thoroughly and can see nothing blocking it from rotating fully. I've pulled the cable off, no joy. I tried to remove the whole assembly BUT it feels like it will break if I put enough torque on it to break the parking brake assembly nut. I tried researching rear brakes and all I keep coming up with is "don't worry, they're easy"..I've done a LOT of work on this Spyder and I've yet to find something I would truly qualify as easy. Any suggestions appreciated...thx

 

[Silvervette05]

I have a manual at home when i get there i look that up and see if it will help any, But i'm sure someone will be along anytime to help you,
this forum is great at that. I hope it will help because my book is for a 08 RS

 

[Bob Denman]

It sounds as if there's a spring in there, and you somehow "unwound" it... :shocked:
Have you tried spinning it the other way, to put some preload back on it? :dontknow:

 

[flybuddy]

I have a manual at home when i get there i look that up and see if it will help any, But i'm sure someone will be along anytime to help you,
this forum is great at that. I hope it will help because my book is for a 08 RS

Thx, I've got the green manual and just looked it up. They've got you fully removing removing the parking brake assembly which doesn't seem necessary to me BUT I'm going to try and break that nut again. With the assembly currently loose it just doesn't feel right putting as much pressure as I did to try and get the parking brake nut loose. I'm going to tighten the one hex bolt and run a smaller bolt in backwards where the other hex bolt would go to hold it in place while I get a breaker bar on it.

 

[flybuddy]

It sounds as if there's a spring in there, and you somehow "unwound" it... :shocked:
Have you tried spinning it the other way, to put some preload back on it? :dontknow:

Thx..you can see the spring, it's normal I even disconnected it at the top and it still won't fully turn.

 

[flybuddy]

OK, figured out the WHY.. As you turn the parking brake assembly it pushes out the caliper piston. With old OEM pads--no problem as it rotates PAST the hex bolt hole..With new Ron pads---problem--they're thicker and it won't even get close..I tried to loosen the nut on the parking brake assembly again and there's just too much give--the assembly is going to break before the nut does. Looks like my only option might be to drain brake fluid.

 

[flybuddy]

OK---finally got them on. With caliper off I twisted the parking brake assembly and slid the bolt in partially. Rotated the parking brake back and compressed piston. Put caliper in place with outside pad only and wiggled bolt in further to hold in position. Large screwdriver into empty slot in caliper to move caliper inward compressing piston again enough to slide inside pad on.
Thought I was done, but the hex bolt C clips thought otherwise--finally got those on too.:banghead:

 

[ulflyer]

You do have the fluid caps off don't you, to allow for overflow if the rear piston is compressed? With rags stuffed around to catch any fluid.

Mine didn't overflow with only a modest compression of the piston, and after getting the front bolt screwed in I applied the parking brake and it moved the parking wheel around so that the rear hex could then be tightened. Not sure how it should be done but that seemed to work for me.

 

[RAYYOU]

The nut can be broke loose easier with the parking brake engaged before you remove the caliper. Know it's no help this time but may help next time.

 

[flybuddy]

Good thoughts for the future...thx