stuck caliper...

If your master cylinder still works correctly, you're fine until next year.
You WILL bleed them again next year, won't you?

If the arm moves loosely then the pin inside the caliper at the cam has
rusted, broken or fallen off.

Either that or the weather seal has failed and the shaft was seized and has
now snapped in two.

Rebuild time.




Adjustment is done at the parking brake equalizer inside the passenger
compartment. Before you adjust, the lever should be up against the stop pin
with the brake off.

An ordinary pair of snap-ring pliers won't do it.

If you attempt to rebuild the parking brake mechanism yourself, you may
find you will have one devil of a time doing it. The caliper's piston bore
is deep and narrow. You need to buy or manufacture special tools if you
don't want to spend three weeks trying to get it apart and then back
together again.

It's called a "line lock". You can buy them anywhere. However, they are NOT
intended to drive with them for more than test drives!!!!

$200 will be for a reman. Brand new will be several times that, assuming
Honda even still sells them.

 

You can also use Permatex 133H aluminum-based anti-seize. That may be
easier to find.


Sil-Glyde should be available everywhere. Use that for the pins. I do not
recommend pure silicone grease for exterior use in areas that get snow.
Silicone grease is for the internal seals and for certain select exterior
applications (see below).

<GASP!> DON"T SAND THE PISTONS!!!!!! THAT'S SUICIDE! Replace them. They're
available separately from the caliper, something like $20 or $30 each.


If the caliper exterior is rusted, that's OK so long as the rust has not
advanced to the hydraulic seal. You can slow the advancement of rust by
appying pure silicone grease in between the dust boot and the caliper bore
at each service. This will prevent moisture from getting inside and causing
miore rust. I'm still running on my original caliper bodies.

If the caliper bore is rusted inside the hydraulic seal, that's a sign the
fluid was never changed at all. Very, very bad. Also jibes with your
observation that the master cylinder was "swimming with rust". I like
jimbeam's suggestion of opening a bleed screw when pushing the piston back
in such situations.

Bad rebuild. Previous owner probably bought an AutoZone special or
something. Cheap crap. Or else they were...never actually changed...

You're welcome. And a timing belt isn't that hard either.

 

Hondas are meant to rev. When you downshift you're never revving much more
than 1K rpm from where you are anyway.

In my Integra, there's a spread between gears of:
1-2: 1,500 rpm
2-3: 1,000 rpm
3-4: 1,000 rpm
4-5: 500 rpm.

Therefore, if the engine is turning 2,500 rpm and I want to go from 3rd to
2nd, I hold the revs to 3,500 while double-clutching and downshifting into
2nd. So long as car speed remains constant, the clutch and dog teeth will
meet while they are either matched or barely turning relative to each
other.

If the car has slowed a bit in the above example, I may have to hold the
revs to less than 3,500. It's all in the "feel". On a good day, I'll match
maybe 80% of my shifts well. On a bad day, on the other hand, I'm thankful
I don't have a "crash" box.

If I want to pass someone, I'll prep the car by downshifting to get the
revs up to 4,000, so I'm at the start of the power band. This way I'm ready
and can just floor it when the time is right, then upshift at 5,500 or so.

 

Abeness <> floridly penned in

I thought screen savers were for older CRTs with phosphors that were prone
to bleaching?

LCD screens are like your pocket calculator. I didn't think they could
"burn-in".

 

There are two issues with LCD longevity. One is the back lighting, it
has a limited life. The second is that the LCD looses contrast with age.
The "flying toaster" type screen saver won't help, but having the screen
go into sleep mode after an hour of non-use prolongs useful life.

 

dont those things *redline* at about 4500rpm?

 

sorry, meant the self-adjust mechanism within the caliper.

 

i'm picky about this stuff. i'd press the piston back in with the
bleeder open one more time. makes sure you expel any detritis from the
caliper. the inlet is in the middle and the bleeder is at the top.
conventional bleeding tends to leave the crud at the bottom.

there's a line-pinch tool:
http://www.etoolcart.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3466
my favorite for this job - harder to damage a hose with this design.

yep! tegger's your man on further advice.

 

Oh, yes! After seeing what was in there? Yikes.

Mmmm hmmmm. You're confirming my original suspicion, and I'm most
unhappy about it.

I think jim beam meant the adjusting screw in the caliper. I do know
about the adjustment at the equalizer bar, already tried that but it's
way out of balance due to the malfunctioning caliper, and even at the
top click the right side barely holds. Can't adjust it further, or the
right side binds when the brake is fully released. It's enough to hold
on a medium hill unless the car is jostled, so I leave it in gear. Which
I don't especially like to do because sloppy parallel parkers have a
tendency to bump the car, and I'd rather not lose a gear in the
tranny... it's a problem.

I'm not inclined to spend $100 for the damn snap-ring pliers and brake
spring compressor tool from slhonda, only to use them once, and only to
discover once I get in there that the cylinder bore is damaged--as in
rusted out. Come to think of it, there might have been actual
particulate matter from that cylinder in the flush. I don't recall for
certain.

Right, I'd expect that. Thanks for the term.

That's interesting, it's listed in the new section at Majestic. Only
front calipers are listed in the reman section, and no fronts are listed
in the new. There's something listed for $108 and I can't tell from the
cryptic shorthand for sure what's happening. Maybe "RR" stands for right
rear, but why would it be $80 cheaper than the left?

 

that's strange. it should be that the pedal just adjusts lash - the
hyrdraulics are supposed to be self-adjusting just like front brake
calipers are. if the clutch releases "too soon", it could be that the
friction linings are either worn or have no internal springing. a
"long" clutch pedal feel is popular with the general market because it
makes it easy to pull away from a standstill. this is achieved by
having a wavy center plate to which the two sides of friction lining are
riveted. the wave is a type of spring, so there is some friction over a
longer pedal stroke as the spring holds a degree of engagement. "short"
clutches use a solid non-wavy center plate and this is not uncommon on
aftermarket clutches because it's more sporty.

have you had the clutch changed?

 

Actually, I did pick something like that up, and I have a bottle of
nickle anti-seize. in the end I decided on the grease. Does it matter
much? Hot damn, I just noticed that my bottle of the nickle stuff cost
18 USD!! I must've been desperate. It is 8 oz, but yikes!

I've checked two places, a local auto parts place and a pretty hard-core
hardware store, no luck. But I have a lead.

I just meant the groove, but I suppose that would ruin the fit of the
rubber boot. You're right that they're only $20.

Unh-hunh. Maybe I'll pop the pistons out in the spring and see what's
going on in there before all hell brakes loose. (pun intended) I suppose
I should pump the pistons most of the way out with the pedal, then drain
the fluid before working them out the rest of the way? Not sure how I'd
attach a bike pump as you suggested previously, for yet-uninstalled new
calipers.

 

Precisely.

 

OK, and thanks for the examples. I'll track the revs and ranges some more.

 

rare to get big commercial diesels much over 3500. the point is that
they need to be revved to get them to change gear.* abeness is being
chicken about taking a honda motor up over 4k!

* big diesels have very narrow power bands. they're geared so there's
often 500 rpm or sometimes less between changes so the driver can keep
them in a torquey rev range under full load.

 

Ahh, OK. Maybe I'll try to do it when replacing the fahkakhdeh (an
approximation of the Yiddish for "all f*cked up") rear caliper.

Yeah, but it would be hard to drive even the few feet with such a beat
hanging out back there. I've actually been wondering whether hose clamp
pliers would weaken the relatively stiff rubber of the brake hoses by
crimping them.

See my other reply on this--I'd enjoy the puzzle, but there are too many
issues that could crop up.

 

According to the list of major repairs done that the previous owner
prepared for me (by mileages, no dates) before tossing the full repair
history and receipts, the clutch was replaced at 81K.

When I replace the master and slave cylinders I'll take a closer look at
the pedal travel--there are adjusting nuts there. I'd prefer the clutch
to release a good couple inches lower than it does. Well, I dunno. I
*am* worried about it starting to slip, but maybe that's unfamiliarity.

 

absolutely you can! that's why i like that design of clamp - rounded
surfaces touch the tube, and they only hand clamp, not screw, so unless
you're goliath, not too easy to pinch too hard.

well, for the money, it's worth investigating doing your own rebuild.
the parts + tools come out to less than the shop rebuilts. if this is
your only driver, i understand caution, but if you have another working
vehicle in the family, and you have the apetite, i'd buy the parts and
have a go at doing the work yourself.

 

yes, see how you get on with it. if it slips, it's just another
replacement project!

maybe i missed it earlier - why are you replacing the clutch cylinders?

 

It's unlikely that the screw is seized and not turning when you step on the
brake pedal. There's a worm type thread on it and a very powerful spring
pushing it back. Unless there is lots of rust and gum on the pin due to
neglect...

Other than the automatic adjustment of stepping on the brake pedal, there
are no other adjustments that can be done to that screw.

You are describing either:
1) Aftermarket pads
2) Pads still not floating correctly
3) Slide pins still seized
4) Parking brake cable sticking inside its sleeve (how are the rubber
bellows?)
5) Clevis and pin not rotating on PB lever on top of caliper
6) Parking brake mechanism seized or broken inside the caliper
7) Piston still sticking in bore

Since you describe the lever on top of the caliper as swinging freely when
disconnected, I suspect the mechanism has come out of order inside the
caliper, behind the piston and adjusting screw.

The donut-shaped weather seal on the lever's shaft can go bad, allowing
water inside the caliper. When that happens, the parking brake mechanism
rusts very badly because the water never evaporates. If you want to remove
the lever on top and pull out the weather seal, you'll be able to see the
damage. The weather seal will get damaged from removal, so have a new one
handy in case you don't find aything wrong in there.

Odd. I'd specifically ask to have a look at one. If it's actually reman,
you'll be able to tell right away.

Wouldn't surpise me. When I bought new door weatherstripping for my car,
the passenger side one was $50 more, even though both are identical except
for being mirror-images.

 

Abeness <> floridly penned in

One thing I'm remebering I never mentioned in the brake instructions is a
quick method of getting rid of rust on the slide shim surfaces: A flat-
blade screwdriver. Just use it like a scraper and scrape off the rust.
Works well and better than a wire brush. The scraper will get rid of maybe
80% of the rust buildup, and the rest is easily removed with the emery
cloth. I'll adjust the Web page to say that.

I don't recommend a wire brush for two reasons:
1) It doesn't get into the tight corners
2) It tends to polish rust rather than remove it.

If you remove the caliper mount bracket (easy, two bolts) you can take a
file to the slide surfaces, which is the most effective of all.