Stuck rear caliper (16v disc brakes)

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

The piston in the rear caliper needs to be "screwed" back into the caliper 
body. You need to turn it clockwise while pushing it in.

From: "Nate Lowe" <nlowe79@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 5:54 PM
Subject: Stuck rear caliper (16v disc brakes)


> So I went out to replace the brake pads on my '79 today (full 16v brake
> conversion) and I got the front pads on fine with no problems (except a
> cheap ass 13mm socket that broke removing the first caliper).
>
> The rear pads were a different story. Or to be more precise, the driver's
> side rear pads (I didn't even try the passenger side since I couldn't get
> the driver's side on). When I got the caliper bolts removed, the caliper 
> was
> still tight on the pads and was hard to pull off. Then, when I tried to 
> push
> the piston back into the caliper with a 4" C-clamp, it would not budge. 
> I've
> heard of the brake cable sticking on 16v's (I think) so I removed the 
> spring
> that holds tension on it and tried to manually push it back thinking that
> would help. No dice.
>
> So the question I have is if this is a common problem and what steps 
> should
> I take to fix it?
>
> Oh, and a bit of info, all the pads seemed to still have about 1/2 life 
> left
> in them even though my braking performance has noticably decreased. The 
> car
> still stops reliably, but not with the "bite" it had before. Maybe the 
> rear
> calipers aren't working at all right now?
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>