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Bolt on brake rattle solution/upgrade


D-a-n-i-e-l

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I have read and researched many threads trying to find the right solution for upgrading the rear brakes. Needless to say there has not been a complete bolt on solution……. UNTIL NOW!:D

Wow did I sell that well enough? Let’s cut to the project.

1) Get two (2) right side (passenger side) calipers and brackets, to rear rotors, and left and right rear brake cables to include adjuster from a 1996 Cadillac Seville STS.

2) Remove all Reatta rear brake part. Keeping hoses connected to car side and keep Reatta bracket mounting bolts (they are a bit shorter than the Caddy bolts).

3) Install all Cadillac brake parts on to Reatta.

4) Adjust Reatta intermediate cable adjustment all the way tight.

5) Adjust the Cadillac adjuster (now in the rear of the Reatta) to satisfy your taste.

Notes:

Your E brake is now one pump.

The Reatta brake lines are a little tight when on jack stands. This is not an issue unless you are going to jump you Reatta.

With the 91 brake system these make a noticeable improvement.

The rotors at the same as used in the 98 Park Avenues.

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Nice! Two things:

1.) Do they require 16"+ wheels? The '98 Park Ave did not come with 15".

2.) While everything is apart, seems like it makes sense to install new brake hoses to replace the 20+ year old ones. Could even have them made an inch or two longer if need be.

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Daniel...... looking on Auto-Zone web page. it appears that 1994 thru 1997 Seville and Eldarado used the same parts. This expands the availabity of the parts.

When I get some time, I will check the Riviera for match.

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Anyone know of a web site that we could look up the part number for the 1996 Seville STS brake parts then cross reference them to other cars?

I am doing it on the Auto Zone site but it takes forever...one car at a time.

Found that 1994-1999 Cadillac Deville rear are the same, 1992 - 2002 Eldorado is the same parts.

Would like to do the same for the front conversion.

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Daniel,

Just to be clear, a right rear caliper from a 96 Seville is used on both sides? Is there a reason the left side caliper cannot be used on the drivers side of the car? I assume there is since you specifically said two right side parts, but wasn't sure why.

Thanks for doing the research on this, it will be a huge help next time I need to do brakes on one of mine.

KDirk

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Daniel,

Just to be clear, a right rear caliper from a 96 Seville is used on both sides? Is there a reason the left side caliper cannot be used on the drivers side of the car? I assume there is since you specifically said two right side parts, but wasn't sure why.

Thanks for doing the research on this, it will be a huge help next time I need to do brakes on one of mine.

KDirk

If you use the left side your bleader vaulve will be on the bottom and you will never get it to bleed right.

If you want a complete interchange the link to Orielys at the top post has it on the bottom right. Most of the parts are available new

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Barney, go to rockauto and click the part number in question and it'll give you a list of models it'll fit.

Strangely, different manufacturers have variation between models fitted.

Brackets and cable also show as available on rockauto if you don't want to go the junkyard route.

Edited by Rawja (see edit history)
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Jon, Yes for the Cadillac calipers you must have the Cadillac cables, they us a barrel end that is 90 degrees off set infrom the reatta ones. If you look at the last picture on the right side (zoomed in) you will see what I mean.

Barney, the rotors from the 98 park and 96 Cadillac are identical. I mentioned the 98 Park because I knew many people had look at an older thread that used them.

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The problem I am having is using Rock Auto's parts list, it shows the Park Ave interchange as 1991-1996.

On rear rotors, Rock Auto show the following as the same part.......

LeSabre 1992-1998

Park Ave 1991-1996

Riviera 1992-1996

Deville 1990-1996

Eldorado 1992-1996

Seville 1992-1996

Camaro/Firebird 1993-1997

Olds 88 1992-1998

Olds 98 1991-1996

Toronado 1992

Bonneville 1992-1997

I am just trying to put together a list so it gives you more choices/options if you are using used parts. If you are going new, then you just ask for the parts in your note.

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OE 15 inch Reatta rims fit on the rear with about half an inch clearance from the calipier.

BTW if any one is interested I have 5 OE rims; four with goodyear tires at 80% plus tread, for sale for a very cheap price. The rims are not in great shape but would be a great deal for the tires or just some one that did not want to get road damage to their prestine rims.

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Rattle drove me crazy for a couple of years. After routine replacement of my struts... no more rattle, no matter the road condition.

Just a note: The reatta rear struts have been discontinued by evey sorce (manufacture) I have looked into, and the Cadillac struts are starting down the same path.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Anyone else try this? I need rear brakes and want an easy to swap brake pad system. Don't care much about the e brake as I don't use my e brake at all.

I've looked at the calipers and they have a one bolt flip up caliper to make swapping out brake pads a breeze. Looks like a no rattle system and no e brake cable interference when doing brakes.

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Guest Corvanti

Dave, re: the parking (e) brake. all states vary on inspections. in NC all safety equipment must work, including the parking brake to get licensed. is WI different on Reatta aged vehicles?

just curious.:)

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We don't have safety inspections in Wisconsin. I did do the swap out on the Red. I was getting the "rattle" and when we removed the caliper the pads were pretty wore. I had purchased two reman sets of calipers and rotors from Rock Auto close out as well as longer brake hoses as this project called for. The loaded rebuilt calipers were $21.00 each. The install was a snap, however the rebuilt calipers didn't have the mounting bracket for the E cable. I went out to Gibson's and got six of them [4 for me, 2 for McReatta]. I will be installing the brackets later. I had to get 4 of the brackets for me as I want to do the vert when those pads start to rattle.

I don't use the e brake at all/ever. But it will be installed and operational.

I didn't do the Black as I am thinking again of selling it and I want it to be stock for the next owner. The Red and 'vert will not be sold... ever. My heirs can sell them when I pass.

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Just finished the e brake install. I had to go back out to Gibson's to get the tension spring off the Cadillac e brake cable. What I did was twist the spring off their cable [their spring is much lighter then ours]. Then installed it on our brake cable, hooked the barrel end into the mount, pulled back on the e brake mounting bracket and bolted it in place. One thing I noticed is that the Cadillac's e brake mounting bracket is a heavier metal then ours so I had to bend the locking tabs out a bit so the cable sheath doesn't pull through.

We had done the brake flush Wed. night so I should be good for 2 years. All in all not too bad a project.

Edited by DAVES89 (see edit history)
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To be honest Ronnie, I never use my e brake. I won't try it until I get back to my mechanic friend's house on the 15th. We will be doing more ABS sensor leads and will try it then. That way if there is any problems we can figure it out together.

Remember in the 7 years I have owned the Red I have never used the e brake so the cable may be rusted somewhere.

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OE 15 inch Reatta rims fit on the rear with about half an inch clearance from the calipier.

BTW if any one is interested I have 5 OE rims; four with goodyear tires at 80% plus tread, for sale for a very cheap price. The rims are not in great shape but would be a great deal for the tires or just some one that did not want to get road damage to their prestine rims.

this is great because my brake rattle is getting excessive but i want to be able to use the reatta spare.i can't on the front anymore because of the lsi camaro brakes.

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  • 1 year later...

i went to the pull a part today and grabbed a passenger side caliper and bracket,rear brake lines and intermediate brake line from a 1996 seville.i also grabbed a passenger side caliper and bracket from a 1997 seville.i wasn't able to get the dust shields because i couldn't get the wheel hubs off even after removing the four bolts.one problem i ran into is the brake lines are fastened together with crimps.first i saw this.i managed to rip them apart.now time to order shiny new parts.

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  • 3 months later...

i went to the pull a part today and grabbed a passenger side caliper and bracket,rear brake lines and intermediate brake line from a 1996 seville.i also grabbed a passenger side caliper and bracket from a 1997 seville.i wasn't able to get the dust shields because i couldn't get the wheel hubs off even after removing the four bolts.one problem i ran into is the brake lines are fastened together with crimps.first i saw this.i managed to rip them apart.now time to order shiny new parts.

As I am about to go down the same path (i.e. '96 STS rear brake), but with new/reman parts from my FLAPS, I was curious as to how your upgrade proceeded?  Was there anything outside of the caliper bracket, caliper, rotor, rear e-brake cables involved?  I am going to replace the brake flex hose with a new slightly longer hose as mine are original and it just makes sense to replace them at this point. 

Edited by drtidmore (see edit history)
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You can go back to post 26 that I responded to. Mc_Reatta recommended to me to use 1999 Cadillac Eldorado passenger side rear brake calipers with longer brake lines. I did not swap out the brake cables as the Reatta brake cables will work. The reman calipers I received did not have the emergency brake cable mounting brackets so I had to go back out to Gibson's to get them. I also got the Cadillac's emergency brake springs. They look very much like a spring that is used on a pen with a push button. They come off easily [you just unscrew them] and fit well on the Reatta emergency brake cable. I did have to bend the mounting tabs on the Reatta cable, but overall a fairly straight forward project.

 I went and looked at the parts I used and they were;

 Kelsey-Hayes reman caliper #40-82547

 Dorman brake line #H38374

 Once again I had to get the e-brake cable mounting bracket and the e-brake cable spring from Gibson's [my local You Pick] as they did not come with the reman calipers. They came off a 1999 or so Cadillac and fit right on. I did not have to go buy different banjo bolts or brass washers.

 I did not swap any part of the brake cables. 

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