rear disc brakes

[Guest 1onesy]

I have a 1985 riviera with rear disc brakes.I have the car for 20 years and for 20 years the brakes stink!The rear calipers do not self adjust,they have to be tightened all the time like drum brakes.Are there any calipers from a newer model of any car that self adjust and would fit and work properly?

[tim63riv]

1onesy,

The parking brake cables adjust the rear calipers, so you have to apply the parking brake to get them to adjust. I don't know for sure if this is covered in the owners manual, but we would always tell our Cadillac owners to apply and release the parking brake once or twice a week. After that, they had zero issues with the rear calipers coming out of adjustment. It is also imperative that the tab on the inside rear brake pad index into the slot on the caliper piston to keep the piston from rotating and that the parking brake cables were operating correctly and not frozen or binding. I have done literally hundreds of 4 wheel disc brake jobs on Cadillacs and Buicks of this vintage and found when everything was set up properly and the parking brake was used religiously, this was a very good brake system that had good pedal feel and short stopping distances.

Good Luck!

Tim

[83RivConv]

Tim,

Thanks for that good tid-bit. Altho I've not had my 83 Riv all that long I was wondering about the "poor performance" of the 4-whl disc brake system--as well as parking/emeergency brake not really holding much either.

As my car had set in a museum for 4-5 years (ending 3 yrs ago now), I suspect the parking brake cable(s) has(have) been frozen for some time now. I've only driven the car about 400 mi in the past year & don't really remember using the parking brake--as I had earlier found it to be of no real value & had not yet looked into repairing it.

Monte

[TexRiv_63]

I had the same kind of problems with rear discs on a 79 Cadillac, which I think uses the same calipers. Tim is totally right about using the parking brake, it was mentioned in the Cad shop manual. One other thing I learned is that the piston / adjuster assembly should be replaced with NEW when doing a brake job, they can develop internal leaks that do not let you properly bleed the system and result in spongy pedal feel. I messed with the brakes for years and they never worked right until I replaced the pistons, then they were great!