[NAIRB]

I was in my shop working on an old 83 Olds Toronado that has rear disc brakes. My customer complained of a low pedal problem. They had just replaced the master cylinder, but the problem still persisted. I looked at the rear brakes, and tried to bleed them, and I didn't notice any air in the system, but I did notice that the emergency brake mechanism which is built into the caliper is not engaging the puck in the caliper at all. I haven't dug up a service manual on this car yet, but the calipers are similar to a W body GM rear caliper. Has anyone messed with these before? Is there a neat trick in adjusting them, I tried to spin the puck out, but that didn't help, and I turned it in, and that does not help either. This thing does'nt have much brake actuation on the back and the pads are very loose when you don't have the brakes on.

[KULTULZ]

[quote]I did notice that the emergency brake mechanism which is built into the caliper is not engaging the puck in the caliper at all.<hr></blockquote>

It sounds as somewhere in it's service life someone replaced the pads and instead of turning the piston back into it's bore, used a c-clamp to bottom the piston and destroyed the hand brake/self adjusting feature (or possibly it has just experienced a service failure).

It also sounds like loaded caliper replacing time as the service parts to repair the self adjust feature would be high, as would the special service tools. Also after turning the piston in and replacing the pads, an air adjustment usually must be made to insure both pads are the same distance forom the rotor.

This is what it sounds like to me. Maybe check the service history of the car?

[NAIRB]

Thanks for the tip, i think you're probably right, as for the service history, it probably never existed, the brakes pads are fairly new, so someone has been fiddling with this, sounds like it needs some reman calipers to me.