Rebuilding the Saab 9000 rear brake calipers

By GirlySaabFan

Introduction

The Saab 9000 rear brakes include a self-adjusting handbrake mechanism. Over the years the handbrake lever can become stiff, preventing the handbrake adjuster from working properly and causing a loss of handbrake and footbrake effectiveness. Since there appears to be a complete lack of information available about the internal workings of these calipers, the usual advice on Saab forums is to replace the calipers with new or reconditioned items. However, GirlySaabFan tackled this problem by rebuilding the calipers herself. This is her story...

Here's a little story about the reason my 9000's handbrake was rubbish.

Be warned-some pictures are scary!! But there is a happy ending.

Mmm, nasty! Actually it's not that difficult to repair these. Even I can do it, and I'm a girl!

See. Bet you can't tell which is which?!

This is how I did it.......

First take nasty rusty thing off the car, remove brake pads and retaining clip and stick it in a vice. The brake hose came off fairly easily using a pipe wrench-the bleed nipple was another story! Which is discussed elsewhere.

It is as knackered as it looks. So, while that is soaking up some penetrating oil, remove the lever return spring and piston. DO NOT try to press or blow the piston out-it won't work (it's screwed on) and you may damage something. It's handy to have something to catch the brake fluid in and some rags or paper towels to hand, I made a bit of a mess. Oops.

Using an allen key, or similar, turn the adjustment screw CLOCKWISE, this will push the piston out.

Give the handbrake actuator lever a tap from underneath to move it away from the body of the caliper, it won't go far, you just need to move it enough to free it from the circlip inside.

The dust boot was so rust-glued on, I had to tear it to get the piston out!

Piston looks ok. Slightly scored (looks worse than it is), but usable. If it looks knacked, I'd bin it and get a recon. caliper.

Now for the tricky bit! At the bottom of the bore there lurks a circlip. You will need a pair of longer than usual circlip pliers, or, failing that, a bit of imagination and some of those odd bits of stuff you kept just in case they might come in useful!!

When you've finally extracted the little sod (that'll be the circlip then!), pull out the screw in the middle, taking care not to damage the threads. If you turn the adjuster clockwise, while gently pulling the screw, it should come out-don't lose the pin that sits in the end of it!. If it seems like it's stuck, try giving the lever another tap. With the screw out, the lever should come out. It's not necessary to remove the circlip at the bottom of the lever.

Voila! All you need to do now, is clean it up and put it back together again. Easy.

Ok:- All cleaned, painted and ready for reassembly. How you make yours look presentable is up to you. Bit different, isn't it? It is the same one, honest!

And here's how I put it back together.

First dip the o-ring in some fresh brake fluid and slip it over the threads of the screw and into the first groove. See below.

Do a similar thing with the piston seal, dip in brake fluid and carefully slip it into it's groove in the bore, making sure it's not twisted. Easiest to do this by hand.

Push the seal onto the actuator lever and push it back into it's socket. I used brake assembly grease on it. The seal was put on with the flat side outwards as that's the way the old one was on.

Then put the pin/rod/wotsit thing into it's cup on the head of the screw-I used grease again to hold it in place.

Insert the screw into it's socket in the bottom of the bore, and re-insert the circlip (have fun), the circlip is slightly curved and should be located with the tab pointing upwards.

If you find it's very difficult to get the circlip in, try giving the screw a gentle tap to make sure it's fully seated. Give the piston a light coating of assembly grease and fit the dust boot, apply grease to the small hole in the middle of the piston- this means the screw threads will be thoroughly greased too.

Line the hole in the piston up with the screw, and whilst pressing fairly firmly on the piston, turn the adjuster screw anti-clockwise. This will draw the piston in. Keep going until it stops, then fit the dust boot and retaining clip.

Refit bleed screw, lever return spring and the rubber sleeves the pins go through. Put them back on the car and adjust as necessary. Sorted. You should now have a working self adjusting handbrake.

Now that's much less scary.

The caliper carriers were too rusty to remove. The pads will also be replaced in the near future, but the handbrake works!!!

See, I told you it had a happy ending.

The End