[MantisTobaggan]

Rear driver side handbrake is seized. The cable is fine but the mechanism is solid. I've got a kit to rebuild the brake caliper but I cannot get out either end if the brake line.

my 11mm spanner has rounded the caliper side and its starting to round the brake line end.

Ive got a heat gun and after about 2 hours of fighting it im stuck. Im leaning towards cutting the brake like and getting a bolt extractor on the caliper side. Not sure how to sort the othet side yet, assuming ill end up getting some braided brakes having needing to cut the lines.

Just curious if anyone has tips before i go full destruction on it.

Cheers

 

[Vulpes]

If you're going to cut it, why not just push a deep socket over what remains and crank it off with a ratchet?

I'd also try getting it hot and immediately squirting a decent freeing oil at it (something like plusgas)

 

[_jimmy_]

Never had any trouble loosening the lines from the caliper but the one on the body I had to hold with pluming grips otherwise it would have torn the mount off. Did you speak it in plenty of wd40? (Looks like it). As above once you cut the line you can get a socket on

Also, have you managed to loosen the bleed valves on the caliper? Just hoping you don't do all the work of loosening the brake line and then shear the bleeder. Not trying to jinx you or anything, honest 👍

 

[alan ST Bentley]

Hi Mantis,

If you look at the fiche pic below you will see your siezed connections:
Red circle - connector into caliper
Green Circle - flexi to hard pipework on the rest of the car

As @Vulpes said the connector into the caliper shouldn't be an issue. I did as he suggested, cut the hard line, clamp caliper in bench vice and use a deep socket. That worked for me, but if it still dosn't I would clamp the connector into the vice and try and rotate the whole caliper.

Don't worry about cutting the solid line as if you replace with braided I'm sure this line isn't needed, ( I think ) not that you have a choice

If the connector to the flexi in your picture is the green circle you may have a bigger problem as you can see from the pic it connects to the main solid pipes and if you need to cut this off you'll need to make a new pipe

Good luck

 

[alan ST Bentley]

Hi Mantis,

just a thought, but if your caliper handbrake mechanism is siezed it might be an idea to pump the piston out of the caliper whilst its still connected to the brake hydraulics.

I took my caliper off and had to use the handbrake mechanism to pump the piston out, if yours is siezed, that won't be an option

Good LUck

 

[MantisTobaggan]

Thanks for the suggestions. Just an update I ended up having to cut the hard line to the caliper. I then spent about 30 minutes wrestling with the bolt, I had to use bolt extractors, heat and a braker bar to remove it but it came out clean.

I'm cleaning up the caliper at the moment and soaking it in WD40. I think a deep socket will be necessary to remove the bleed nipple. Hoping to get this out tonight and complete the deconstruction of the caliper.

The hard line attached to the car I've still not managed to remove. From picture 2 I can't seem to remove the clip it's rusted. If I can remove this side I think it will require cutting and with that I'm going to have to re-flare the brake line along with a fresh union connector. I need to do a bit of research on this beforehand. For now just cracking on with the caliper, the rear rotors are a bit crusty so going to take this opportunity to use electrolysis on both rotors. I have done this processes with the front rotors in the past and it brought them back to life.

 

[alan ST Bentley]

Hi Mantis,
AS far as the clip is concerned, the best way I've found to get them out is to get a pair of mole grips on the bit with the slot in it and just wiggle side to side until you get it far enough out to get a screwdriver into the slot and use to pry against the bracket.
They are dead cheep on ebay ( I think £3-4) but not great quality, so its worth painting them before they go back in.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the pipe will be long enough to reflare plus if your going to take it off to reflare you may as well just make up a new pipe
they sell flaring kits pretty cheep on flebay

Not sure if this is the one I've got but its similar.
Good LUck

 

[Marv_st]

The rear calipers are a common fault on fiestas/focus/mondeos, when mine went the pressure caused the threaded piston to damage the internal thread on the caliper itself.

If the budget is there. I advise getting a secondhand set and rebuilding them.