smnc

I was reading up on my rear discs in my Haynes, and it says you need special tools to rebuild an rear caliper (and that you should leave it to the pros), but it's dead-easy to do a front caliper. WTF?

Knowing that the Haynes has little info on my car ('85 -SE), I was wondering if they're full of crap or what. Mazdatrix sells a rear-caliper re-build kit...

FJ

The rear is as easy as the front. The piston has to be rotated to back it into the caliper when installing new pads, or to remove it for the seal kit. Ideally that would be done with the "special tool" which fits two indentations in the face of the piston., but it's not hard to find something else that will do the trick.

-John.

yayarx7

oh yeah, and get a Mazda Factory Service Manual.

smnc

I tried. Mazda has discontinued them.

I've been looking on e-bay but no luck so far.

Anyone got one they want to sell? (85)

yayarx7

www.mazdatrix.com

What year do ya have. I got a spare 83 FSM I do not need.

peejay

For all the hassle, you can probably get reman calipers for $45 each, and you know they'll be good... or at least you know that if they're shoddy, they're under warranty.

davo22

disregard what PJ has said the best price for rebuilt rear calipers on SE's i have seen so far is 126 per. that's rebuilt not new. the price is correct, the rebuild kit will be crap for the following reasons.
Our rear calipers have a threaded piston and caliper bore, this is to allow the parking brake to work.
to get my rear pistons retracted i had to find a special tool much more precise than needle nose plyers. The rear piston must be screwed back untill it seats. you cannot easily bore a threaded sleeve or remove pits, napa sells new pistons at 50+ a peice that plus the mazdatrix rebuild may work if your capier housings are not pitted. I am fairly certain on the function of rear calipers needing parking brakes, so if anyone cares to dispute this please explain my mistake

mazdatrix rebuilt calipers 4 SE=176 per
my parts guy rebuilt calipers =126 per
new pistons and rebuild kit = 137 total.

These rear brakes are a bitch good luck I hate them with a passion.

smnc

daveo
I know, I've priced rebuilt calipers

Peejay
If you can find rebuilt for $45, where?

yayarx7
'85, and I haven't bought from Mazdatrix cause of the nasty US/CDN conversion rate. Thanx tho

etherhuffer

The bore is not threaded. It is smooth. The bottom of the bore chamber has a threaded hole for the piston to go into. The big concern with the rebuild is 1) pitting of the bore, and 2) worn out bleeder screw threads. The bore sits horizontally, and the lowest side of the bore gets rust and corrosion built up. The piston is damn hard to get unscrewed for this reason. I cleaned the piston with acetone and alcohol. In the bore, I used a dental pick to scale off (gently, very gently) the corrosion and then used alc/acetone to clean it up. I use a little emery cloth in a few places. Once this was done and the new seals put in, it worked well. Teflon plumbers tape can help on worn bleeder screws if not too loose. I used a plumbing tool to screw in the piston. Needle nose pliers will damage the piston, and your knuckles.. A word of warning. Don't remove the rubber boot from the E brake lever cover. There is no need to. The Victoria British rebuild kit worked ok. You need to go to mazda to get the slider pin boots. A brass wire tube cleaning type brush will get the slider bores nice and clean. Good luck.

peejay

Advance Auto. (Note that doesn't include the core charge, I just assume that you'll be turning in the core)

BTW this was for a GSL, not an -SE... but hey it can't hurt to call, can it?

Felix Wankel

-SE calipers should be different, I think the -SE's have vented rotors.

peejay

Yah -SE's have much larger calipers.

Strangely enough, the local store stocks -SE rear pads, but I had to special order the pads for my GSL...

Felix Wankel

I argued till I was blue in the face about the 4 lug FC front brake pads being different from the 5 lug ones. I finally wound up taking them off and driving the CRX I had at the time down there and rubbing it all in the managers face. He said the computer isnt wrong, and I told him a human programs the ****** computer

peejay

Our books listed it as "Soft Suspension" and "Hard Suspension". Interesting.

BTW it's a good thing i was watching when the guy was looking up my rear pads... whenever i ask for stuff for my 1st-gens they always ask "carb or fuel injected?" or "1.1 or 1.3?" (yes even for the '80) well this time the guy didn't ask, I told him "make sure those are for the 1.1 engine, the big engine had different brakes"... he says "really? oh.." and goes back and gets the correct part.

smnc

And where can I find Advance Auto's contact info?

yayarx7

http://www.advanceautoparts.com/

davo22

well at least some one cleared that up for me a bit off and thanks for the delineation of rebuild, that will help me mucho. **** rear clipers.