I have a 1990 RX-7 that needs either new or remanufactured rear brake calipers, as the left rear is sticking, won't release fully, causing dragging. I just replaced both rear wheel bearings, brake rotors and pads. Everywhere I check on the internet, (Rock Auto, Summit Racing, CarID, etc.), lists rear calipers as being "out of stock". Even my local NAPA store shows these calipers out of stock. Does anyone know where I can obtain new or rebuilt stock-style rear brake calipers? I can find rebuild kits everywhere, but I cannot find these kits with replacement pistons and other hardware such as the copper crush washers for the banjo-type hydraulic line connection. New pistons are important since I had a hard time compressing the piston on the left rear caliper with that special tool that also rotates the piston clockwise as it compresses. More specifically, the piston was difficult to rotate. I really cannot drive my car with this dragging caliper, since it will just burn through another set of pads and eventually grind the new rotor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

The short answer is "No". You might find one caliper for these cars pop up as renewed online at the regular parts stores, they go very fast. RockAuto still has some of the pistons but are expensive.

These all need rebuilt now. The rebuild is quite easy, I was really afraid the first front set that I did on my Acura TL. It all worked out quite well. If you do not want to rebuild yourself, any decent brake shop should be able to do it for you. If not, send them out to be refurbished.

Also, the rear E brake needs attention to when rebuilding sometimes too.

Edit: If you can not afford to have downtime with the car. Used ones in eBay are available. Take that to a shop or send it out .

 

Hey there...Thank you for that advice. I suppose that I will have to rebuild the calipers myself. I rebuilt a master cylinder in my 1972 Opel GT, which has always seemed to work fine,(no spongy feeling in the brake pedal), so I know that I can do the same for brake calipers.

 

Did you replace the rear soft brake line? When they go bad, they will lockup the brakes. This is because the fluid pressure is high when pressing the brakes but low when the brake is released. The rubber inside starts to degrade and gets softer and narrows the line.

This may not be your issue, but if you don't know when they were last changed it probably time to do it anyway.

 

No, I have not yet replaced this brake line, but I will when rebuilding or replacing the calipers. Since the car is 34 years old, it's probably a good thing to do from the standpoint of restoration.

 

Update: To any of you out there who need to rebuild your rear brake calipers on any generation of RX-7; There is a source on e-bay. After spending months in frustration over not being able to find rebuilt rear brake calipers or a rebuild kit with caliper pistons, I finally located a British supplier on e-bay. The seller goes by "Bigg Red Ltd" or "biggred4u" or www.biggred.co.uk. This seller offers a fairly generous rebuild kit which includes the brake pistons as well as the other boots, seals, etc. The biggest problem I am experiencing on my left rear caliper, is that it is dragging, or not completely releasing when letting off the brake pedal. I had a difficult time rotating this piston while using the appropriate tool to push it back into its bore so that new pads could be installed. My suspicion is that there is some corrosion on the piston making it difficult to rotate, and therefore is the reason I want to replace it. Rock Auto no longer carries replacement pistons for the rear calipers, but thank goodness this British supplier does.

 

Thank you for the information! I would suspect scoring of the bore and or caliper piston. Accumulated rust will cause the listing to stick as well. You will need to remove the piston and examine the bore.

 

Could na rear calipers work on a turbo model?

 

Definitely start with what he suggested, that’s where I’d start. Had something similar occur on one of the rears myself. One was a bit rusted but the bore and piston polished right back to life. Hopefully yours isn’t too bad.