1984 Audi 4000S Quattro, rear girling/parking brake adjustment

Hi all,

I have a slight problem with my brakes. I have an '84 Audi 4000S Quattro and recently rebuilt both calipers on the right side. My brakes are single piston Girling all around. The ones in the rear however have some sort of threaded piece that I could only imagine was related to the parking brake. I didn't put this back in all the way, but I put it most of the way, so the piston would fit. Now the plate on the bottom of the caliper that engages the parking brake will not move more than a little bit. I know that to retract the piston one has to push in and rotate at the same time, I forget exactly which direction, but this threaded piece was mostly smooth, so I'm not even sure how rotating the piston can even rotate this secondary piece. I was hoping someone had a procedure for adjusting this secondary piece. Or perhaps adjusting the parking brakes with this rear style girling brake. There must be a way. Even when the brakes worked the parking brake didn't hold very well, it'd stop the car, but couldn't hold back the car if I put it in gear.

Thanks for your help, Chris

Its not really clear to me what you have done on the rear caliper but, the threaded bit inside the caliper piston IS the E brake automatic adjustment. No other adjustment is possible if it is the same as the four T44s that I have owned.

I would suggest that you check the E brake actuator on the inside of the caliper. These tend to get corroded and gunked up. Clean, lub and work the part with a lever of some kind and it may get better.

Another common problem with the E brakes is that the cable becomes corroded where it leaves the cable just where it exits the interior and before it splits to the two sides. With quattro it can be quite a PITA to get at that location as it is above the rear half of the drive shaft.

One more thought is that you need to be sure that you got the caliper piston on the threaded inner rod. There are several tools available to assist in this task but a number of people make do with various common tools like needle nose pliers, allen wrenches and add in at least two and probably three beers and a lot of frustration. Still gratifying when you get it done.

TonyJ

98.5 A4 1.8TQM APR

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