Technical 80-85 Seville Calipers on discbrakes on 9" Ford rear axle

Hi. Im new here and thanks for the membership of this cool site.

4 years ago my 63.5 Ford Galaxie got discbrakes in all 4 corners. The brakes works well, but its a challenge to adjust the emergency brakes to get enough static power. The calipers which was included in the kit is the type that was used in 80-85 Cadillac Sevilles, with internal e-brake. A ratchet solution is ment to adjust the a little bit each time the e-brake pedal is engaged. But it doesnt works. It may be possible to get it work, but f.ex; removing the calipers often to get it to work would be unpractical. Googling this topic shows that even that a professional mechanic ment calipers almost like these were difficult to work with.

An alternative is to buy wilwood rear discbrakes with hats (small internal brake drum e brake) that seems to make it much easier to adjust. But some other tries may be actual before buying new brakes.

An alternative is other calipers which fit the brackets, i.e. with same type of installing and dimensions as the Seville brackets.

If somebody knows if there exists a replacement for the Seville calipers, it would be great

 

the seville/f body caliper design has been nothing but problems , even if you follow the special instructions GM has for putting them on and adjustment , the mechanisms often lock up or strip out from rust or strip out from improper tightening , many times I had to apply pressure at the pads to get the arms to catch the ramps inside and adjust them out , you should only have to move the arms 10 -14 mm to get them to adjust up some times its multiple moves . you should not have to remove the caliper to do it . just move the arm ( I put a adjustable wrench on it ( arm ) for leverage )

a D154 caliper would be a solution but you loose the emergency brake capability as its just a caliper , GM went to the in drum design in 96 after having problems for many years with caliper emergency brakes .

 

I hate those calipers. I have gotten rebuilt ones that were frozen, in the box, unused.

 

Get the disc setup off of a 8.8 under an Explorer. Near bolt on and commonly available


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Maybe, maybe not. He's in Norway.

 

Yes , Norway is my location, but in September the holiday trip goes to Los Angeles. But the 8.8 set up would be heavy in the luggage

Great hint Stimpy about using a adjustable key (lever) to move the arms, without removing the springs. With mm I assume you ment multiple moves...not millimeter (metric)

And a flat screwdriver can be used between disc and pad to get pressure on the pad.

If the brakes works good before adjusting the e-brake, as it does in my car, bleeding the brakes shouldnt be necessary after the e-brakeis adjusted. Agree?

Instructions from Speedway are attached

 

The Explorer brake setup looks really well, with bigger mounting holes than bolts so the back up plate can fit more than one bearing flange. Like this: https://goo.gl/o35dpr

An actual question is if the hole in the rotor is big enough so machining the hole bigger isnt required to fit the axle on the picture attached. My Galaxie has a small bearing flange, so the backing plate may need much modification to fit, following the info here: http://www.currieenterprises.com/CE-6012E2, which tells that it only fits Torino style bearling flanges, in spite that the mouning holes are big, as mentioned in another post

It may be possible to find a setup in Norway

 

Kjell in section 4 on page 910-31946 ,
I changed the imperial measurements from 3/8-1/2 inch to 10 mm-14 mm (actually 9/16 of a inch ) the measurement is how much the arm should move from the stop pad on the spring assy .

the guidelines they use are actually the GM tech bulletin I have in my books .

and yes if they are firm then leave them alone , just remember about every 2-3000 miles ( 4-5Km) to cycle the emergency brake 2-3 times and release ( no need to touch bracket under car) , this should keep them adjusted ( contrary to what they say they are not self adjusting ! ) , if your emergency brake cable is not connected you should hook it up ... this is a company in california that makes custom cables for about the price a regular one costs .. http://www.controlcables.com/ I have had good luck with them .

 

Didn't Volvo cars have 8.8 diffs when Volvo was owned by Ford? I don't know if they would be available in Norwegian junkyards.

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Because my car has non original exhaust pipes and disc brakes, the e-brake cables are touching the pipes when tightened, plan is to use small pulleybrackets to guide the cables. Maybe the company you linked to can help if new cables are needed

 

^^^^ what trb11 said ?

 

Use GM front calipers, they will work in the brackets you have and then get an E-brake kit that goes on the pinion of your 9 inch rear end.

 

forgot they even sold that still.. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Pinion-Mounted-9-Inch-Ford-Emergency-Brake,44784.html

 

I put Seville rotors and calipers on the 8.5" 10 bolt in the cpe back in 01. In my opinion there are two downsides. First is the lack of self adjustment, have to use the E-brake for that. Second they are really only a parking brake as the braking force going down the road can not begin to equal the stopping power that I had with the stock drum brakes

 

Was hoping some one would come up with the best way to get the calipers to adjust. Not to take away from the original thread, but I just can't seem to get them to adjust tight enough for them to have the parking brake operate.

 

I wish I could help you but I can't. I do remember there was a trick to it. Another possibility is that your calipers aren't working right. I seem to remember having to take a new one back when I did the cpe. because it didn't adjust

 

the clip that Kjell posted is the Gm tech way ( that was the service bulletin on how to adjust them properly ) the only real way on these is to use a soft organic brake pad , if its semi mettalic , or ceramic it will not hold as they need heat in the pad/rotor to make the friction material bite . do not attempt to make a longer lever as that will destroy the ball mechanism inside that adjusts it . ( I had one where some tried this and locked the brakes up solid and would not release , we had to cut the caliper in half to remove it .

 

Dont know it they would have fit, but it had probably been actual anyway. The 240s f.ex were mainly cars with only 4 cylinders, thay were lighter than a heavy full size Ford. It has been done the opposite way with some Volvos, f.ex when installing V8 engines in 240s

 

Interesting solution, but not for me Have just installed a new drivshaft from Southwest speed https://goo.gl/rMcFB1 to get rid of vibrations. And it was an effort to get the correct U-joint to fit the shaft and pinion. It could also be a new source for vibrations...

 

This solutions may be actual:

http://www.mustangsteve.com/cobrabrakes.html

Using Mustang Cobra 1994-2004 brackets making it possible to use calibers and 11.74 discs

Only challenge can be how to route the e-brake cables

A shop adjusted the seville calipers and the car was confirmed for 2 new years by the national authorities, but the mustang calipers looks much easier to adjust