1st Gen Accord (1980) Brake Caliper Slides [help please]

[Wubbywub]

Hi all, I have been having some serious trouble with the brakes on my 80 accord hatch constantly rubbing and was wondering if someone has some insight

I have worked with brakes many times before, and never have I seen or dealt with slide plates. I always saw slide pins, which you greased and replace the boots on and voila. But here, there are these weird angled plates, and I can't see how they're supposed to function reliably - they don't move well like the kind with cylindrical pins.

Here is some background on the issue and what I have done so far:

- I figured out the rears were making noise because someone before me put the wrong springs to hold the shoes together, and the spring was literally rubbing on the part of the drum that houses the bearings.

1 month ago - the front started making noise a month ago, I disassembled to diagnose, and found that on one side, the outer pad was barely worn, while the inner was bare metal (piston is on the inner side), with no pad material left. This led me to believe the slides were not moving - I thought that would explain the pad next to the piston being very worn and the other pad being barely worn. ordered parts and reassembled for now.

1 week ago - I replaced the rotors and pads (huge pain, had to press the hub apart to change rotors), and well as thoroughly cleaning caliper, bracket, and slide plates. I greased the slide plates with red bearing grease, but they do not move freely. in fact once I install the first slide plate I have to tap the other in with mallet. I don't understand how these plates are supposed to move well ????

I know the rubbing is serious because after about 15-20 mins of driving, the lug nuts on the front wheels become very hot - as was the case when the spring was rubbing in the rear brake: it got hot until i fixed it now it stays cool or a little warm after alot of driving.

for the record, I put "new/rebuilt" master cylinder, calipers, brackets, and pads on in july (exactly 6 months ago), and the operation was intermittently good/bad since then, with the brakes sometimes working well and being quiet, and other times being loud and heating up - I tried to relate the issues to how long I was driving, how hot it was out, and other factors, but the intermittent nature of the problem seemed purely random to me until it got worse and was constant.

can anybody offer any insight please? I have been battling these brakes from 6 months now, and I really just want to enjoy the car!:nervous::nervous::nervous::dunno:

[Wubbywub]

also forgot to mention - I had an 82 and i know the calipers on those are much a much newer and better design - does anybody know if those would bolt up to these knuckles without huge modification?

[sapincher]

Bearing grease is not recommended on brake caliper slides... it along with antiseize will dry up and get all hard and crusty and contribute to seizing. There is a special high temperature brake lubricant for slide pins/pads. Could be when you installed the calipers you used the same grease and it got all gunky? If not that I would probably file a couple thousandths of an inch off the caliper bracket so the slide pads don't press up against the caliper so much.

You're right though, uneven brake pad wear like you saw can only be the caliper seizing.. it should slide back and forth in the bracket with no effort.

[Wubbywub]

thanks for the reply! I originally had them greased with caliper grease, but they seized and where bone dry when i pulled them off, so I tried bearing grease.

filing them down sounds like a great solution, if keeping everything stock. I lucked out and found some of my '82 calipers in my garage - they bolt right up, and work as they should - the only problem is the caliper bracket spacing is a bit off, and the gap around the rotor from the bracket is uneven - on one side if the pad wears down about 2/3 it can slip out of the bracket - now i have to decide if im gonna modify the bracket a little to line up correctly, or if I should have some old metal pad backing welded to my pads to make them thicker/change my pads more often and keep a close eye on the wear levels.

[2ndGenGuy]

You do not grease the sliders on this car, it will only gather up dirt and crap and seize up the caliper. Once they wear out, you are supposed to replace them. But you can't get them new, or anywhere at all. I don't really know what people do to refresh the brakes properly on their cars...

The stock rotor is pretty thin because it's not vented. Those 82 Calipers are designed for the thicker, vented rotors. That's why the issue with the pads being able to fall out, if I had to guess. There may be a caliper off of a 1g Prelude that you could use. I believe that they also had unvented rotors, but still had the more modern style of calipers with the slider pins that you see on all the newer Hondas.

[Wubbywub]

I got the sliders as part of a rebuilt fully loaded caliper assembly - they looked new but i don't know because they painted eveyr part of the caliper gold for some silly reason.

I am putting on the 82 caliper for now - I will document the swap process and post it here. I have 4 caliper brackets now, so I will take the 2 spares to my university's machine shop, and i will try to find a way to modify them such that the pads cannot slide out

[2ndGenGuy]

Were the sliders painted gold too? Funny thing, I've ordered the fully loaded calipers before and I never got the the sliders with them.

[Wubbywub]

yeah haha, I don't know why anyone would paint sliders, im sure the paint didn't help them slide.....

[2ndGenGuy]

I think your other option is to use a 1g Prelude caliper. I think it's got traditional sliders, and literally bolts right on in place of the Accord ones.