Ahhh…the blessing and the curse that is the ATE integrated hand brake caliper. This is the tale of the funky little caliper I’ve come to love (and hate).

Let me start with one of those “If you think you’ve got it bad” stories to help make everyone feel better:

If you think you’ve got it bad, you should see the poor Alfa guys who use basically the same caliper. Their ATE IHB (integrated hand brake) caliper is mounted on the transmission. This places it out of the airstream and mounts it on a hot tranny. You get to get under your car to adjust the venting clearance and they often overheat contributing to brake fade. Adding a little more salt to the wound; try to upgrade “that” system…

So we have this funny caliper with a handbrake that is ingeniously integrated into the braking system. When it’s working, it works pretty damn well. But what are our problems:

1. You have to adjust them annually or bi-annually.
2. They can be expensive to perform an honest to goodness “upgrade”.
3. They can be tricky to adjust.
4. Most of them are inoperable.

That’s right… most of the rear calipers on 914’s on the road today are not working at all!

As the hallowed holiday season approaches, this may be a great time to look at your brake system and perform some simple maintenance procedures. Here are the ones that top my list:

1. Change your fluid.
2. Check and change your soft lines.
3. Check and change your pads.
4. Adjust your rear calipers.

In this thread we’ll cover the procedure and the pitfalls of adjusting your rear calipers.

Let’s start with a bit of a lesson as to what these things are and why we need to adjust them. With the ATE IHB caliper there is no need for a separate drum brake system (E.G; the 911 system) to operate the hand brake or emergency brake. Here’s how it works; you pull the lever in the passenger’s compartment. The lever pulls on the cables. The cables pull the arms. The arms move the internal adjustment mechanism forcing the inside piston/pad against the rotor. If the venting clearance is set properly, this forces the rotor against the outside pad as well clamping the rotor securely between the pads. It’s that simple. Here’s a picture of the “chain” as it affects the inner piston on the caliper:

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Because we are only utilizing one piston in this process, it is imperative that the adjusting clearance on both the inner and the outer piston be set properly and often. Here's the outer adjuster chain. A bit more simple than the inner setup:

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In basic terms, the adjustment mechanism inside the piston simply allows the piston to be adjusted inward or outward while still performing it’s job as a brake caliper piston; apply fluid pressure… clamp rotors. The mechanism allows the piston to travel a good 4-5mm to do this job. Now… if your pads have worn, and you’ve never adjusted your venting clearance, your piston will travel to the furthest extension point and either be blown off its adjuster or (as in most cases herein) not work at all. By properly setting your venting clearances a couple of times per year you’ll help ensure your rear calipers are working. With working rear calipers you’ll stop faster and safer and you’ll have better times at the track. Here's a close up view of the internal adjuster mechanism as it sits in your piston. Imaging your piston moving up and down via this mechanism:

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To properly set the venting clearance (as with any job) you’ll need to prep properly. Included herein are some basics meant to augment the factory manual. Here’s a list of some tools needed to perform this job:

o 4mm hex socket (or 4mm wrench long enough to go through the arm).
o 13mm socket
o Socket wrench or arm
o 6” socket extension
o Cold Chisel (possible/probable)
o Hammer (possible/probable)
o Feeler gauges in .004 or .008 sizes.
o Vise Grips
o 4mm hex wrench (simple)

Before we begin this procedure I want to make sure we cover a few things. Make sure you’ve bled the brakes and there’s fluid in the calipers. Also, make sure this is performed on a car that is completed and running. You will need to have your stub axles in and properly torqued before you attempt to set your venting clearance. Don’t laugh, you’ll be surprised at how many people try to do this while their cars are in the build process. If the hubs are not torqued to the stub axle you can get considerable wobble or run-out. Let’s get started.

1. Raise car on a lift or with a jack and place on jackstands.

2. Remove the rear wheels.

3. Remove the cables from the arms. Inspect, clean and lube the cables at this time.

4. Remove the outer dust cover (if your car still has one) and unscrew the lock nut. Here's a shot of the outer dust cover being removed:

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IMPORTANT – You MUST loosen this lock nut (red arrown in the following picture) to allow the outer adjuster to operate freely. Notice the clip on the adjuster shaft (yellow arrow). This is meant to hold the lock nut in place. Do not agressively hyper extend the 13mm lock nut past this clip, you just need to loosen it.:

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Failure to loosen this lock nut prior to attempting to adjust the outer adjuster is the number one cause of stripped outer adjusters. If you strip your outer adjuster the caliper will need to be rebuilt and/or the adjuster replaced. These are very fragile at 4mm and you may find that the previous owner has already stripped the adjuster for you. That being the case, you may be able to salvage it by tapping the top of the adjuster with a hammer and form the top back into shape enough for the hex to bite.

There is a “Special Tool” that is used to loosen and tighten this lock nut but I’ll show you the 914 guy CSOB version herein. I like to call it “Special Tool VG13MM”:

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That’s right, take a 13mm socket and clamp it in a pair of Vise Grip pliers. This allows access to the inner adjuster via the 4mm hex through the opening in the socket. Once the lock nut is loosened you are now ready to adjust the gap.

5. Look for the run-out or wobble in the rotor. They all have it, you’ll want to look for the high side and have that in your pad area while you adjust the clearance. I like to use a Sharpie and outline the caliper top and bottom on the rotor so the rotor stays in the same place as I adjust. Take a .004” feeler and put it between the outer pad and the rotor. Using a simple 4mm hex wrench adjust the clearance to .004” so there is light pressure on the gauge.:

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Lets address this .004” and .008” debate that needlessly rains supreme on the Internet. The factory had originally printed a .008” spec in the Factory Manuals. All of the other (Haynes and Clymer) manuals picked up this spec. Since then they (the factory) changed the spec to .004”. The Alfa manuals spec at .01”. Does it matter? NO! You’re splitting hairs here… LITERALLY. The difference between .004 and .008 is the difference between a thin hair and a thick hair. A business card is .011”:

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The problem doesn’t lie in .004 and .008”, it lays in what your pads are adjusted to now which is much greater than either of those two, I’m guessing!!

6. Remove the feeler gauge and rotate the rotor making sure you did adjust to the “high” spot on the rotor. There should be no binding as you rotate the rotor. If this checks out true, hold the adjuster with the 4mm hex and tighten the 13mm lock nut with our new “Special Tool” VG13MM.

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7. Move on to the inner adjuster. This is where the problems can arise. The number one problem with the inner adjuster is the cover that seals it from the elements. These have a 4mm hex head when new and the small hex and shallow depth of this hex fitting is in no way capable of overcoming the rust and grunge that builds up on the 10x1 thread engagement. Basically stating; the thread engagement is too much for the 4mm hex to overcome in “most” cases. Look at that pathetic little thing!:

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What does this mean? A “stripped” 4mm hex and now you’re left wondering how you’ll ever be able to adjust your inner adjusters. To make matter worse; all of this needs to be accessed through that hole in your control arm. There is a solution for getting this cover off and there is a longer term fix. If you have a feel for these kind of things (and I don’t expect most of you to know when the breaking point is on a 4mm hex) you can tell if it’s going to come or not. If it’s tight STOP, especially if you’re not equipped with the “longer term fix” (which would be a new cover). You’ll need to use this piece again so let’s not bugger it up too badly. The best way to remove it is to use a cold chisel and turn it with the chisel and hammer:

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You will probably need to take the caliper off the mounts to do this but, here goes the procedure. Placing the chisel at the 8:00 position, angle it 45 degrees in the direction of desired movement. Sharp blows with the hammer and chisel will loosen the cover without further damaging the 4mm hex:

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In this example you can see the force required to get these off sometimes (red arrow) and you can see that this has been done before (yellow arrow):

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This allows you to reinstall the cover once you’re done adjusting the caliper. Insert the hex and spin off the cover:

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Once you get the cover off you can remove the copper washer with a utility knife:

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and access the inner adjuster gear:

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Lets clarify the use of gears and the direction of rotation upon adjusting the inner piston. The reason we need the above gear is the handbrake arm (in the first picture) is squarely in the way of direct contact with the inner adjuster. The way around this is to place a gear below the adjuster to drive it. Once something is gear driven the motion for adjusting is sent in the opposite direction so… what would be a counter clockwise move to get a piston to adjust out is now a clockwise move… make sense? As stated before; to properly adjust the inner pistons you need to go through the adjuster hole on the control arm. Once the cap is off you’ll take a 4mm hex socket on a 6” extension arm and adjust through the arm:

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(pay no attention to the extra holes in the arms herein)

TIP: If you think your calipers are old, grungy and stuck, tap the handbrake arm inward with a hammer (watching not to hit too hard or go too far and shear off the stop pin for the arm). Do you remember how we described this hand brake arm mechanism earlier? Imagine it now breaking an old, grungy, fluid and rust bond by forcing the piston out toward the rotor. By tapping it you will force the piston loose and it will probably adjust properly (even though it probably needs a rebuild at this point). Make sure you are at that high spot on your run-out and adjust your inner pad to the .004” setting.

8. Double check the clearance on the run-out and reinstall the adjuster cover, leaving that gear right where you found it. If you did not find a gear in there you’re not alone. We stopped supplying gears as most cores came back missing a gear. Fear not. You can adjust both calipers with one gear. Check your other caliper for a gear and use it on both. Regarding the adjuster cover and the “fix”; we have sourced a plug that has the same 10x1 thread pattern and has the same look as the factory plug. It is much better because it has a 5mm “very deep” hex slot in it. The 5mm slot will overcome anything those 10x1 threads can throw at it and, with the extra depth, it has much more wrench engagement:

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This is better than some of the other aftermarket plugs as it allows you to mount and dismount your calipers in normal fashion. The other aftermarket solutions are 10mm raised body plugs that stick out so far they do not allow you to mount your caliper to the arm with the plug on. You will need to remove that plug and reinstall it through the arms. Not a big deal but, when there’s a better solution, use it.

9. Reinstall your cables making sure they operate smoothly and freely.

Now you can enjoy not only a renewed hand brake functionality but rear calipers that are really working! Seriously… I’m willing to bet that 80% of the 914’s on the road have inoperative rear calipers. Just think what it will be like once you’re firing on all 4 again!

Great job.

This should go in the Technical area, and possibly the classics.

This is the type of great work that we can point newby's to that are trying to learn...

Awesome job Eric!!!!
I love the list of tools
Hammer and chisel (probable)

Rich

Well... it's TRUE!

Thanks Rich!

E.

Both the author and the article are:

CLASSICS

Well done!

Do the e-brake cable require adjustment at the firewall ? If so how ?

Great job Eric,
I have done this several times before on the outside, but never attempted the inside.
Your right about the persentage of rear calipers that don't work, when I got my car last year, I found the pass. side cable wasn't even hooked up. The arm was froze solid. I worked it loose and it seemed to work. So I re connected the cable with a new pin. Seems OK now, but should be striped and torn down for a rebuild.

I have seen your rebuild service I was seriously thinking about sending them in to you for a rebuild unitl the boss tells me no Christmas bonuses this year, can you say ," Clark Griswold"

So, I may be performing the rebuild my self, Is it worth/ econimical adding the spacers and changing to the 914-6 rotors at the time of a rebuild??

I am sure the venting clearance need to be set every time rebuild, pads, maintenance, bleeding is performed???

Very nice Eric

Yo Moroni Boy, I pull the anti-rattle spring on the pads, set each side @ 0.002" -and put anti-sieze on the adjustment hole cover threads.

Am I violating some Porschee Factory Mandate by doing this? I wouldn't want to offend the Porschee Gawds ya know.

Couple of things here...

1. Go for it. I'll help if you get into trouble,

2. Spacers and 914-6 rotors don't mix. 6 rotors ar solid. If you went with spacers you'd use a standatd 20mm 911 rear rotor (70-83) with 4mm shaved off the edge. If you have dual bleeder rears with the bolts and machined nose you can use the spacer kit on those. The early calipers with the through bolts won't work as we do not have access to M7 hardware in those lengths. It is possible that 911 rear caliper hardware could be used but, now it's getting a little more expensive. You might be able to find a core set for around $50.00. In the last month I've seen cores go for $13.00 to $75.00.

3. I think twice per year is a good measure for this procedure. Once you make sure your lock nuts aren't frozen and your inner adjuster plugs are in good shape it's a fairly quick job. If you're racing I would do it at every fluid change (which should be after each race). Racing can be demanding on pads and, when you wear the pads you need to adjust the clearance.



I'm fairly certain you can do no wrong. It can be a bit of work to push the pins back and remove the pad springs and replace the pins though. It may allow easier access to the area on the top to set the venting clearance. I like to leave the springs in as they should (in theory) push the pads back against the pistons to help set the gap.

Regarding the .002": My only concern is that these components heat up and, as they do, the rotor could easily swell. We had this situation with a teener in Europe a few years back. His system swelled to a hault. This may not be noticable but, I'd be willing to bet as the rear system gets hot it may swell and take off extra pad material. If we're talking .002", .004" or .008" it's probably mute. Plus... you rarely drive over 30mph so, you're probably good.

Then they are not working...you need both sides set correctly.


If the arm is frozen then the brakes are not working over on that side..
Also it could lock in place if you use the e-brake.


I agree with Eric here. Twice per year minimum with no Autox or track.
Pads wear out and get thinner. Unlike the front calipers, the rear calipers are not self adjusting...so the thinner the pad gets from normal use, the worse your brakes get...
For AutoX and track..I personally adjust mine after every other autox...that is when I rotate my tires, so I am right there.

It kinda sucks but its how these brakes work.
I know that Mark Schnieder (MSDS) was working on a nice mechanical caliper for the ebrake so we could put different calipers (self adjusting) on the rear.
Marks piece was a small motorcycle sized caliper just for Ebrake...
This opens up a whole load of options for rear calipers just because there is no need for the built in ebrake anymore.

Rich

Thanks for this post. The special 13mm tool is shear genius!

For the "special tool" I've always used a Craftsman box end wrench without any problems.

Yep your right, I will need early 911 vented rear rotors and shave 4mm from the inside, my bad I knew this but it was late.
I saw some where the spacer kit, seals and gaskets, was that on your member Vendor thread???

After reading the other replys, I will definetly be pulling the calipers and doing the rebuild soon. No mater what Santa says, bonus or no bonus, I'm doing the rears.

Thanks Eric,

Tony

Sometimes the boxed end wrenches just don't sit perfectly around the 13mm nut and they can round the edges of the nut. Either the size of the boxed end itself or the handle on the wrench will cause them not to always sit tight in that round cavity surrounding the nut. Sounds like you have one that works. That's why I like the solid grip of the 6-sided socket for this.



Shave the 4mm off the outside edge so the rotor is the same diameter as the original 914 rotor.

Spacer kits should be in my signature... or here:

http://www.pmbperformance.com/catalog/item...563/5314821.htm

Is it completely necessary to remove the cables to set adjust?

BTW
this should be a CLASSIC

Very nice write up. I wish I would have seen it about a month ago when I had to rebuild my rear caliper. I thought it was self adjusting. DOH!!!!

Another suggestion to this awesome thread would be how to disassmble the rear ebrake lever mechanism to get to the rubber oring inside. Mine was leaking and I found a ferrari thread where there were pics of the disassembly of a very similar caliper. Thanks.



Patrick

I am going to go to the 911 eb setup but I wanted to read this thread because the fiero also uses a mechanical arm eb caliper. To me the fiero seems simpler and doesn't use the venting procedure. I can't remember but it may be a floating caliper though. When you are bored you might want to check it out it might be a easy replacement and be a lot simpler to deal with.

FWIW, in the 36 years I've been working on 914s professionally, I've NEVER had to readjust the properly set handbrake adjusters between pad changes.

The Cap'n

So now I'm concerned that my rear brakes are not right as you have observed many with problems. I would think to check my rear brakes, I would drive the car and attempt to stop the car using the emergency brake to judge the rears. Will this tell me about the rears?

Uh what if you find that turning your inner adjusters (w/gear in place)
provides no effect IE does not move the inner pad closer to the disc?

Seriously you guys didnt get the inners adjusted ?
one or both ?

yup..brand new calipers. No workie on BOTH inside adjusters & yes it has adjustment gearz installed on both sides (now).

Sorry Rich, only 6 years late on a reply but, I was looking for this for another customer and just saw this.

If we look at the first picture in this thread:



...you can see the basic relationship of what's in the "inboard" 1/2 of the caliper. When you spin the adjuster and nothing happens, this means the adjuster shaft is spun up "tight" inside the mechanism in the piston. When it is too tight, it's like a frozen fastener. In turning it, you will be turning the entire mechanism inside the piston shell. This happens if they've sat for a while. If the mechanism inside the shell is spinning, no adjusting will occur.

To remedy this, you'll need to overcome the lock by spinning the adjuster gear in a "clockwise" direction at very high speeds with little or no ramp up. This means an air wrench. By turning the gear clockwise, you will turn the adjuster counter-clockwise and with a few short bursts, the velocity and inertia of the adjuster should overcome the mass of the piston and mechanism and release itself.

I know we're 6 years late but, hopefully that will help others.

I have to smile; in desperation, I used the same vice grip special, after scratching my head wondering how else to do it, back when I first had to do this. Necessity is a mother...

Great right-up Eric. And good timing.

Even though I did adjust them after putting your new rear calipers on my '73, I'm going to check clearance again as I'm still having a hell of a time getting a firm pedal after NUMEROUS bleeding procedures.

Everything is basically new or rebuilt including your 19mm MC, and cleaned rear "proportioning valve" or whatever the correct name is.

Wonder if some of the horrible spongy brake is too much rear clearance. This is my next project!

OK, Now, what's the technique for getting an outer adjuster unfrozen? Same idea except in a counterclockwise direction? I'm currently in a "need to know" situation.

The how to restore / modify 914 book mentions removing the pin retainer before adjusting. Is that necessary? Thx.

I like to leave them in. We're talking about the pad springs. The reason being; that's the way the car will be run. I tend not to use feeler gauges for the .004" though. It may be easier to use the feeler gauges if you remove the springs. I run a full rotation while adjusting the outer and the inner separately. I back the adjusters off just enough so there's no rubbing.

Hi Eric,

So, tonight I went to adjust the rears on the rebuilt calipers I received from you.

Both sides are missing the gear mechanism? Is this something I should have removed from the cores before returning them?

Thx.

Mike

Yes. Do you need a pair?

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My bad. Next time I should actually read the instructions.

Yes, I suppose I do need those. If you have, please PM me as to how I can get them from you.

Thanks

Fantastic article thank you for the help!

Dumb question probably. I need to adjust the hand brake. It's a factory six and as far as I know, it has the original calipers, beautifully restored by Eric a couple of years ago. Are they the same, and the procedure the same, as this DYI?

yes. exactly the same.

thanks, mepstein, for the quick reply. as the restored calipers were installed in 2015, I am hoping for no frozen parts and a quick/easy adjustment

I'm 99% sure that all the ebrake hardware is the same as the 914-4 parts. Only the caliper castings, pistons and some seals are different. Maybe the bolts that hold the caliper halves are different but I'm not sure.

@Eric_Shea So every few yrs its seems I have to revisit this thread
Lets try this scenario:
Install new R. brakes new pads & set venting clearance.
Drive the car over a period of a .5 yr and at that interval need to adjust calipers due to wear (about .5 gone).
Go through process as described prior & continue driving.
Another 6 months of driving passes & its time for service including replacement of rear pads.
By this time the caliper pistons are extended well out of their bores.
Logically by reversing the direction of the adjuster's I should be able to retract the pistons into the calipers bores so I can fit the new pads with their increased/ original thickness
BUT instead the calipers DONT WANT TO RETURN?
Testing the adjuster action in the opposite direction seems to operate as intended (pushing OUT the piston further)
What am I missing?
Should not this process work for both inner & outer adjusters?

I think you will have to manually push in the pistons as you screw in the adjuster.

Pressure may be needed to retract extended pistons when installing new pads. We always apply thumb pressure upon assembly when pulling pistons into the bore.

Ya no joy, is the process to then push them completely free, clean of any rust or crust & reinstall?

Rich,
Having the same problem today on a PMB rebuilt set. Used wood and pushed the brake pedal to move the pistons and lube the seals. Outside pushed back in the inner piston is stuck and won’t retract.
Tried to open bleeder still no luck.

What did you do to fix?

You do realize that the rear pistons do not move freely like the front pistons?
The rears have the adjuster mechanisms, and the free axial movement is minimal. the adjusters HAVE to be used to move the pistons within the bores.

Is this a freshly installed set of calipers? I'm unclear on what you're doing with a piece of wood.

If fresh rebuilts, the pistons should be all the way retracted when they come out of the box...bolt them on the car and manually adjust them before putting any hydraulic pressure to them.

The adjuster mechanism is retained in the pistons with a circlip. If you apply hydraulic pressure first it can push the pistons off of the adjuster mechanism, and then the mechanism will simply spin in the piston rather than move the piston when you spin the adjuster.

If this happens, unbolt the caliper, open a bleeder, and use a C-clamp to try and squeeze the pistons back in...not too hard, just enough to pop them down over the adjuster machanism so the circlip snaps into place, then they should manually adjust like normal.