S12 Brake Trouble

Well, I'm having some trouble with my S12 and I'm probably going to take it into a shop to get it looked at, but I was hoping maybe you guys might have some advice on this issue.

The guy that I bought it from said that the left rear parking brake cable was going bad, but he gave me a new one to replace it with. He said that the brake was always partially on. I drove the car for awhile and the brake didn't give me any problems. The only thing that happened was that when I put the car in Neutral, it wouldn't roll at all(because the brake was always partially on)
This eventually got worse and when I would drive the car, I would shift into second gear and the car would not accelerate anymore. I could literally floor it and nothing would happen. I replaced the rear cable and adjusted the hand-brake so that there was the correct amount of tension on it.
It helped for awhile and then it got bad again. I backed it up onto ramps and tried every combination of connecting and disconnecting the cables and it didn't change a thing. At one point I disconnected the hand brake, equalizer, and the cables from the brakes, and it still gave me trouble. When I put it in first, the rear end would drop down about 2" before moving. When I put it in reverse, it would raise up about 1.5".
So I reconnected everything and tried it a few times and it went away...this makes me think that it was a sticky caliper or something...?
Anyway, it went away but then it came back worse then ever a couple days ago. I don't know the first thing about brake internals so I'm considering taking it somewhere to get it fixed. But does anybody have any idea what it could be?
(sorry this was soooo long)

Yep, definitely sounds like a sticky caliper to me. Time for a rebuild.

From what I hear there is a worm gear that turns when you apply the park brake. It seems these things are prone to siezing. Also when your pistons get old and crusty the square o-ring that backs your pads off when you release your brakes will start to stick. I think its time to rebuild your caliper (or get a new one).

Make sure you just take in the callipers. That way you don't get charged for labour only the cost of rebuilding the callipers.
My girlfriends brother just got his done (AE92 Levin) for $120 which seems pretty good.

$120 isn't bad at all. So I'm thinking about taking the car in today and just getting it looked at. If they say it is the calipers, then should I go home and take the calipers off and then just take those in? Would that make the most sense?

As long as you have the ability to bleed the brakes on your own. I would go in and ask them if it would cost more if you just bring the whole car in.

Good call

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll go into the shop and get it looked at and let you all know what the problem was tonight, hopefully.

it's probably the sliders in the rear calipers

I've seen a few S12s with this problem. Mine gets worse the longer it sits. For me, it would just moan and groan when you first backed the car out of the parking space. It seems to be worse now, doing it when going forwards too.

It's easy to take the brakes off, but if you're not confident, don't muck around with the brakes, way too dangerous of a learning curve ;)

i had both my rear calipers do this

How did you fix it?

How did you fix it?

replaced the calipers with ones i got at a u-pull-it-yard

Yeah...both of my rear calipers did this too. You can get calipers pretty cheap from AutoZone.
I just looked on their website for a '87 V6...................

$126 for a "loaded" pair (both sides), lifetime warr.
or
$39 each for a "unloaded" one, lifetime warr.
Autozone is awsome with their lifetime warr.....if it ever seizes up again..take it off and they'll replace it for free....no questions. I've done this with my rack and pinion.....the first one I bought started leaking 6 years later and it was hassle free to get a new one.

If you can do the work yourself, I would do it....it's pretty easy. Just need another person to mash the brake pedal while bleeding

Be careful with autozone and other part stores with the rear rebuilt calipers. I had trouble a little while back. They kept getting ones that looked similiar but didn't fit properly at all and didn't have the realease spring for the e-brake cable. I ended up getting one from advance but had the same problem with them with one of the brands. I forget which brand it was that worked out for me. But watch out and make sure it's identical down to the release spring.

Well, I didn't get it to a shop yesterday, but I think I'm gonna jack it up today and have a friend give me a hand with the calipers. Somebody told me that I should be able to take it off and the axle should spin freely if the car is in neutral...is that right?

Yep thats right......and if your calipers aren't seized up the wheels should spin freely as well.
Oh...one thing to note........hopefully if they are seized up.....they aren't seized to the mounting bracket. On mine, one of the pins on each of rear calipers was seized up in the mounting bracket. One I got loose with heat....the other was so seized up even a tourch wouldn't free it. I had to end up getting another mounting bracket from a wrecker since they weren't avail new anywhere.