Took 87 Fiero into my favorite honest, knowledgable neighborhood mechanic, did great job on fuel lines and other stuff.
He replaced the O-Ring and slider kit on rear brakes.
However, my rear brakes still rattle and clank over every slight bump but they dont rattle while I am braking.
What can be causing this rattle and clanking noise?

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jetman
Silver 86 SE 2M6 4-speed, with "check wallet light"

sounds like possible lower ball joints to me esp...if it does it when you hit a bump...to check jack up the car and pry on the balljoint and i bet you will see play in it

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It could be the pads rattling in the calipers. One remedy is a spot of silicone on the back side of the pad opposite to the caliper piston.

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There should be anti-rattle clips on the brake pads, either that or they're the type that have crimp ears. It's been too long since I've looked at the pre-88 pad design.

JazzMan

If the dampening springs are missing, get the whole recall kit from GMPartsDirect.com. Use the springs and save the rest till needed. The hardware kit that includes the springs is about $20.00 while the kit that has pistons, springs, seals etc. is just over $32.

Okay, I replaced my slider o-rings and bolt end rubber sleeves, and still with the rattle! The fierostore kit came with anti-rattle clips for the pads, but they dont seem to fit onto the caliper!

The outer tangs fit right onto the inboard pad, but the inside tangs are too small of a diameter to fit over the piston. Now, my inboard pads have 4 tangs on them that squish into a hole in the middle of the piston. Are there different types of pistons / pads?

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Black '87 GT Auto - Daily Driver & Autocrosser
Eibach springs, Koni shocks, poly bushings, rear swaybar, MSD ignition, shift-kit, custom intake scoop

The rattle you describe sounds exactly like a loose pad. I had that on my '84 before I did the brakes--one of the clips had come loose. Spyhunter's picture is what came with my new pads. If memory serves, the inner clips attach to the caliper and rotate in place to lock it, then the pad locks into the outer clips. Something like that? The ones that were on the car before looked completely different. I think that one was for the outer pad only, and the inner pad had the three tangs to slide into the caliper hole. I could be wrong...it's been a year, and the memory, well...she gets shorter.

I got both the pads & replacement calipers locally.

There should be four little half moon looking indentations in the caliper piston. Fit the four tangs into these slots and rotate the clip to the correct position and snap the pads in place. There are also two small nubs on the back of the inboard rear pad the must fit into the two slots in the pistons top in order to get the clips to snap onto the pad. If they are holding you up the piston needs rotated till things line up.

I'm printing this whole thread and taking it into my mechanic.
Thanks everyone.
My mechanic never misses a trick so I was rather flabergasted when the brakes started rattling. Thanks again.
Tm

So are these clips for the rears only? Because my front pistons didnt have any notches to slot the clip into... I havent looked at my rears yet... The clip i posted a pic of would no way fit onto my front caliper piston without some cutting and modding... I'm kinda lost then how to stop my front brake rattle

Those clips pictured are designed to keep the rear caliper pistons from rotating due to the self-adjust mechanism for the parking brakes. The fronts don't have that.

JazzMan

quote Originally posted by Indiana_resto_guy: There should be four little half moon looking indentations in the caliper piston. Fit the four tangs into these slots and rotate the clip to the correct position and snap the pads in place. There are also two small nubs on the back of the inboard rear pad the must fit into the two slots in the pistons top in order to get the clips to snap onto the pad. If they are holding you up the piston needs rotated till things line up.

^^^^ What he said. The memory is returning.

quote Originally posted by Spyhunter: So are these clips for the rears only? Because my front pistons didnt have any notches to slot the clip into... I havent looked at my rears yet... The clip i posted a pic of would no way fit onto my front caliper piston without some cutting and modding... I'm kinda lost then how to stop my front brake rattle

Yes, those are only for the rear.
The inner front pad should have a three pronged spring type retainer which is designed to fit inside the hollow area of the front caliper pistons. Originally, these have a steel insert inside that cup which has rusted and faded away with time. If this too is your case carefully spread the prongs apart until the pad is retained firmly. As mentioned before use brake anti rattle paste to help retain position of the inner pad. 84 thru 87 outer pads are retained with a clip which holds the outer pad securely to the caliper housing and should have no rattle issues.

Ogre mentions in his Cave that not all rear pistons have the notches. A note in the Haynes manual says "Not all pads are equipped with the same type of inboard pad retainer. Some vehicles have a wire clip type dampening spring that is secured to the end of the piston." There would be no reason to notch the pistons that use the wire clip.

So, when did the design change? Was this part of the brake recall? If it was, most auto trans cars (if original) would still have the wire clips. Maybe the design changed before the recall. Does any one know?

i got this same problem. i did my rear brakes a few months ago and there were no clips, retaining spring etc. there were these notch thingy's to hold the pads in place on the piston side. funny thing too is that i pulled the wheel off this week and the pads are already worn about 50%. whats going on?

quote Originally posted by dfoxslim: pads are already worn about 50%. whats going on?

Ogre says "If the clip that holds the inner pad against the piston is damaged or missing then it must be replaced. If it's not there then the pad will drag the rotor. It could heat up the rotor and cause warping. In any case you will have accelerated wear of the parts. The clip does more than prevent pad rattle."

[This message has been edited by spark1 (edited 04-16-2004).]