My question is how should the travel on the front wheels compare to the rear when up in the air.
We have an 85 Fiero and while changing both rear calipers we noticed that while up in the air the rear wheels don't travel very much. Removing the old calipers helped but not much. The rear wheels give maybe an inch or 2 of free travel after let go as compared to the front wheels that travel for seconds and take far longer to stop on their own. The front calipers were both on and on the rear only the driver side rear caliper was on with no fluid so not engaged, I checked. We preformed both tests with the tires on and in neutral.
I will begrudgingly note that only one of the 2 brakes pads on the driver rear side caliper are even touching the rotor and touch is an overstatement. I only add this because another party member who is as experianced as I am disagrees with me and feels that the brake pad is the reason it wont spin freely like the fronts. We would both prefer to not take this caliper off becuase it works and sucked both ways to take off and put on.
In addition to a visual inspection when we turn one wheel the other turns in the opposite direction unimpeded. To clarify, it doesnt spin any easier in one direction compared to the other, but I only reference this to show that if the caliper was in engaged slightly then I would think that the wheel with the caliper on it would have trouble turning through the dif compared to hands on.
Don't question the missing passenger side caliper. It's just where we stopped when we decided to test the wheel spin and noticed the discrepancy.
At any rate is that just the way it should be or should the rears travel close to the same as the fronts in a perfect world?
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MJM