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Which pathway to solve probable caliper / wheel cylinder seizure problem? 120-130

A relative very kindly allowed me to park my 1967 122S Wagon in front of her house for about 9 months. Yesterday after starting it up I found the car wouldn't move. Inspection (after jacking) showed that the left front and the left rear wheels wouldn't turn. The wheels on the right (passengers)side would spin, but with some scraping noise.

The car was in Nassau County, Long Island -- an area that experiences its fair share of rain and humidity. Over the winter, the left side of the car was probably exposed to at least one incidence of snow / ice / salt drifting when the road was plowed.

In researching the problem, it appears that it may be consistent with seized caliper pistons (front brake) and wheel cylinder (rear brake).

I still don't quite understand why the two wheels shouldn't turn (at least the front wheel) since it doesn't seem logical that seizure from corrosion would occur in a "brakes on position" if the brakes weren't on when the car was sitting. Also, for at least the second half of the 9-month time period, the handbrake wasn't on.

I'm probably missing something.

The (dual) master cylinder (about three years old) hasn't lost any brake fluid and the brakes seem to pump normally.

Now, I have a parts wagon (also 1967) in a garage on Staten Island that has sat for maybe six years. Last time I looked, the front wheels did turn easily enough, so MAYBE the calipers might be a swap. (But maybe too they won't apply braking force well.)

I suppose I can buy some wheels skates to move the car up a driveway so it will at least be off the street to work on. But I've never worked on brakes before.
I have Volvo's Service Guides, as well as Haines, Autobooks, Chiltons, Glenn's etc manuals for the car, so that's probably enough to get me going. I also have a Mityvac brake bleeding vacuum pump

There have been threads on the forum about replacing cylinders, but I don't have some of the workshop equipment that has been described as useful or necessary to get corroded cylinders out of a caliper. (I also don't have the equipment to remove a problamatic drum.)

Because of time constraints (inspection sticker expires in June), I'm probably just looking for the best, easiest, quickest way to get the car to move (safely) so I can take it to my regular mechanic in Staten Island.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.



Robert











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New Which pathway to solve probable caliper / wheel cylinder seizure problem? [120-130]
posted by  Robert10011  on Mon May 21 08:02 CST 2007 >


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