Brake calipers - 1st Round

After a weekend without car-time due to an unexpected work spike, today I had 2 hours to spend. Full of expectations, took to the car the rear disks and the box with all calipers and associated parts.

Placed the rear disks on the hubs and bolted them in place with the wheel nuts. Then bolted in the caliper supports (guides?), putting loads of thread-locking "Pattex Nural" on the bolts. Finished off by cleaning all the disks with disk cleaning spray.

Then assembled the front caliper. In February I tried assembling them at home and had some doubts. The people on the locostbuilders.co.uk forum weren't helpful on this topic (which was odd) and I ended up finding how to assemble an M16 caliper through some reading and pictures on the caffetine site. Using some old pictures I took back in February below... I put some copper grease between the plates and the pads (careful not to compromise the pads friction area). Then placed the clips on the pads and plates and inserted it all on the caliper. Placed the shafts through the holes and the locking clips on it's tip. The pads had arrows that point on the direction of wheel spin. The caliper must be placed with the bleeding hole (currently has a sort of sticker stating that it's a reconditioned item) on the inside top.

It all looks great but when I went to bolt it on the car the disk didn't fit between the pads. There must be something I should have done on the calipers to retract the pistons a bit more before assembling the lot. Left the other front one unassembled. Opened the box that had one rear caliper and couldn't figure out how to assemble it. Called it a day and will have to investigate a bit more before next weekend.

Proper Tools...

Having proper tools makes all the difference. Last week I bought new good drill bits and a vise grip. Today, the three hours spent really were worth it.

Forget about all the time spent with drill bits and enlarging holes. New top bit for 8mmØ and in no time finished the hole for the 1st bolt and drilled the 2nd one to get the handbrake lever in place. Also had with me the 2nd set of alan keys so I tightened the gear lever.

I got some tips from the locostbuilders forum about how to solve my issue with the front steering link shafts rotating when I tried to tighten the nuts. I should jack up the link to apply pressure and the shaft would stop spinning. I didn't have a jack but placed my knee under it and applied some upwards force and it was enough to tighten the nuts.

Went on the back and using the vise grip and some cardboard to protect the thread on the shaft, finally managed to loosen up the nut and center the shaft on the rear hub. I needed a wheel to see if it was good or not...

Back to the front, placed the disks and calipers (previously bolted together) on the hubs. Tightened the nuts and placed the castle nuts. The split pins were home...

Went upstairs to grab a wheel, the split pins and hub covers and the rear disks. Back on the car placed the split pins on the front hubs. The picture doesn't show it well but the castle nut resembles a castle tower top and the split pin goes in a hole and I split it around. You can see a better picture here. Then I filled the caps with grease and placed then over the pins.

Trial fitted the wheel on the front. Since I didn't put any nuts, it tilts and looks like there is a lot of negative camber. But it looks nice!

Took the wheel to the back and trial fitted it on the rear side to test my prior work. It still rubbed inside the wheel. Probably spent one hour getting it to a point where I was content with the result. Summing it up... 1) completely removed the shaft; 2) removed a couple of washers from between the back of the hub and the bush; 3) Refitted the shaft with those washers between the front rose-joint and the hub (moving the center of the wheel to the back to help out); 4) removed the washer between the bush and the nut to get 1mm less shaft to the back without actually reducing the number of threads; 5) reduced the number of threads.

I'll have to see with the brake disk in place. It doesn't rub the wheel but it might rub the weights that are glued to the inside of the wheel, to balance it. But if that happens, I'll just move the weights a bit to the side. I'm tired of fighting that particular issue.

Last word for the great vise grip I bought. I've been bitten back too many times with cheap or chinese tools and materials. This time I went to a proper tool shop. The guy showed me two tools, a chinese-alike one and a proper one. 5€ and 17,50€. Loved the fact that he spoke about how better the good one was but didn't just shove it down my throat. Bought the good one and was offered a lesson about how to use it (which I really needed). Today, after all the use I gave it and how wonderfully it behaved, don't regret it a bit.