take a brake

Now...I've said before that I feel that any work other than bodywork is 'cheap'. Well for some reason, instead of getting back to the welding of the rear valance after the Christmas/New Year lay off, I'm in the middle of exhuming the rear brake calipers which is inevitably going to lead to the whole subframe coming out for painting etc. Not what I planned but its still freezing in garage most nights and the mechanical work seems more appealing in those conditions than hours of slow fabricaton on bodywork and frilly metal.

first problem is that rear braking system all located in front of rear wishbones and the place you want to be is occupied by jack

....so, reluctantly I moved jack to rear of bootfloor. weight is on ramps but they could fail so jack may offer escape time should I be under car

handbrake cable is disconnected here. simple

next are the caliper to carrier bolts. one at top is not visible (it is to a small camera but you can't get your head in there) tucked away behind top of caliper. spanner size is 5/8"

bottom one, under final drive housing, is easier to see but no easier to reach. access is so tight that bolt can't be withdrawn even when fully unscrewed. 5/8" also

viewed looking from under car towards rear. to remove rear calipers you need to remove these two threaded pins which hold handbrake calipers to main caliper. access poor but can be improved by tackling them after caliper bolts removed so it can be pulled down a few inches. spanner size is 7/16"

one of the screws snapped inside casting on LHS caliper

it could probably be drifted out via this hole under the caliper housing but access very tight

with handbrake calipers still attached to main units it looks like they could be withdrawn from cage aperture but, even with bottom poking out, they can't as brake disc prevents them from tilting

pulled as far downwards as possible downwards the handbrake caliper levers prevent them from being pulled out. brake pipe damaged when levering hanbrake caliper pins out. even when unscrewed fit is very tight

they won't come out from underneath as the caliper casting is blocked by the wishbone tubes. even if the wishbones were removed they might not come out but you could perhaps get more access to the handbrake caliper

with pins removed handbrake caliper still stuck tight to main caliper

again, this area only visible to camera so hard to see join between calipers and brake disc prevents any manouvering you might need

wider view from rear wheel area. you can reach in with long lever and prise handbrake caliper from main caliper

once handbrake caliper is off main one pulls out easily. bottom first

then top

revealing the area which you have not seen but caused you so much headscratching

screws fron LHS unit (stuck on car) installed in RHS unit to show what needs to be drifted out to release the LHS caliper









inner side of balance pipe union & brake pipe union leading from main circuit to caliper came out no problem when caliper was in situ

balance pipe was crushed as mentioned earlier. access to other fittings much better when caliper off car

bleed nipple sheared : (

surprisingly jubilee clips holding UJ covers to shaft unscrewed no problem allowing covers to be slid back to expose fixings that need to be tackled to change brake discs