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Module 2 - Rear Brakes

Module 2 Build:

<8th September 2005>
Rear Brakes:
I have now run the handbrake cable through the main tunnel from the handbrake mounts through round the suspension out to each of the rear brakes. The Handbrake is now ready to mount as soon as i drill the holes in the mounting supports on the chassis.




<11th September 2005>
Decided to forget about the outer hubs for now and get the rear discs and calipers on. First i had to clean the discs with White Spirit to remove a protective coating that was on the new discs. I did this a couple of days ago so they would have time to properly dry and so i wouldn't risk any of it getting on the pads and damaging them. So starting on the right hand side i slid the disc into place and held it there with 2 of the wheel studs. Ultimately it will be held in place by the wheel itself but in the meanwhile the studs hold it perfectly. Then i had to slide the disc in between the pads and slip the caliper into place. This is held by 2 bolts into the upright and it fit on perfectly. The lower picture shows it all in place with the handbrake cable connected up. I have more or less fitted the handbrake cable where it needs to go but i'm waiting til the drive shafts are in place before i cable tie them on. With the first one in i started to put the left disc in place, this followed the same steps as the right hand side except the brake pads didn't fit around the disc? So i kept it off and started looking around the disc and tried to push the pad on the piston back into the caliper. This didn't work and as i pulled the handbrake lever to see if it was just stiff the pads moved closer and closer together?! I tried opening the bleed nipple and taking out the plug from the hose connector to see if i could release the pressure but i figure the hand brake mechanism must be different as this didn't work at all. So now the piston is so far out i can't even fit the opposing pad back in place and i have a mail in with Westfield to give advice. I will give them til tomorrow afternoon and give them a call if i've not heard anything, so i'll post my findings when i have some!


<15th September 2005>
After no response from Westfield i decided to see if i could find anything on the internet. After a brief search i found out that the piston actually needs to be wound back in to the caliper. There are a number of tools available to do this and it seems they fit into the face of the piston and screw in. So i ordered one from a local motor shop and my girlfriend (Lucy) was in town so she went in to pick it up. I was ready then to takle this tomorrow night when i got a text from Lucy's Dad saying he's sorted out the caliper and attached it to the car. So i assume he's wound it in somehow and then put the pads back in place and fixed the caliper to the rear uprights. So i will try and take the rewind tool back to the shop and exchange it for some engine paint and some bolts for the fuel pump. Now both rear brakes are in place and here is the newly fitted left hand rear brake in place.


<20th September 2005>
After looking further on in the build manual to try and see where the water pipes will be running, I spotted a diagram that made me realise a big mistake i had made!
As you can see from the scanned diagram below and the picture of my right hand brake cable, i had made a terrible assumption about running it through the chassis mount! It seemed so appropriate at the time as the rubber rings around the cable fit in the hole perfectly! Having removed the cable from the brake caliper i fed it all the way back out, removing the cable ties used to hold the cable out of the drive shafts way. Then fed it out the hole and then back down the same route it had taken to reconnect to the caliper. So now the chassis mount is completely clear for the transducer (even though the hole is way to big for it but thats an issue for much later!). So beware not to make assumptions.



<4th October 2005>
I have just received my hand brake warning light switch. I scratched my head originally looking for some mounting holes for the switch on the hand brake. After a few minutes i figured the switch must activate on release for it to make sense logically and so was trying to see where this could fit. It didn't take too long to locate the little dimples either side of the main bracket to fix it but it took me a minute to realise i had to remove bolts and turn them round in order to fit the switch!

<23rd March 2006>