Rear brake caliper dismantling ? any advice?

[christopher storey]

Richard : all I can tell you is that when I rebuilt my S1 coupe ( and I didn't do the metalwork or painting, but I did do everything else ) I spent about 3000 hours on it over a 2.5 year period . Now I am very slow, so others including professionals would spend far less time, but it is the individual components which run away with the time, wiper motors, heater boxes, heater valves, starter motors , instruments etc . But even at twice my speed, we are talking of 1500 hours plus the (professional ) time on the major bodywork, which was probably of the order of 500 hours

[PhilBell]

Two steps forward, one step back.

Just collected my rear caliper bodies and handbrake parts from the electroplaters and they look great in Zn. A little bright compared tot he original cadmium plating but maybe they'll mellow once they've seen a bit of British weather.

Only problem is that the captive nuts attached to the inside of the handbrake mechanism cover plates have gone missing. My guess is that they were soldered to the plates and the electroplating chemicals have eaten away the solder. Or maybe they were brass or copper and suffered the same fate.

Anyone know what size they are? I could source new ones and solder them in place. I would fit new plates with captive nuts but no one seems to sell them.

[richard btype]

Phil

I have managed to purchase some obscure and second hand parts from Jag UK is it Goldhawk Road W14 or perhaps try some of the restoration shops like CMC?

Such a pain to lose items like this...

[PhilBell]

Turns out the nuts on the handbrake pad retaining pins are the same thread so I've bonded them to the inside of the cover plate where the old captive nuts used to live. I'm putting my faith in JB Weld, which has survived long-term use in locations including fuel pump and carburettor repairs.

However, my next problem is that the brake discs are no longer centralised in the rear brake callipers. Given that I refitted the same discs, callipers and spacer shims, this is baffling, especially as this wasn't a problem during the two previous IRS rebuilds. And when I say the discs aren't centralised, they are both catching the calliper on one side. Removing them and recleaning the mating surfaces, and clamping the discs in position using the halfshafts makes no difference.

The only unknown is the diff rebuild. Maybe the rebuilder used different output flanges (though neither looks new) or a different number of flange shims. I'll give him a shout on Monday to find out.

Anyway, I'll repost this in the appropriate section because I've strayed off topic. Apologies, but venting to the self-help group is cathartic in these situations.