1968 S Type Rear Brakes (as usual)

Saloons
1

Hi everyone

Last time I was here was on the old forum - probably a sign that I don’t do enough maintenance or that my car is (was) super reliable! This topic seems to be something that comes up a lot - presumably due to the, er, challenging nature of the design. In summary, I have trodden a familiar path - sticking brakes, replacement of flexible hoses, snapping off rear caliper bleed nipple, dropping IRS (via nightmare with removing a radius arm) and I am now at the point of needing a grown-up to deal with the snapped bleed nipple (tried drilling and using a torx bit and allen key etc.).
Questions:
I’ve read the e-book notes on the old forum and various other posts and it seems like getting the actual calipers off the IRS is as much of a PITA as every other aspect of the braking system.

  1. How many bolts hold the caliper? looks like two but I have seen reference to three?
  2. Presumably the bolts holding it on are the ones that are lock wired? The manual drawings and diagrams don’t seem much help on this point.
  3. Anyone know what size spanner is required for these bolts? From what I’ve read it has to be an open spanner - a ring spanner won’t fit?
  4. Do you have to remove the handbrake assembly to get the caliper out? Mine is working OK so I’d rather not disturb it. I saw a video of an E-Type rebuild and it looked like the handbrake assembly was bolted on to the caliper before refitting, which suggests you can get them out without dismantling, but would like to know 100%?

Many thanks for reading and sharing my pain :slight_smile:

2

For the later Girling calipers:

The calipers will come off as a unit (i.e. with parking brake attached) with the pumpkin out of the cage.

3 fasteners hold the intermediary bracket to the diff, 2 fasteners hold the calipers to the bracket. 9/16 AF, iirc, and there is also safety wire in there.

Safety wiring the fasteners is one of the least pleasant parts of an IRS rebuild. The heads are all but inaccessible.

3

Thanks!

Pumpkin?

So, do you need to take the bracket off the diff first? ie, take off the three bolts and then the two, or can you remove the caliper by undoing the two bolts? This is where I got confused before.

4

Pumpkin=Diff casing.

I removed the 3 fasteners first when I was taking it apart, according to the photos I have from my S-Type disassembly. Then once the calipers are off the diff you can take the bracket off.

I changed my calipers to the later XJ ones (The dust seals are better).

5

Ah - I see. You reckon take the diff out of the cage? Does that involve a lot of dismantling?

6

I’ve only ever done full rebuilds. The way I see it, if the IRS is out of the car…

I guess you could fiddle the calipers out without stripping everything apart. Never done it myself.

7

OK - Many thanks.

Anyone know if it is possible to remove calipers/handbrake assembly without removing diff from cage?