Yesterday’s update:
Went down, all excited, with Kirby’s and Bob’s suggestions. Of the four
bolts. the “external” ones (closer to the wheel) are very easy to put in, as
you can manouver the arm of the caliper very easily. The motion for this
arm, is push the front part IN (against the rotor), and a little bit
“upwards” (away from the normal brake caliper), as it goes a little too far.
As for the inside bolts (closer to the differential)… this is the PITA of
the job, as I spend another 2 hours yesterday, fiddling with them.
The bolt will not come through, no matter what (in my case, and so far). I
followed Bob’s suggestion of putting something thinner through the hole
first, to align everything, and I found a short phillips screwdriver only
slightly thinner than the bolt, and it did go through… which takes me to
my next point.
THEORY: I think the bolts (which are almost flat at the bottom, just a
little bit conical) can be made slightly more conical in this end, which
will make it easier to put through the hole, without taking any resistance
from the assembly, as you don’t shorten it.
I just filed one of the bolts a little, and the bolt (interior/differential)
side went through!; it just needed a little “persuasion”.
The h/b caliper would not “click” after doing this, but I think I "adjusted
it while fighting with it, or it was not “open” enough from the beginning…
I’ve disassembled and will try again tonight.
By the by… the bronze fork did not give me any problems (once it was
in…)
Sorry for the length of the posting
Carlos '86 XJS V12
I did try to get everything assembled before, but it would not go in behind
the rotor.----- Original Message -----
From: Peter_Cohen@Dell.com
To: xj-s@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 3:31 AM
Subject: [xj-s] Re: Re: Handbrake adjustment
Kirbert wrote:
From: “Cat” <@Cat>
I put the car on ramps again, and proceed to take the h/b calipers
off… well, not 1 or 2 of the fixing bolts were out of place, but 3
of them, were, with just one poor guy left there to do all the work!I don’t even understand how this happens. You insert the pin from
the top, through the handbrake caliper in the middle, and into a boss
at the ID of the main caliper. Then after the bronze fork is in
place, the pins thread down and the locking plates are bent into
place. Are you guys managing to get the pins in crooked or
something? How do you get the threads to start?The problem is only a problem from under the car. With the rear subframe
out, you can see what you are doing. Under the car, you have to do it by
feel. AFAIK, it is very unlikely that you can correctly assemble the
handbrake retaining bolts and forks from underneath, unless the handbrake
adjustment is backed off enough to allow the bolts to line up with their
holes and the unloaded fork tines to fit into their holes at the same
time.
The previously mentioned 3 1/2 hours of screwing around with your arms in
the air is not unusual. It is a constant process of trying things and
fitting the bolts, while constantly checking to see if the fork tines have
slipped out of their holes.Having said all that, I have to admit, I don’t understand what these guys
are saying about having it bolted together with the bolts “out of place”.
Fork tines out of place, I can understand, but the bolts…?