Sparky was in the way last week so I pushed him backwards a few feet. He usually pushes around smoothly but this time there was a terrible graunching noise from the back of the car, and was difficult to push. Quick check underneath, and nothing in the way but then I realised the handbrake was on
So, how could I push him backwards with the handbrake on?
Jacked the back end up today and had a look around, couldn't see much so held my mobile up where the handbrake calipers are and took this picture (Jag diff for anyone not aware)
One of the pads was sitting on top of the caliper!
On closer inspection I found the friction material had sheared away from the backing plate on the inner one and had come out of the caliper. The backing plate had gone
Also, the friction material had sheared away from the outer backing plate and had dropped down into the caliper.
When I rebuilt the rear brakes, I fitted new handbrake pads but the first ones I got, from a kit on ebay
really didn't look very good. The glue was splashed all over the backing pad, and they just looked poor quality. I dropped one from the Black & Decker workbench I was using, not a particularly high device but the backing plate and friction material just popped apart.
I got some better ones from a local motor factor and fitted them instead. They are the ones that have failed. I have found the original pads, and strangely, they also failed, but I think i put that down to age.
Left hand ones were supplied with the rebuild kit, middle ones from the factor and right hand from the diff when I got it.
I could get to the outer nuts that hold the pads in, but not the inners so the handbrake mechanism had to come off. First one came off reasonably easily,
but the second one was too close to fuel outlet.
I managed to get a mobile up above it to get a picture,
After what seemed like ten rounds with Mick McManus, I finally got the pins undone but the outer one wasn't going anywhere, it hit the fuel outlet and therefore wouldn't release the handbrake mechanism.
After some head scratching, I worked out that I had three choices. 1/. Drop the diff (Needs two people or a lot of faffing), 2/. Removed the fuel outlet but that would mean draining the tank
or 3/. Removing the O/S main caliper and dropping it slightly hoping the brake pipes would give a bit. They really are a nightmare to remove, even on the bench but it was the lesser of three evils, so I managed after around an hour and a half, to get it free.
I have managed to find some Ferodo pads fairly close by along with some new return springs and locking tabs, I reused the old ones last time as I couldn't find any. I don't fancy doing this job again, so am going to use a well known brand, and everything new.
I did assume that brake pads would need to be of a certain standard but maybe I did something wrong, who knows?