Replace Rear Brakes

As the rear brakes were pretty shot and the handbrake was marked as one of the culprits on the MOT failure sheet, I decided to replace the whole lot.


Step 1 - Removal


As it was the nearside rear causing most of the trouble, I figured that was as good a place as any to start.

One exposed Garibaldi biscuit, I mean brake disc!

Usual drill: put car in gear to stop it rolling, support weight with jack, loosen wheel bolts, jack car up until wheel is off the ground, give it a spin to make sure everything's nice & free, remove wheel bolts, remove wheel.


At this point, I should let you know that the pictures will be a mix of nearside/offside wheels.  This is because I basically forgot to photograph most of the nearside operation, and it got dark before I had finished!


Next job is to remove the calliper.  The workshop manual will tell you to remove the brake line, but I wasn't ready to bleed the brakes and that nut looked pretty corroded and at high risk of destroying the brake line if I tried to remove it, so I decided to leave it attached & just be careful with the non-flexible metal pipe.


Before the calliper can be shifted, the brake pads need to come out.  This is a seemingly simple job that requires some retaining pins to be poked out.  Except these retaining pins are very old, very rusty and almost indistinguishable from the rest of the calliper.  Joy.

Two liberated retaining pins and two brake pads.

A good wallop with a big hammer to get the pins on the move does help.  Thereafter, it's the slightly more subtle approach of using a small punch tool and a big hammer to push the pins out of the calliper.


Once the pins are removed, the pads should slide straight out the back of the calliper with little effort.  The holes where the retaining pins were can be used as a handy leverage point to get them moving.  If they are being a bit stubborn, rotate the brake disc with one hand while yanking at the pads with the other.

Now the pads are out, this will give much more room for manoeuvre.  The next job is to actually remove the calliper, which is a simple job of removing two 13mm bolts from the inboard side of the calliper.  Simple, that is, as long as the bolts aren't caked in 18 years worth of road grime!  Another bout with my favourite tool, the big hammer, and all was well with the world.


With the calliper removed, great care must be taken to avoid kinking the brake line.  It would be a good idea to suspend the whole assembly from the underside of the car, but I found resting it against the dust shield was good enough.  Pull the calliper straight back from the disc.


There is a small inspection hole in the casting of the brake disc.  This is for the adjustment of the handbrake shoes.  It is a good idea at this stage to wind it off a few turns to make sure the shoes are well clear of the drum.  This will help when pulling the casting off the hub.


You're supposed to be able to see the adjustment screw through the inspection hole, but I never can.  I can tell you that putting the inspection hole just rearward of the twelve o'clock position will put you in the right ball park.  Beside that, you'll find it by poking around with a screwdriver.  Unwind the shoes by turning the screw down half a dozen clicks (or clangs, should I say?)


The only thing holding the brake disc in place without the wheel bolts is a small alignment screw on the opposite side to the inspection hole.  A 10mm spanner will have this straight off and the casting should pull straight off the hub towards you.  It might need a bit of a wiggle and a few choice words, but no further encouragement.

Removed shoes, adjustment screw (top) and main spring (bottom)

This is where the real fun begins...


The springs in here are under a lot of tension, so take great care not to get any appendages trapped or lose an eye!


In order to reduce the tension as much as possible, have a stiff drink wind the adjustment screw all the way down.


Each shoe is clamped against the back plate by a small clip.  Using a small lever (screwdriver) ply each shoe away from its clip and pull slightly towards you.  Once both are free, pull them both towards you.  There will be a lot of resistance from the main spring.

New shoes built up & ready for battle.

Step 2 - Refit


The next part is ridiculously fiddly and I'm afraid I neither had enough hands nor patience to photograph the procedure, so you'll forgive the lack of illustration.


After much trial, error & bloodied digits, the only way I can explain the method of installing the new shoes is with a lot of brute force & ignorance.


I started by lining the bottom slots up with their respective slots in the actuator at the bottom of the back plate and pushing the shoes back into their retaining clips.  I then hooked the main spring around the least accessible shoe (if I recall correctly, this was the left hand part on both sides of the car) and arranged the shoes so the spring holes were as close together as possible.  I then forced a flat blade screwdriver between the last 2 coils of the spring and pulled it very hard towards the locating hole.  Be under no illusion, this is a very strong spring and it needs a lot of brute force to stretch it to the other shoe.  You might find the use of another tool to help push the end of the spring into the hole to be of benefit.

New shoes finally in place.

After much boing, peow and clanging, I finally managed to get the spring in place, wipe the blood from my hands and take a breather.  Relocating the adjustment screw and its spring is much easier by comparison.

New disc drops in place with ease.

Leaving the adjustment screw in the minimum position, the new drum/disc should pop straight over without any hassle (thankfully) and can be loosely secured in place by the 10mm locating screw.  I say loosely because the disc needs to be aligned properly with the stud holes and the best way I've found to do this is to screw the wheel bolts into place.  This will drag the disc into the right position.  The 10mm screw can then be tightened and the wheel bolts removed again.


Now to adjust the hand brake shoes.  Align the inspection hole with the adjustment screw again and wind it on (up) until the brake cannot be turned by hand, then wind it down a few notches; 4 or 5 should do.


Before fitting the new pads, the calliper needs to be put back into position.  Carefully manoeuvre it over the new disc and put the 13mm bolts back in loosely; just enough to hold it in place, but still allow some movement.

The new pads will likely not fit in the gap between the braking surface and the calliper piston.  The piston can be pushed back into the calliper with a suitable lever (taking care to protect the piston and the braking surface - I used a couple of off cuts of ply wood).


The pads & shims might also need a little persuasion to slide into place.  I used my old friend the big hammer and a piece of wood to protect the pads.


Once the pads are in place, tighten the 13mm bolts behind the calliper to secure everything in place.  Then the retaining pins need to be walloped back through with a suitable punch tool.  This is a bit more awkward than getting them out, as you're hammering from behind.


Finally, replace the wheel (fit wheel, finger-tighten wheel bolts, lower jack, torque up wheel bolts) and start the whole process again on the other side!  Then go for a spin to make sure everything's working as it should.  In my case, only on private land because of a certain lack of tax & MOT.


Oh, by the way, everything doesn't work.  The nearside handbrake doesn't seem to be working.  I can wind the shoes on and it will lock solid, but pulling the handbrake lever only seems to operate the offside brake.  Back to the drawing board!

MOT Update

Fault Codes & Warning Lights


Firstly, I'd like to point out a mistake in my last post.  I gave instructions on how to clear the fault codes from the ECU, but these were wrong.  The instructions I gave were actually how to reset the service light!  Whilst dabbling around & trying to figure it out, I found some more fault codes including one for crank shaft position sensor.


I decided to disregard all of the codes and just reset it to see if they came back.


The procedure for resetting the codes is even easier than the service light reset.  Simply turn the ignition to position 2 & poke the probe into the section you want to reset, then press the button for at least 5 seconds.  The light will go out when you release the button, then illuminate again after a few seconds.  When it lights up, press the button again for at least 5 seconds.  The light should then go out and all the faults should be cleared for that section.  Test by pressing the button for just over a second and 1-1-1 should be flashed back at you.


Note that this only clears the codes for that section and you will have to repeat the procedure for other sections by poking the probe into the appropriate pin.


After I had cleared all the codes, I also performed the service light reset procedure to clear the Lambda warning light.  It worked a treat!


MOT Test


So, onto the MOT.  In my previous post, I made some predictions about what the car might fail on.  Turns out I wasn't all that accurate!  Needless to say the car did fail, but that was never in question; I just wanted to see what it needed in order to get a ticket.

• Tyres - I was convinced these were of such poor quality & tread that they would fail, but they passed!  I'm still going to change them, as I've experienced tyre blow-outs in the past and it's not an adventure I'd like to relive on the side of an Alp!
• Lights - Turns out there were 4 lights out, although it only failed on 2 (n/s/f sidelight and the centre stop lamp) and the beam pattern is fine on the headlights.
• Brakes - The MOT station informed me that the rear brakes were in very poor condition, but they're not actually listed as a failure.  The front brakes were fine!  I did give them some stick on the way to the test centre though, so that probably helped to clear some of the crap off.  I will replace all of the brakes for the rally, but just the rears for the purpose of passing an MOT.
• Handbrake - This did fail, but not for efficiency.  It is binding on one side, and that's a failure.  I knew this would likely be the case, so I've ordered replacement shoes (from the good Chronicle Parts people!)
• Emissions - With the service light reset operation, the Lambda light was out of the equation; I just had to hope the emissions test would come up clean enough.  Turns out it did - one of the cleanest MOT results I've ever seen!

That concludes the predictions but the car also failed on another, unforeseen problem - the front lower ball joints are shot.

What Next?

The rear brake parts are already in, so I'll have a bash at doing those as soon as possible.  The tyres, lights and lower ball joints I will leave for the MOT centre to do when I take it back for a retest.

Sorry the past few updates have been a bit on the dry side.  I'll hopefully have some nice, juicy brake replacement pictures for you to ogle in my next update.

Keep watching and thanks for reading.

Another Short One

Another quick, pictureless post to give a little update on the car.  Not a lot has happened but if I don't write about it straight away, I'll only forget!

So, while shopping around for tyres yesterday, I found some Dunlops (in keeping with the BTCC theme) for £67 a corner.  That's pretty good for a top brand, and it's the higher speed rating too.  Here's a top tip for you - when buying tyres, also get a quote for slightly different sizes.  The standard tyres on the Volvo 850 GLT are 195/60 R15 81 V (195mm wide, 60% profile, 15" radial, 81 load rating and V speed rating - 149mph) but I managed to save £10 per tyre by ordering 195/65 R15 81 V tyres.  5% on the profile will make basically no difference, so it's definitely worth trying next time your tyres start resembling Kojak!

Anyway, the place I got the tyres from (Stratford Tyres - if you're in South Warwickshire, they're worth a look) also does MOT testing, so I've bitten the bullet and booked the beast in for its test.  Eek!

Things I know it will fail on:

• Tyres (hence ordering five of the buggers)
• Lights (there are a total of 3 bulbs out)

Things it'll probably fail on:

• Brakes (they're very corroded, but hopefully I can coax them back to life on the way to the test centre)
• Hand brake (it was always borderline before I laid it up)
• Emissions (the Lambda light is on, which suggests it's not running well - more on that later)
• Lights (I seem to remember the beam definition was a bit iffy last time it was tested)

And there are probably plenty of other things I don't know about!

So, to that Lambda light.  Assuming this has come on due to old fuel, I took a trip to my local motorfactor this evening and purchased a shot of fuel system cleaner and a can of 10k Boost.  I then stopped off on my way home to grab a gallon of Shell V-Power to try to up the octane in the tank a little bit.

I chucked the fuel system cleaner in the tank & washed it down with the new fuel.  Then, following the instructions on the can, I administered the 10k Boost. This is basically a de-coking agent that works from inlet to exhaust.  It is administered by spraying it directly into the plenum chamber (which involves removing a bit of ducting...) and revving the engine quite a bit.

The reason there are no pictures is because I was working in the dark.  One benefit to this is that I actually witnessed my exhaust glowing cherry red under the car while I was working on it.  Pretty cool.

After all that, the Lambda light is still on.  At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to read off any fault codes & reset the ECU.  This is a bit fiddly on a pre-OBD 850, but anyone can do it without special equipment.

To read the fault codes, simply locate the ECU interface (it sits behind the driver's side headlamp) and remove the cover.  Insert the probe (ooh-er) into pin number 7 of the black (A) terminal and press the button once for about a second.  The red LED will flash a sequence of 3 numbers at you.  If it's 1-1-1, there are no codes to report.  Anything else is a fault code and you should make a note of it.  Press the button again for the next code and repeat until the first code is flashed out at you.

My car has 2 fault codes - 1-2-1 and 2-3-1.  The latter relates to the fuel mixture, so I'm guessing that is the 'old fuel' problem.  The former relates to the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor giving false readings, but this is most likely a result of the application of 10k Boost, as the MAF sensor is bypassed to do this.

I then had a go at resetting the codes.  The procedure was from memory and didn't work.  I've since googled it and will give you the correct procedure here.

Turn the ignition off, then back on to position 2.  Insert the probe into terminal 7 and press the button 4 times.  After a few seconds, the light comes on.  Press the button once and wait for the light to come back on.  Then press the button 5 times and wait for the light again.  Once the light comes on, press the button once more and the ECU will be reset.  Test by repeating the fault codes procedure - you should get 1-1-1.

I'll have another go at this before the MOT tomorrow to see if it clears the Lambda light.

That's all for now.  Actually, that was a longer post than I thought, but never mind.  I'll post again once I know the result of the MOT and let you know whether the reset procedure worked.

Once again, thanks for reading.

Brief Brief

I thought I'd take this opportunity to briefly brief you on the latest status of the beast.


Although I haven't done any actual work on the car since my last update, I have been doing some online research to figure out how much the various items I need to purchase are going to cost.


Briefly comprising the following:

• Replacement brakes all round (discs, pads, drums & shoes)
• 5 new tyres
• Major service items (cam belt kit, fluids, filters, etc.)
• Lowering springs

I've worked out this little lot is likely to cost me in the region of £600!  Ouch.

On the plus side, I picked up the rear wing/spoiler this evening and it looks awesome!  It needs a coat of paint, as it's bare ally at the moment, but it really will look fantastic when it's on the car.  A bargain at £30!

Every cloud...  Happy days.

Shuffle & Ting

Having heard the beast roar into life yesterday, I decided to fix that flat tyre and move the car onto the drive where there would be more room to work on it later.  This wouldn't normally be a problem, but there are 2 things that might cause trouble.  Firstly, the car hasn't moved in 2 years.  This tends to lead to things getting seized up, especially brakes.  I had the forethought to leave the handbrake off, but the Volvo is blessed with both drums and discs at the rear, doubling the chance something getting locked on.  Second, I've got the top half of a Ford Transit van on my drive which needs moving before I can chuck the car on there.

Old pic - lots of wood added since then...

The first thing to do was to get the car moved out of the way, allowing me to put the boat in its place.


Out comes the trolley jack and tyre spanner.  I loosen the wheel bolts and go to slide the jack under the car, but it's too tall.  Or rather the car is sitting too low and the jack won't go under the sill to get to the jacking point.  So I cheat and find the front sub frame mounting point.  Looks strong enough to me...


Somehow, all the other tyres still hold pressure, including the spare, so I whack the spare on, drop the car and fire it up.  Into gear, I try to pull away and the car immediately stalls.  It feels like the handbrake is on.  Bugger.  At least one of the rear wheels is seized.  Not one to quit without putting some welly in, I fire it up again and give it some revs.  The front wheels sit there spinning on the block paved driveway, dragging the seized rear wheel slowly forward.  I make it to the other side of the drive with the wheel still seized, so I throw it into reverse and have a go the other way.  Bang!  Finally it frees up.  Phew!


A few laps of the driveway on & off the brakes leave me confident everything is working as it should, so I leave the car running & abandon it in the middle ready to move the boat...

One shifted boat, one exhausted Eddie

Now, anyone who's ever tried to pick up a Ford Transit probably knows how heavy they are.  What do you mean you've never tried?  Trust me, this thing's heavy!  I grab it by the transom and commence shoving.


Much huffing, puffing, effing and blinding later and the boat is in its new home, so I jump back in the car and shuffle it onto the drive.  I thought this would be a good time to check all the electrics, so I wind the windows down, open the sunroof, check the fan and all the lights.  All looks good.  Until I look at the dash...

In situ, finally

Fuel light on, that's fine.  There's about half a gallon in the tank, so I'm happy about that.  'Bulb blown' warning light is on, so I check all the lights again.  There are 3 sidelights out, but there's enough redundancy on Volvos to ensure I'm still legal, so I'm not worried about that.  It's the other warning light I'm worried about - the lambda light.  Balls.  Hopefully it's just not running right because of old fuel and having not been run in 2 years.  I'll fill it up with V-Power, a shot of fuel system cleaner and give it a can of 10 cake boost.  If the light doesn't go out then, it could be the O2 sensor (hopefully) or the cat...


So, chuffed that I've got everything moved into the right place, but slightly concerned about that lambda light, I call it a night.

The Beast Lives!

Last time, I told you about the rally, introduced the car and showed you what I hope to achieve.  This time, the work actually begins...


As you saw from the state of the car in the last post (it looks much worse in reality, trust me!) it's in a bit of a sorry state.  It has been stood, completely neglected, for a smidge under 2 years.  The o/s/f tyre has been flat for so long, it's actually split along the fold, the brake discs look like Ginger Nut biscuits, the headlamp wipers & wheel centre caps have been nicked, the o/s/f wing looks quite rusty, there's moss growing everywhere and it looks like someone's keyed it down one side.


None of these issues are too major for a banger rally, but one thing is a bit of a showstopper.  It won't start.  Probably just a flat battery, I thought, so I hooked it up to the jump leads.  As there was still nothing when I turned on the ignition, I thought I'd turn everything off and just leave it charging off my T-5 for a while. Maybe an hour or so...


Still nothing.  That's either one fried battery or the entire electrical system is shagged.  As the last 2 Winters have been the coldest that car will ever have witnessed in its 18 years on this planet, I figured it was more likely a battery issue and acquired a replacement battery from a friend.

Original battery - did a good job for 16 years!

As you can see from the picture on the right, it looks like the battery I pulled out was the original Volvo part.  That's pretty impressive when you consider this car is 18 years old!  That little (actually not so little, if I'm honest) battery has done it's job flawlessly for 16 years.  The only reason it's stopped working is because some plonker let it go flat and freeze solid in -20-odd temperatures for 2 Winters.  Er, that might have been me.  Wups.

'New' battery in place

Anyway, the replacement battery now in place, I turned the key in the ignition.  Some lights came on the dash, hoorah!  Conscious of the length of time the car had been stood, I turned the ignition off & on a few times to allow the fuel pump to get some juice to the business end of the pipes.  Bubbling & sloshing noises along the underside of the car seemed to prove this was actually happening.

After all the bubbling stopped, I decided it was time to have a go at firing the thing up.  I gave it a couple of cranks and it seemed to fire immediately!  I was well chuffed, until it started spluttering and died a few seconds later.  Hoping this was just down to old fuel/lack of fuel, I tried again.  As before, it fired immediately, but this time it purred like a kitten.  This made me very happy.

Chuffed that I'd got the thing running, I left it at that for the day.

Introduction to Rusty Plum Racing

As this is the first entry in this blog, I suppose a bit of background is in order...


You will already have perused my profile over there --> so you will know I'm a bit of a petrolhead.  In the past few years, I have been on a few banger rallies.  For those of you who don't know what a banger rally is, it's basically an organised driving holiday with a bit of a difference.  A banger rally organiser plans a route, stop over points and various challenges to be completed en route.  The 'with a difference' bit is that there are restrictions as to the vehicle you can use to compete in the rally.  For most it's a price limit, e.g. the car must cost less than £500.  For others it's an age limit, e.g the car must be over 10 years old.


This year, I have decided to enter the Chronicle Rally.  Specifically, their inaugural 'Mountain Madness' route.  Why?  The route looks simply spectacular!  I love the Alps & all the little twisty mountain passes and Mountain Madness looks like it intends to take me over all of them in under a week!


Anyway, enough about the rally; you can look at the web site yourself if you want to know more.  The important thing is the car entry rule: it has to be registered prior to 1st August 2001.  Good, I thought, I've got one of those!


So, here's the beast:

1994 Volvo 850 2.5 GLT

So I've got the car and it qualifies.  I've handed over the £150 entrance fee and got a team number (I was lucky enough to get my preferred race number - 38 - which is the number I always use) so now what?  Well, Chronicle Rally suggests 'decorating' the car.  That's all I need to know; I've already got a plan!  What was the Volvo 850 most famous for (in the UK at any rate)?


The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)!  Yep, that's my theme.  Hopefully it will look something like this when it's done -->


Obviously with a different number.  And a different name in the window (mine).  And different wheels, tyres, bumpers...  You get the idea, though!


Anyway, that's the intro.  I'll post more as I make progress.  Thanks for reading.


Ed.