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!