 |
| Before (and looking rather sad) |
 |
| After. Not a huge difference, but definitely feels better. |
Friday, 15 June 2012
Suspension Before & After
Just a quick post to show a couple of pictures of the car before and after the suspension was lowered.
I'll chuck some more updates in once the BTCC decals arrive and the boot spoiler is installed.
Monday, 11 June 2012
Slammed Suspension Set-up
Here's the latest instalment of the preparation for the Chronicle Rally. Yesterday, I took the car to my friend and team mate's workshop in Coventry (about 25 miles away) to fit some 40mm lowering springs I had acquired for the car. For those viewing this blog as a 'how to' resource, I guess you could classify this as a how to lower the suspension on a Volvo 850 or how to replace the front and rear suspension springs on a Volvo 850.
Shameless search engine plug out of the way, here's the meat!
First up, the car goes up in the air. I really need to get hold of one of these hydraulic car ramps; they don't half make life easier! This is a good opportunity to take a decent look at the state of affairs underneath the car, so we give all the nuts & bolts we intend to undo a good scrub with a wire brush and a liberal spray with penetrating oil.
While the oil is soaking in, we give everything a good yank to make sure it's all tied together right and we give the exhaust a good thump to make sure the baffles are still solid. It's also an opportunity to check for any rust or any fluids that shouldn't be there. The underside of the engine is completely dry, which is a good sign for an 18 year old car with about 160,000 on the clock*. All the seals/gaskets are healthy.
* I say "about 160,000" because I'm not entirely sure how many miles the car has done. The odometer reads 151,950 but I've gone through nearly three tanks of fuel since taking that reading and it's still the same! I reckon that's close to 1,000 miles, but I don't know how long the odometer has been broken. It's at least 153,000 miles, but probably many more.
Everything looks good, the (original) exhaust is solid, there's no rust, no damage, no fluids, so we proceed with the task at hand.
We start on the front, as this is the bigger job to get out of the way, so off come the front wheels. Hopefully you know how to do this, so I didn't bother taking any pictures or writing a procedure for it.
What? You want to know? Er, okay. Just undo the five bolts holding each wheel on and pull towards you. Righty tighty, lefty loosey!
Okay, wheel off, we can now get down to business. First, remove the nut from the bracket on the strut just above the brake disc. This is the end of the anti-roll bar.
Next, further down the strut, there are two bolts holding the shock absorber (that's a damper to you Yanks) to the hub. These need to come out.
Once these bolts are out, the only thing truly holding the strut in place is the top plate that bolts through the inner wing. So down comes the ramp, up comes the bonnet and out comes the air gun (I want one of these as well, but that also means acquiring a compressor - slightly outside my budget at the moment!)
There are 3 nuts securing each strut through the inner wing. We remove two nuts and put them somewhere safe (preferably not on the plastic housing beneath the windscreen, as there are some lovely drainage holes to lose them down!) but only loosen the third - we don't want the strut falling out at this stage, as it could pull the drive shaft out and put is in a whole world of hurt!
The car goes back up in the air; not too high, as we still need to be able to reach that last nut. We bring in a stand to support the wheel; just something placed under the brake disc to take the strain.
Disconnect the ABS sensor from the back of the hub. This helps the strut pull clear once loose. Now the third nut can be removed from the top mount, the ARB pulled clear and the strut pulled off the hub. Depending on the age, corrosion, etc. the strut might need quite a yank to free it from the hub, but it should just fall through the inner wing at the top.
Voilà! The strut is out. Now all we need to do is remove the spring, replace with the new one, shove it back in and put it all back together.
With the strut on the bench, use some correction fluid (Tip-Ex et al) or a marker pen to mark up how all the components align. This is very important, as you won't know how to put it back together correctly otherwise!
Everything marked up, chuck the whole lot in a spring compressor (I think I just need an entire workshop...) and wind it up until the spring becomes loose from its top and bottom mountings. Don't worry too much if the rubber dust shield gets pulled away in the process, just remember to reattach it before putting the strut back on the car. It is a fiddly job, but not too bad.
At the top of the strut there is a nut holding the top mount assembly together. Undo this, remove what you can (remembering what order/orientation everything was in) and a new four-leaf clover shaped nut will be revealed. Undo this as well (you may need some mole grips on the centre shaft to stop the whole lot spinning when you try to undo this) and the whole strut should pull through the bottom of the spring. Please remember what order everything came off in. I know I've already said that, but it's important!
Now the strut is out, slowly unwind the spring compressor until the spring comes loose. Lift the old spring out and compare it with the new spring to decide on orientation. On the 850, the bottom of the spring turns in ever so slightly at the end of the last coil. Drop the new spring into the compressor and wind it up just enough to hold the spring firmly in place, then offer up the strut. Pull the strut through as far as it will go (the shocker should extend quite a bit with a little persuasion) then continue winding up the spring compressor until you can get the top mount components back on.
Loosely refit the top of the strut, then make sure everything is aligned with your earlier markings. Once everything's aligned and feels securely in place, tighten it all up and unwind the compressor until you can lift the assemblage out again.
As the book of lies tells us, replacement is the reverse of removal. The only thing I'd add is a suggestion to cover all of the bolts in copper grease to ensure they are nice & easy to get off at a later date if required. Otherwise, replacement really is quite straight forward and should occur more easily than removal due to all the nicely freed up parts.
That's the front essentially done, so time to move on to the rear.
Leave the wheels on!
Seriously, the rear end is a much easier affair. You can leave the wheels on; in fact, you will want them left on. You'll see why shortly.
Up the ramp goes again, high enough so we can easily get underneath the car.
Once under the rear, the suspension set-up is quite clear to see and it's simple. Some might say basic. The rear springs reside in cups on the end of what is essentially a trailing arm. Just forward of these cups are the shock absorbers, the bottom of which attaches to the aforementioned arm by a single nut. This is the first task; undo this nut, then pull the shocker away from the frame.
Next up, there is a nut in the centre of each cup - underneath. This nut needs to be removed to release an inner cup that clamps the spring down. Now, this is where we came a little unstuck on my car. The off-side nut came out without too much persuasion, but the nearside one didn't seem to want to cooperate. Worse than that, the thread it attaches to seemed to be pressed into the 'sub-cup' and the pressing was simply turning independently of the rest of the assemblage.
A couple of spot welds later and all's fine!
Once the nuts are removed, we need to get the 'sub-cups' out of the way. We don't want the pinging off when we pull the springs out, but they unfortunately have to come out between the coils of the spring. With a bit of fiddling, the will force through.
We actually missed this part out, but I'm going to write it here so you don't forget about it. Get your Tip-Ex/marker pen out again and mark the locations of the rubber mounts at the tops of the springs. It might not matter, but it's always best to put things back where you found them, especially when they've had 18 years and 160,000 miles to settle into that location!
Now comes the fun part. Find your two fattest friends and ask them to hang off the rear wheels. I'm not kidding! With the shocks detached, the weight of about 100kg hanging off each wheel will be enough to release the tension on the springs so they can simply be popped out! This is why you don't want to remove the wheels; brake discs aren't as comfortable to dangle off!
Compare the old & new springs again to determine orientation, then pop the rubbers into the top of the new springs and commence operation Monkey Dangle again. Insert the new springs, slip the 'sub-cups' back in and tighten the troublesome nuts back up.
Lastly, the shocks need hooking back up. This might require a little assistance from those stands we used to support the front wheels earlier. Just give them a bit of a lift until the hole lines up, then just pop the end of the shocker on and tighten up the nut.
After putting everything back together, it's a good idea to to a tracking & alignment check. We didn't think this would have changed much and only really checked it because the equipment was to hand. It was way off! I'm afraid I didn't document this part, but a little fettling behind the front wheels soon straightened everything out.
And there you have it. Replacing the suspension springs on a Volvo 850 is as easy as that!
I'll try to get some before & after pics added here at some point. I've got a before, but didn't get a chance to snap an after.
One thing to note, the ABS warning light came on after all of our fiddling near brakes. I was worried about this, but as soon as I started driving the car the light went out. The pump always primes the first time you hit 10mph, so I guess the system just does some diagnostics at that point as well and decided everything was okay.
Another update to the story, too small for its own post:
While up on the ramp, we also used the opportunity to do an oil & filter change, so that's another job out of the way.
We've had rather a lot of rain here recently (actually, it's been the wettest & coldest June I can remember!) and I've noticed that the driver's windscreen wiper wasn't clearing the screen at the top two or three inches of its arc. No biggie, but I wanted to sort it. Having stopped the wiper at the top of its arc, I could see it wasn't just not clearing the water, it was completely missing the screen!
While the car was in the workshop, we tried a few spare wipers Pav had lying around. No joy. Turns out it was the actual wiper arm. Somehow, while the car had been stood, the arm had 'adjusted' itself so that it was nowhere near the windscreen at the top of its sweep. That's in inverted commas because there is no adjustment! We couldn't figure out how it had got like that, so we turned to brute force & ignorance and simply bent the upper part of the arm to put it closer to the screen. It's a bit banana shaped now, but it does the job and that's good enough for me!
Lastly, we read out the ECU codes again, noted them down, then reset them all. This has extinguished the Lambda light again and it hasn't come on since (so far). My next job is to try to work out exactly what these codes mean, as the documentation I acquired from the Internet seems to be lying...
Thanks to my team mates Pawel Dabrowski for the use of the workshop, the welding, the replacement wiper and his time, and Matthew Weller for his Volvo experience which amounts to an inside-out knowledge of the 850!
Also thanks to everyone following this blog. I hope you find it entertaining, interesting and/or informative. Please stay tuned for more!
Shameless search engine plug out of the way, here's the meat!
First up, the car goes up in the air. I really need to get hold of one of these hydraulic car ramps; they don't half make life easier! This is a good opportunity to take a decent look at the state of affairs underneath the car, so we give all the nuts & bolts we intend to undo a good scrub with a wire brush and a liberal spray with penetrating oil.
While the oil is soaking in, we give everything a good yank to make sure it's all tied together right and we give the exhaust a good thump to make sure the baffles are still solid. It's also an opportunity to check for any rust or any fluids that shouldn't be there. The underside of the engine is completely dry, which is a good sign for an 18 year old car with about 160,000 on the clock*. All the seals/gaskets are healthy.
* I say "about 160,000" because I'm not entirely sure how many miles the car has done. The odometer reads 151,950 but I've gone through nearly three tanks of fuel since taking that reading and it's still the same! I reckon that's close to 1,000 miles, but I don't know how long the odometer has been broken. It's at least 153,000 miles, but probably many more.
Everything looks good, the (original) exhaust is solid, there's no rust, no damage, no fluids, so we proceed with the task at hand.
We start on the front, as this is the bigger job to get out of the way, so off come the front wheels. Hopefully you know how to do this, so I didn't bother taking any pictures or writing a procedure for it.
What? You want to know? Er, okay. Just undo the five bolts holding each wheel on and pull towards you. Righty tighty, lefty loosey!
Okay, wheel off, we can now get down to business. First, remove the nut from the bracket on the strut just above the brake disc. This is the end of the anti-roll bar.Next, further down the strut, there are two bolts holding the shock absorber (that's a damper to you Yanks) to the hub. These need to come out.
Once these bolts are out, the only thing truly holding the strut in place is the top plate that bolts through the inner wing. So down comes the ramp, up comes the bonnet and out comes the air gun (I want one of these as well, but that also means acquiring a compressor - slightly outside my budget at the moment!)
 |
| Top mount, inner wing |
The car goes back up in the air; not too high, as we still need to be able to reach that last nut. We bring in a stand to support the wheel; just something placed under the brake disc to take the strain.
 |
| Missing: One suspension strut. If found, replace with lowered spring and reattach. |
Voilà! The strut is out. Now all we need to do is remove the spring, replace with the new one, shove it back in and put it all back together.
With the strut on the bench, use some correction fluid (Tip-Ex et al) or a marker pen to mark up how all the components align. This is very important, as you won't know how to put it back together correctly otherwise!
Everything marked up, chuck the whole lot in a spring compressor (I think I just need an entire workshop...) and wind it up until the spring becomes loose from its top and bottom mountings. Don't worry too much if the rubber dust shield gets pulled away in the process, just remember to reattach it before putting the strut back on the car. It is a fiddly job, but not too bad.
 |
| Blurry-cam says "Feeling depressed? Fear not, you'll soon spring back!" |
At the top of the strut there is a nut holding the top mount assembly together. Undo this, remove what you can (remembering what order/orientation everything was in) and a new four-leaf clover shaped nut will be revealed. Undo this as well (you may need some mole grips on the centre shaft to stop the whole lot spinning when you try to undo this) and the whole strut should pull through the bottom of the spring. Please remember what order everything came off in. I know I've already said that, but it's important!
Now the strut is out, slowly unwind the spring compressor until the spring comes loose. Lift the old spring out and compare it with the new spring to decide on orientation. On the 850, the bottom of the spring turns in ever so slightly at the end of the last coil. Drop the new spring into the compressor and wind it up just enough to hold the spring firmly in place, then offer up the strut. Pull the strut through as far as it will go (the shocker should extend quite a bit with a little persuasion) then continue winding up the spring compressor until you can get the top mount components back on.
Loosely refit the top of the strut, then make sure everything is aligned with your earlier markings. Once everything's aligned and feels securely in place, tighten it all up and unwind the compressor until you can lift the assemblage out again.
 |
| Job jobbed. |
 |
| Just for comparison. |
Leave the wheels on!
Seriously, the rear end is a much easier affair. You can leave the wheels on; in fact, you will want them left on. You'll see why shortly.
Up the ramp goes again, high enough so we can easily get underneath the car.
Once under the rear, the suspension set-up is quite clear to see and it's simple. Some might say basic. The rear springs reside in cups on the end of what is essentially a trailing arm. Just forward of these cups are the shock absorbers, the bottom of which attaches to the aforementioned arm by a single nut. This is the first task; undo this nut, then pull the shocker away from the frame.
 |
| Spring cup and shock mount. |
A couple of spot welds later and all's fine!
Once the nuts are removed, we need to get the 'sub-cups' out of the way. We don't want the pinging off when we pull the springs out, but they unfortunately have to come out between the coils of the spring. With a bit of fiddling, the will force through.
We actually missed this part out, but I'm going to write it here so you don't forget about it. Get your Tip-Ex/marker pen out again and mark the locations of the rubber mounts at the tops of the springs. It might not matter, but it's always best to put things back where you found them, especially when they've had 18 years and 160,000 miles to settle into that location!
 |
| Reassembled Rear. |
Compare the old & new springs again to determine orientation, then pop the rubbers into the top of the new springs and commence operation Monkey Dangle again. Insert the new springs, slip the 'sub-cups' back in and tighten the troublesome nuts back up.
Lastly, the shocks need hooking back up. This might require a little assistance from those stands we used to support the front wheels earlier. Just give them a bit of a lift until the hole lines up, then just pop the end of the shocker on and tighten up the nut.
After putting everything back together, it's a good idea to to a tracking & alignment check. We didn't think this would have changed much and only really checked it because the equipment was to hand. It was way off! I'm afraid I didn't document this part, but a little fettling behind the front wheels soon straightened everything out.
And there you have it. Replacing the suspension springs on a Volvo 850 is as easy as that!
I'll try to get some before & after pics added here at some point. I've got a before, but didn't get a chance to snap an after.
One thing to note, the ABS warning light came on after all of our fiddling near brakes. I was worried about this, but as soon as I started driving the car the light went out. The pump always primes the first time you hit 10mph, so I guess the system just does some diagnostics at that point as well and decided everything was okay.
Another update to the story, too small for its own post:
While up on the ramp, we also used the opportunity to do an oil & filter change, so that's another job out of the way.
 |
| That's not a reflection of the box... |
While the car was in the workshop, we tried a few spare wipers Pav had lying around. No joy. Turns out it was the actual wiper arm. Somehow, while the car had been stood, the arm had 'adjusted' itself so that it was nowhere near the windscreen at the top of its sweep. That's in inverted commas because there is no adjustment! We couldn't figure out how it had got like that, so we turned to brute force & ignorance and simply bent the upper part of the arm to put it closer to the screen. It's a bit banana shaped now, but it does the job and that's good enough for me!
Lastly, we read out the ECU codes again, noted them down, then reset them all. This has extinguished the Lambda light again and it hasn't come on since (so far). My next job is to try to work out exactly what these codes mean, as the documentation I acquired from the Internet seems to be lying...
Thanks to my team mates Pawel Dabrowski for the use of the workshop, the welding, the replacement wiper and his time, and Matthew Weller for his Volvo experience which amounts to an inside-out knowledge of the 850!
Also thanks to everyone following this blog. I hope you find it entertaining, interesting and/or informative. Please stay tuned for more!
Friday, 18 May 2012
Behold! A New Post!
Yes, I apologise for the frankly epic hiatus on here since my last update. Sorry about that. It seems whenever I've had time to work on the car recently, the weather has had other plans!
Well, there's good news. Last weekend brought a couple of hours of dry weather. Just enough for me to strip the brakes down again (I'll not bore you by repeating the whole procedure here!) and realise that the handbrake actually appeared to be working!
Hastily, I chucked everything back together, adjusted the shoes and yanked on the brake. Solid as a rock! Woopah!
I booked it in for its MOT immediately and got the good news this afternoon that it had passed.
As soon as I got home, I got straight on the Internet and taxed the thing as well. Directly the tax disc arrives, I will be fully legal and the real work can begin.
In celebration, I bought the car a treat:
I thought these keyrings were perfect for the theme of the car when we take it on the Chronicle Rally.
No, the theme has nothing to do with aircraft, but these tags are used elsewhere and have become something of a de facto tag for reminding engineers to remove whatever they're strapped onto before the vehicle/machine is started up.
They are actually used in touring cars (in the throttle inlet, for instance) so I figured they were perfect for out touring car theme!
Although I've got no more procedures to show you at the moment, getting the MOT is a huge step forward. It means I can use the car on the public road, which in turn means I can take it to a workshop, etc. for making the upcoming work much easier.
Speaking of which, upcoming work includes the following:
Well, there's good news. Last weekend brought a couple of hours of dry weather. Just enough for me to strip the brakes down again (I'll not bore you by repeating the whole procedure here!) and realise that the handbrake actually appeared to be working!
Hastily, I chucked everything back together, adjusted the shoes and yanked on the brake. Solid as a rock! Woopah!
I booked it in for its MOT immediately and got the good news this afternoon that it had passed.
As soon as I got home, I got straight on the Internet and taxed the thing as well. Directly the tax disc arrives, I will be fully legal and the real work can begin.
In celebration, I bought the car a treat:
 |
| "Remove Before Flight" Keyring |
No, the theme has nothing to do with aircraft, but these tags are used elsewhere and have become something of a de facto tag for reminding engineers to remove whatever they're strapped onto before the vehicle/machine is started up.
They are actually used in touring cars (in the throttle inlet, for instance) so I figured they were perfect for out touring car theme!
Although I've got no more procedures to show you at the moment, getting the MOT is a huge step forward. It means I can use the car on the public road, which in turn means I can take it to a workshop, etc. for making the upcoming work much easier.
Speaking of which, upcoming work includes the following:
- Front brake discs & pads renewal
- Oil & filter replacement
- Coolant refresh
- Brake fluid substitution for high temperature racing fluid
- 40mm lowering spring kit
- BTCC decal kit
- Probably lots of ancillary work along the way!
Stay tuned right here for all this and more! (Did that sound like an American TV announcer, or what?!)
Seriously, I promise there will be some marginally more interesting content in the forthcoming weeks. There's a lot to do before the rally and I intend to blog about all of it.
Following that, there will hopefully be more blog posts about the road car's transformation into a racer!
Good stuff. Subscribe to get new posts first. Much love.
Monday, 16 April 2012
I'm Still Alive!
Rumours of my disappearance have been grossly exaggerated!
As the blog has been rather barren for a while, I thought I ought to post something, even if there's nothing exciting to post!
I have received the handbrake parts I was waiting for, although I have a couple of cables with different part numbers on them. My supplier wasn't sure of the correct part, so he sent me both and asked me to send the wrong one back to him, which is much better than taking a guess and risking getting it wrong!
Anyway, I'll reserve the work I've done on this so far for the next update - that way, there's an entire post dedicated to the replacement of the handbrake cable on a Volvo 850 for anyone who's looking for it!
Ed.
As the blog has been rather barren for a while, I thought I ought to post something, even if there's nothing exciting to post!
I have received the handbrake parts I was waiting for, although I have a couple of cables with different part numbers on them. My supplier wasn't sure of the correct part, so he sent me both and asked me to send the wrong one back to him, which is much better than taking a guess and risking getting it wrong!
Anyway, I'll reserve the work I've done on this so far for the next update - that way, there's an entire post dedicated to the replacement of the handbrake cable on a Volvo 850 for anyone who's looking for it!
Ed.
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Minor Update
As I haven't posted anything in a while, I thought I should give a minor update on what's going on with the car at the moment.
Begin Update:
Not a fat lot!
End Update.
I've essentially done nothing with the car since the last update, but I have managed to ascertain that the nearside handbrake cable is shot. This is the only reason for the brake not to work when everything is moving freely enough and the offside brake does work.
I have placed an order for a new cable and am just waiting for it to come in before I can begin the next challenge. Having never done one of these before, I am a little bit apprehensive. I have a suspicion this job will be as highly sprung as the shoe replacement in my last post, so I'm not really looking forward to it. It also means dismantling some of the car's interior, which I don't have a good history with - it usually doesn't go back in the right place...
Other than that, I can report that another package landed on my desk yesterday - a full set of 40mm lowering springs.
The spring fitment will be carried out once the car has got a full MOT on it and I will try to document that part as well. I will be enlisting the help of a friend with a workshop for that job, though...
And that's it for now. No exciting pictures, no lost limbs and no blue language. The only other news is that the ferry and all the hotels are now booked for our little adventure in July, so there's no backing out now!
Next update will hopefully end in a working handbrake...
Begin Update:
Not a fat lot!
End Update.
I've essentially done nothing with the car since the last update, but I have managed to ascertain that the nearside handbrake cable is shot. This is the only reason for the brake not to work when everything is moving freely enough and the offside brake does work.
I have placed an order for a new cable and am just waiting for it to come in before I can begin the next challenge. Having never done one of these before, I am a little bit apprehensive. I have a suspicion this job will be as highly sprung as the shoe replacement in my last post, so I'm not really looking forward to it. It also means dismantling some of the car's interior, which I don't have a good history with - it usually doesn't go back in the right place...
Other than that, I can report that another package landed on my desk yesterday - a full set of 40mm lowering springs.
The spring fitment will be carried out once the car has got a full MOT on it and I will try to document that part as well. I will be enlisting the help of a friend with a workshop for that job, though...
And that's it for now. No exciting pictures, no lost limbs and no blue language. The only other news is that the ferry and all the hotels are now booked for our little adventure in July, so there's no backing out now!
Next update will hopefully end in a working handbrake...
Monday, 26 March 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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| One exposed Garibaldi biscuit, I mean brake disc! |
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.
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| Two liberated retaining pins and two brake pads. |
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.
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.
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| Removed shoes, adjustment screw (top) and main spring (bottom) |
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,
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. |
 |
| New disc drops in place with ease. |
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 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!
Saturday, 24 March 2012
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.
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.
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