Dave Smith's Freelander

Just been out for a nosey and, it may be wishful thinking, but I think the caliper holder looks much better. I gave it a good scrub and stirred up the potion, but there it has definitely changed since last night.
Next battle is to undo the hose banjo when the caliper is just hanging loose and I can get hold of the bloody thing. Given it a good soaking with plusgas and I'll have a crack tomorrow when I can be more arsed.

Does everyone still have the metal brake guard things behind the disk? Mine looks a bit tatty and rubs on the disk so I want to know whether it should be saved or ditched.

I've always kept them on other cars, not started on the Freelander brakes yet so not decided

davidsmith1307 said:

Does everyone still have the metal brake guard things behind the disk? Mine looks a bit tatty and rubs on the disk so I want to know whether it should be saved or ditched.

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Mine basically crumbled away when I took off the discs so I just pulled them off completely.
Isn't it easier to loose the banjo bolt with the caliper bolted on? It's hard to hold the caliper steady otherwise.

Sure is. I already have the caliper mount off (in acid bath) so I might have to wait until that's back on, mount the caliper, remove the banjo, remove the caliper again and then nuke that.
Or gently use an impact wrench...
Torque is a bitch!

I'll be interested to see how the acid treatment comes up. Reading these last few posts have all of a sudden become very relevant to a new problem that showed up on my hippo over the weekend, where I came back from a trip, with it making a horrible noise at speed, so thought it was a wheel bearing on its way out. I took it easy getting back to find raindrops vaporising as they hit the front wheel, accompanied with a nice burning smell. Wheel off the next day confirmed the caliper had jammed, (wheel bearing seems ok, with no play). Thirteen years old so rusted to **** too. Needed a breaker bar and an Irwin socket to shift the caliper mounting bolts. Guide pins are still stuck on, but left lots of penetrating fluid on overnight, so will have another crack today to see if I can get them off. Seeing someone else doing a similar thing with their brakes is reassuring to convince me I'm not mad wanting to try and rebuild these. I'll probably do the flexible hoses too, as the connections on those have corroded beyond recognition. The rust on the calipers looked a lot better after even just quick going over with a wire brush in situ. Hence why I'm interested to see how the acid soak goes. Right, ...off to have an argument with some rusted guide pins!

Jim

I will try and take a pic of the caliper mount tonight so you can see how it is coming along. I don't know whether to add more crystals as I am making this up as I go along

Can't compete with @Alibro for progress but I'm inching forwards.
Caliper holders - took them out to have a look tonight and the acid is definitely doing some good:


And the disk came off ok

Better get new disks, pads and ancillaries ordered. Then I can actually put something back together!! Well, just enough to get the caliper banjo off.

davidsmith1307 said:

Can't compete with @Alibro for progress but I'm inching forwards.
Caliper holders - took them out to have a look tonight and the acid is definitely doing some good:

And the disk came off ok

Better get new disks, pads and ancillaries ordered. Then I can actually put something back together!! Well, just enough to get the caliper banjo off.

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LOL, Your doing fine. I started out cleaning rust and scrubbing stuff and quickly went on to just getting the thing back together. Keep up the good work.

It'll be nice to have some shinies arriving in the post!
I'll be a lot quicker doing the other side as I now have tools and knowledge. Well, a small amount of both.
Don't know whether to tackle the timing belt now or post-MOT. I am a bit nervous of doing it as I'm out of practice. Used to think nothing of taking the head of my dad's marina and lapping in valves etc. Gang of us did my mate's marina in the snow and full of lager. But we were only 17...

LOL, I remember helping my brother pull an engine out of a mkll escort in -5°C
He bought it from a scrapy to put in his HC Viva.

davidsmith1307 said:

It'll be nice to have some shinies arriving in the post!
I'll be a lot quicker doing the other side as I now have tools and knowledge. Well, a small amount of both.
Don't know whether to tackle the timing belt now or post-MOT. I am a bit nervous of doing it as I'm out of practice. Used to think nothing of taking the head of my dad's marina and lapping in valves etc. Gang of us did my mate's marina in the snow and full of lager. But we were only 17...

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Might as well change it and waterpump at the same time for air on the side of caution, hardest bit is getting the crank pulley off if you've not got air tools

davidsmith1307 said:

Can't compete with @Alibro for progress but I'm inching forwards.
Caliper holders - took them out to have a look tonight and the acid is definitely doing some good:

And the disk came off ok

Better get new disks, pads and ancillaries ordered. Then I can actually put something back together!! Well, just enough to get the caliper banjo off.

Click to expand...

If your after discs check out Mtech http://www.mtecbrakes.com/ I've used em before on several cars and for near the price of a cheapo set from eurocarfarts you can get some drilled and groved ones, throw in a set of decent pads and it will stop on a sixpence

Alibro said:

LOL, I remember helping my brother pull an engine out of a mkll escort in -5°C
He bought it from a scrapy to put in his HC Viva.

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Them were the days, I remember going to the pub with a mate and discussing his triumph 2500. After a large amount of Tetley's bitter, taking the engine out and stripping it seemed a good idea! When we came to put it back together, we were both sober and could we remember what went where! Did it though and it worked

It was easy then. Join the dots petrol engines. Didn't need a IT specialist, plumber and electrician.

davidsmith1307 said:

It'll be nice to have some shinies arriving in the post!
I'll be a lot quicker doing the other side as I now have tools and knowledge. Well, a small amount of both.
Don't know whether to tackle the timing belt now or post-MOT. I am a bit nervous of doing it as I'm out of practice. Used to think nothing of taking the head of my dad's marina and lapping in valves etc. Gang of us did my mate's marina in the snow and full of lager. But we were only 17...

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If you need the k series cam locking tool that fits between the cam pulleys, I believe I've still got mine and it's sat in my tool box doing nowt and highly unlikely to be used again so for price of postage its yours ( If I can find it that is! )

LUKBENPHI said:

If you need the k series cam locking tool that fits between the cam pulleys, I believe I've still got mine and it's sat in my tool box doing nowt and highly unlikely to be used again so for price of postage its yours ( If I can find it that is! )

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I already have the cam one ta. Did you use the flywheel locking tool as they are rather more pricey. Or did you wedge it another way?

davidsmith1307 said:

I already have the cam one ta. Did you use the flywheel locking tool as they are rather more pricey. Or did you wedge it another way?

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Not the best thing to admit but I've never used one! or even wedged it, just used the cam tool up top and had it in gear with someone on the brakes whilst undoing/doing up the crank pulley and just made sure keys were in me pocket out of harm's way and that the pulleys were tippexed so I could see if it had moved or not.

I have seen them wedged with the starter removed and a rag with a knot in it placed in the hole, then the engine turned by hand until it is correctly timed and the rag is pinned in the starter rings teeth preventing further movement and I've also seen a pry bar used in the same manner through the starter hole.

Obviously correctly pinning it is the correct way of doing and If your not 100% confident at the job as you say above I'd advise buying the tool expensive for what it is it may but a slip up doing the belt could write off the rebuild project and I'm enjoying reading about it!

If you use a windy gun (air or lecky) you shouldn't need to lock the crank, at least I haven't on the three I have done with my cheapo Clarke 240V gun. Regarding the cam locking tool I only use it to hold the pulleys while I loosen or tighten the bolts as it is only a hindrance when refitting the belt.

Skinny Mike said:

Them were the days, I remember going to the pub with a mate and discussing his triumph 2500. After a large amount of Tetley's bitter, taking the engine out and stripping it seemed a good idea! When we came to put it back together, we were both sober and could we remember what went where! Did it though and it worked

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I have built many high performance 4 pot and 6 pot Triumph engines. I even built a couple of 2.5 to 2.8L conversations back in the day. At 2800cc they pumped out almost 200 Bhp!! One was installed in a very heavily modified MK3 Spitfire, which went like the wind. I saw the speedo nudge 150 Mph on one occasion!!