Changing discs and pads
Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:12 pm
I've just changed the front discs and pads at a mate's garage (the rear ones were changed a few weeks ago) and I thought a couple of additional points are worth mentioning to supplement Sonny's very helpful sticky on the subject. Sorry I didn't take any pics.
There is a stainless steel plate at each end of the caliper on the inside that I think are to help locate the pads. Unlike Sonny's, mine had a lot corrosion behind them that was preventing easy insertion of the new pads without hammering them in. Each plate is held in place by 3 small grub screws. We didn't want to risk shearing them when trying to remove the plate to clean behind. So, gently levering the plate away from the caliper with a small screwdriver, we used a junior hacksaw blade to scrape away the crap with a sawing motion. It took quite a while and it was amazing how much came out. We used WD40 too. The new pads then went in easily.
Also, we had a hell of a job getting some of the pad retaining pins out of the calipers. On a couple, trying to knock them out with a drift simply burred the end over and risked damage to the caliper had we managed to knock them through. Twisting the pins on their axis with really tight Mole grips worked, but one sheared in two and though we managed to drift the two parts out it took a lot of care and plentiful use of a low temperature spray made by Wurth that is supposed to contract metal and break corrosion bonds. So it's worth having a spare set of new caliper pins on hand before you start in case you have similar problems (£19/side from the stealer). We used an aluminium-based grease on the new pins. Hope these little hints might help if you're having a go yourself.
There is a stainless steel plate at each end of the caliper on the inside that I think are to help locate the pads. Unlike Sonny's, mine had a lot corrosion behind them that was preventing easy insertion of the new pads without hammering them in. Each plate is held in place by 3 small grub screws. We didn't want to risk shearing them when trying to remove the plate to clean behind. So, gently levering the plate away from the caliper with a small screwdriver, we used a junior hacksaw blade to scrape away the crap with a sawing motion. It took quite a while and it was amazing how much came out. We used WD40 too. The new pads then went in easily.
Also, we had a hell of a job getting some of the pad retaining pins out of the calipers. On a couple, trying to knock them out with a drift simply burred the end over and risked damage to the caliper had we managed to knock them through. Twisting the pins on their axis with really tight Mole grips worked, but one sheared in two and though we managed to drift the two parts out it took a lot of care and plentiful use of a low temperature spray made by Wurth that is supposed to contract metal and break corrosion bonds. So it's worth having a spare set of new caliper pins on hand before you start in case you have similar problems (£19/side from the stealer). We used an aluminium-based grease on the new pins. Hope these little hints might help if you're having a go yourself.
