Club 80-90 Forums

My front brakes (early, ATE) look like archaeological finds from an iron age settlement. They got through the MOT, but I really need to replace the lot - callipers, disks, bearings, backing plates, pads, flexis.

Looking at parts on Brickwerks' site I see that there's a stainless backing plate for the later brakes, which is evidently cut from flat sheet...


...but for the early brakes there's only this rather elaborate pressed steel item that has all sorts of creases and folds.


So being lazy here (to save taking the wheel off for a good look), can anyone tell me what it is about the early brakes that means a flat backing plate can't be used? Does it have to be shaped to fit round callipers and mounting bolts? I remember a thread on here a year or two ago where someone had made a CAD drawing of a backing plate - was that only for the later brakes (and are the Brickwerks stainless items made from that template)? I can handle Autocad, so would be up for drawing a flat steel version for the early brakes if that's feasible, so that they can easily be made from stainless as well.

The brake discs are not the same. I have a pair of NOS german early discs for sale. Can post to you.

Not the same, ok, but is there something about them that makes a flat backing plate impossible?

I'll PM you about the discs, thank you.

My backing plates vanished many years ago. So not had any, had no issues and no MOT place has ever mentioned them.

CovKid wrote:My backing plates vanished many years ago. So not had any, had no issues and no MOT place has ever mentioned them.

Yeah, mine resemble paper doilies more than backing plates, and my MOT place didn't seem to mind. But I figured now's the time to sort out the whole setup. What he did object to was one side having good stopping power, and the other other side having very good stopping power. Attempting to cure the imbalance showed that the calliper on the 'good' side is well past its best (split seal, retainer pin holes almost rusted through).

The early plates are mounted inside the hub they have to be dished around the disc.

Thanks Bigherb, that explains it very clearly. Is the backing plate in your photo just untreated steel, or is that a galvanised finish?

CJH wrote:Is the backing plate in your photo just untreated steel, or is that a galvanised finish?

Some type of finish, probably pressed from galvanised/plated sheet.

One of mine fell off, MOT tomorrow

itchyfeet wrote:One of mine fell off, MOT tomorrow

Did it pass?

Did my brakes today. Here are the iron age relics that just about scraped through the MOT after a bit of persuasion.





Those cross-head screws didn't want to let go without a fight - an impact driver shifted a couple of them, but it took the Irwin nut removers to shift the stubborn ones. Great bit of kit - got them out without damaging them so they could be cleaned up and re-used. The calliper bolts were proper tight. Needed all my strength on the end of my 750mm breaker bar. And of course the brake pipe connections were seized so I had to make new rigid pipes to link the flexis to the calliper. But we got there in the end.

New backing plates, with a coat of paint on top of whatever finish it was they came with:


And new discs, wheel bearings, callipers, pads and flexis. It's what a credit card was made for.


Took it out for a quick test drive, and they felt good - perfectly capable of locking the front wheels, so no need for anything bigger or better in terms of raw stopping power.

Lovely! I wish newly fitted parts stayed shiney for longer though. I fitted a new water pump to my early wbxer a few years ago (major ballache job on an early system) and it looked great! 4 months later and it blended into the cruddy boxer again :-\

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Yep - first sign of rain and those shiny steel parts will take their cue from the rest of the van and go orange. And I know what you mean about the water pump. I've just finished putting my engine together - I grit blasted a few of the older aluminium parts to get a nice new finish, the heads and water pump are new, the hoses were all scrubbed and then shined up with tyre shine, the wires were all cleaned with white spirit, the pipes and a few of the metal bits were powder coated - but I know as soon as something starts leaking it won't last.

Yeesh that's clean

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A very nice looking engine

Thats cos hes got nowt else to do