Club 80-90 Forums

here's an update in the life of a man and his van.

i went out to replace the front brake pads, first the n/s front.

the nearest brake pad went in easily, the g clamp moved the piston back and it was greased and slipped in.

the furthest piston was stuck solid, it wouldn't retract, would only apply to the disc. that might account for the uneven pad wear and disc wear. i tried to g clamp it and then as a last resort, a little thump with the hammer with the boot lifted away from the lip of the piston. it's siezed pretty bad. the seal has gone now too, when you pump the pedal brake fluid is appearing around the seal of the piston. i even undid the bleeder and tried to retract the piston with the g clamp it just wouldn't retract. would also account for the uneven braking. the person before me hasn't replaced their fluid and it causes all sorts of untold problems with cylinders and calipers so replace your fluid each year or move over to dot5/silicon fluid!

which leads me to ask, does anyone have a spare teves n/s front caliper or know any breakers with any at the moment? i am looking for a cheap replacement to get me going again for now.

thank you.

teves recons at gsf £60 exchange i have fitted a few lately and all were fine
regards doug

i took a look at the front o/s caliper. same thing. the front piston went back with the g clamp, the back piston was stuck. i tried the wheel before i took the wheel nuts off. the wheel was binding. both wheels were binding and the back piston was sticking but applying enough braking power to pass the mot! (this is the first mot i have done with her). i can only think that the brake fluid hasn't been changed before i had it for a long time and it's caused a bit of a mess with the calipers, and they're probably quite old anyway, they look ancient.

i levered out the front pad but the back was stubborn, and i tried to get a clamp on the back piston, it can't get enough bite to back off and i am not sure about spending out on a retraction tool because by the time i get that piston back, i bet it sticks on again! after all if it's stuck on once there's a reason, right?

it's going to be fun trying to get those two big nuts off when replacing the calipers, they look like they're from the stone age! what's wrong with copper grease on the threads and waxoyl/grease on wheel nuts now and again!

doug, was just wondering when you have done the calipers you have done lately, have you had trouble with ancient nuts, neding to blow them off with some heat and also have you had to replace brake line etc?

is there a brake line kit with pre flared parts for the t25 somewhere on the web like there are with other classic marques?

please people, grease your brake pipes threads and nuts!

I have been very lucky with rusted bolts give them plenty of penetrating oil for a couple of days before hand and a large breaker bar and they should pop open.
As for brake pipes if the callipers are shot i would always recomend to a paying customer to replace solid and flexi brake lines aswell as its all safety critical. jk sell preformed kits for about£100 allthough you could buy all you need and a brakepipe flaring tool for well under half that.
If you fancy a go you tube have videos showing how to flare pipes safely and its always good to take it to your local mot station after to do the rolling road brake test as this will show any pipes that are not done well enough better to fail under load on the rolling road than on the real road

regards doug .

a quick few questions then i have to pop out ..

1. is the piston supposed to retract? you should be able to spin the wheel and not feel any binding, right?
2. if i get a piston retraction tool and wind the inner piston back in, chances are, is it going to push forward get stuck and bind again? i figure there must be some corrosion or something making it sticking, hence maybe at that stage it needs a rebuild, clean faces and new seals?
3. are there a lot of old vans around with sticking pistons?
4. is it best to take both calipers off and replace them both at this stage? i don't want to make do and mend then find the pads are rubbing down again unevenly and scoring the disc prematurely. i found that the other side on the front is the same, the piston doesn't retract even when draining the caliper of plenty of fluid! or can the pistons pop back with the retraction tool and then they move forward and back off the disc without rubbing normally?

finally, i want to replace with dot5, can i just drain it fully and refill with dot5 or do i have to take all the pipes off, the cylinders and calipers and flush with anything or can i just drain and refill? i don't want any more corrosion or having to replace the brake fluid any more so would prefer dot5.

cheers!