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How the hell does it come off?

I've been doing basic maintenance of my cars for years. As far as I'm concerned it is usually a 10 minute job per wheel... normally.

I'm driving a 94 1400cc Escort at the moment and just failed the MOT on 'corrosion on the disk' apart from the fact that I can't see any corrosion on the face of the disk I'm not too fussed as disks aren't expensive and that's an extra 5 minutes on top of the normal 10 (usually spent wrestling with the retaining screw).

I had to wait until early evening to start the job and ours is a fairly quiet street, but then this is a quick job. Yeah right.

9pm I've stopped and left the car sitting on axle stands. The Haynes book of lies says remove the 'R-clip' and then draw the retaining pin out. OK the 'r-clip' came out in about 2 seconds, but the retaining pin is sitting there... not moving or budging a bit. WD-40 has hit it and I've hit it with a bit of medium hammering. I couldn't give it any welly since I have a baby asleep in the nearest upstairs window to the drive and next door have an even younger baby upstairs in another front bedroom (and it's getting dark so if that pin shot out I'd never find it).

Is the answer to the problem belting it one or have I missed something blindingly obvious. Anyone get experience with 10 year old escorts?

Warwick -- annoyed and stuck

Reply to
Warwick
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what "disc" are you referring to? brake disc? you need to break the rust seal, so if it's on the front, start the car up, put it in gear, pop the clutch to simulate the car being driven, and then, once it's up to speed, put your foot on the brake pedal this will shock the centre hub part free of corrosion and you can then pull the disc off otherwise you have to apply heat to it or even, in extreme cases, resort to the angle grinder and cut the bugger off the face of the hub

Reply to
dojj

Presume that you mean the pin for holding the caliper down? Suitable punch, and give it a good hit (you are trying to hammer it out the way aren't you?) Once you get the pin out, check that it slides through the groves in the caliper. If it doesn't, clean the pin, and also remove the small shim (might not be obvious due to the rust) from the grooves in the caliper, and clean the groves. Re-install the shim and check that the pin now moves freely. It's normally this pin sticking that gives the most problems on escort front brakes.

moray

Reply to
Moray Cuthill

Well yes, the eventual aim is that the brake disk comes off, but that's free now and held in place by the damned brake caliper from hell that I can't release. Once I swing that out of the way the disk will fall off in my hands. Since I've never had a problem changing pads on any car before and I'm at "free the caliper" stage in the job I think this may be a quirk of the system Ford chose to fit at that point in the 90s. Everything else has always been a case of 'undo a bolt, swing, push the caliper back, fit pads and put everything back'

I *wish* I was dealing with a rust seal on the disc.

An investigation with a good light *seems* to reveal a very slight visible bulge in the pin that the Haynes book of lies asks me to slide out so it could be that a damn good whack will free it up in the morning.

Warwick

Reply to
Warwick

"damn good whack" seems the most likely way to address my problem then. Yes I'm using a good punch, so my care at not waking the little ones seems the likely problem. In 8 hours time I'll hit it properly.

I'll check for shims as they drop and before I re-fit

Warwick

Reply to
Warwick

You have to remove the calliper carrier not just the calliper. Two 17mm bolts ( or is it 19mm?) and away you go, no need to remove the pin that's pissing you off unless you want to change the pads.

Reply to
Fred

17mm ;)
Reply to
dojj

13mm on the last one I did (they changed years ago)

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

on the Granada's they are 15mm :)

Reply to
dojj

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