mot failed.

[gareth400se]

hello everyone, had my wedge for 18mnths now,and it failed the mot last week on rear brake pads,looks like one of the calipers is seized up ,is it possible to unseize it and also where is the best place to get new brake pads from and what type are reccomended ,be grateful for all advice,its a 400se thanks gareth.

[B@man]

Hi Gareth,

I suppose it could be much worse, if it's seized chances are the pistons are fked so as it's a safety related component you may be better off getting the calipers rebuilt.

Have you read this ?

[Number 7]

The pads themselves can seize in the caliper, due to the accumulation of road crud and brake dust, as they do seem to last for years, plus there is only about 25% of the total braking force going to the rear. Worth extracting the pads (remove one R clip from each retaining pin (2 per caliper) and pull out. Use brake cleaner and a brush to remove crud from the caliper, and with a thin piece of wood or similar wedged in between the pistons to prevent them popping right out, see if pedal pressure will move the pistons. If not, they'll have to come out - a pain of a job - since the handbrake calipers need to come off, and the caliper bolts "should" be lockwired. Clearance for removal on the n/s is tight. Recon. calipers are about £65 + vat each from motor factors. If you need to remove the calipers, change the discs as well. As for pads, I've used Ferodo of various sorts over the years, either DS2000 or DS2500, the later if you do track work. Code is FCP815 - essentially Jag XJ from the 70's / 80's.

7.

[mac123yre]

Real pain to do I ended up totaly restoring the back end, good luck

[wooly350i]

Gareth, I remember taking handbrake calipers only off a few years ago and cleaning/greasing them before refitting them,did that without removing other stuff.Now i've got the whole rear end out and found the pistons were in a state so exchanged them for nice shiney recon ones,getting them out in situ was a (Gordon Brown) cos of security wire and access to bolts but now the lot is out its a simple job to replace and rewire the bolts.Mind you i did use large hole cutter to make access in boot to reach main bolts holding diff in place,as they say-start one job leads to another!! I got my calipers from Berkshire Jag spares complete with new discs.Wooly

[Campbell]

Hi Gareth

Your lucky its only your calipers were the only problems.
When i did mine as the pistons were sticking in and the bleed nippel brock off.
Taking the calipers off the car is not that hard but it will take you some time, start with taking the hand brake system apart then you ill have cut the lock wire and slowly undo the 2 bolts holding the caliper on.
When removing the drive shafts count the shims before taking the disks off so you dont afect the camber.
I rebuilt my own calpers with new pistons seals and pipe work and steve heath bleed, a must... or just get recon ohh and put new pads for the hand brake jag e type, i went for mintex 1144, good pads and not hard on disks.

Cambelt

[gareth400se]

thanks for all the advice lads,must admit did look abit daunting under the car where the calipers sit,i thought double one on a dartboard was the madhouse lol,wedge ownership ah well .

[ed_crouch]

Yeh, taking the rear calipers out is a pain, but worth it to have working rear brakes. It does take ages, but it is doable.

You'll need to strip the rear end out bit by bit. Disconnect wishbones, remove driveshaft/hub assy by removing the 4 inboard 11/16AF nuts on each side, You'll have to angle the driveshaft to get the socket over the nut without fouling the UJ yoke. GEt some new camber shims from Ward Engineering, cos the old ones will be rusty and will have thickened because of it.

Then get removing them calipers. Cut the lockwire (REPLACE IT WITH MORE ON REASSEMBLY OR THE CAR WILL FAIL AGAIN!!!), remove the handbrake calipers as the caliper wont feed out through the chassis tubes unless you do, remove the caliper bolts (they wont come all the way ouut cos the heads will hit the diff, so you have to fiddle them out with the caliper).

Then change discs, noting a number of thinner brake disc alignment shims. These are to get the rear discs running dead central in the calipers. Get some new ones of these too, theyre cheap. If you can mic up the old ones on a non-rusty area, you'll be able to get new ones of the same thickness.

I reckon about 20 od hours to do both sides properly, including cleaning and painting. Could even do the UJs whilst its all off?!?

Now that's quite another story...

HOpe this helps.

Email me if you get stuck, I've been there...

Ed.

[carob]

Not very technical here i am afraid.

Big hammer should free the caliper and book the re-test for a specific time, you know so its not sat about for a couple of hours. have a good run around prior to test and straight on the ramps and what have you and hey presto, 12 months rent fixed on the wedgey missile.

ROB

[grahamw48]

If you're feeling lazy, and bit of spare £s, got mine rebuilt inc. new discs,pads etc by my local garage... about £360.The handbrake pads had apparently just disintegrated.

Perfect now.

[Wedg1e]

gareth400se said:

thanks for all the advice lads,must admit did look abit daunting under the car where the calipers sit,i thought double one on a dartboard was the madhouse lol,wedge ownership ah well .

If you think they look hard on a Wedge, try finding a pic of the rear axle on the Jag they came from!
It was a big pressed-steel box that supported the diff and rear suspension. To get to the brakes you had IIRC four hand-sized holes to work through... so you could get one hand in but not both.

ETA: something like this...

Edited by Wedg1e on Saturday 7th February 15:43

[gareth400se]

think i,l get someone else to do it as im no mechanic , dont mind havin ago but at sametime i dont really want to f**k it up,is there any specific brake disc,s regarding grooved,vented etc,or will soiid ones do the job alright.be grateful if someone could kindly post on here what parts i need and where from ,regarding disc,s ,(shims i think) pads ,now im getting to technical for myself so im gona leave it there as im already out of my depth,lol.

[grahamw48]

If someone else does it, they'll recognise it as seventies XJ6 Jag brakes, obtainable from factors still I believe.
No probs for my garage getting the bits.

Standard discs, as they don't do much work anyway.

I had a couple of said Jags, and you're talking about a car weighing around 1800kg, as against 400SE 1150kg.

[dickymint]

mac123yre said:

Real pain to do

Mine failed once so told the mechy to fix it - he ummed and arred then said "well maybe it's not too bad I'll pass it"

[GV]

I know how you feel. Last year I took the decision to drop the whole rear section albeit with some guidance notes from some guys who have done the job. Believe it or not, the hardest thing about the job was dealing with the rusted nuts and bolts - everything else went well. Once I got my refurb calipers back on with a new set of disks - it was a joy to see it all back in place. One thing I also did was to ensure I got a set of SH A Frame bolt kits - he also sent me a couple of extras not included to replace the hub carrier bolts that had to be chopped off.

Having done the job once - I would do it again no problem.

[gareth400se]

i live in stowmarket,suffolk if thats an offer,lol.

[Comadis]

freeing the caliper for the mot will postpone your problem only.

and eventually on a saturday night, middle of nowhere, without any mobile-phone reception, raining like hell your caliper startes seizing again...ending in a brakedown!!!

repair it now!!! properly!!

oh...its too much money? than sell the car!!!