FTO AUSTRALIA

wagonist wrote:How do you adjust the caliper end of the mechanism?
I'm guessing the piston turns, but what kind of tool is needed? Or is it a custom made type of thing?

And I need to do that because the 2nd hand calipers & pads I've bought to fit onto my Excel won't fit over the rotor.
I'll adjust inside later (to motorkhana spec )

Yeah wind the pistons clockwise. Set of needle nose plyers will do the job.

or even the open end of a 16mm spanner.

Thanks for the tip, I just didn't know how difficult was going to be to turn

Any ideas how much the piston is supposed to move when you "pull" the lever?

When the piston is fully wound in, the lever doesn't pull far enough for the handbrake to work, but when I give it a half turn, it's locked on...

The piston will come out by itself after a few hits of the brake. No need to turn it.

Got it sorted, thanks. Ended up shaving 1/2mm off each of the pads on the RHS.

Don't have any rear hydraulic lines on, so can't pump the brake pedal. And needed to get my car down my driveway to get to the trailer to get it to the brake shop...

Figured there'd have to be someway for the handbrake to compensate for the pads wearing out.

So what was wrong with it? The hand brake should have worked after you pumped the brakes a few time.

In basic terms the hydraulic pressure will push the pistons out to a point where the pads are just rubbing against the rotors. Pulling the hand brake will put more pressure on the pad causing the rears to lock. This applies to both sides.

The reason the hand brake was not working is because you did not have hydraulic pressure in the rear calipers. Shaving a bit of pad on one side will do nothing, the piston will just compensate.

wagonist wrote: Don't have any rear hydraulic lines on, so can't pump the brake pedal.

Bit hard to pump the brakes with this

Shaving the pads worked perfectly because the piston was wound all the way in because there's new pads.
And I needed to move the car to get it to the brake shop to get hydraulic lines made up for it.
The car, my Excel, didn't come with disc brakes on the rear, and so the flexible lines only went as far as the strut