Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

hi guys i am just about to fit the some refurbed rear calipers on my 71 sprint, 1st question, are the mounting bolts supposed to have washers with them? (i have steel wire for theholes in the bolts) 2nd question, do the rear brake pads have anti squeal shims like the front ones? thanks, ian.

I don't have anti squeal ships on my rear pads. Front's - yes but rear's, no. Never had a problem with squeal from the rears. The rear caliper mounting bolts had internal star washers fitted when I bought the car thirty years ago and I've continued with them. As you say the bolt heads are drilled for lockwire but I've never lockwired them.

No shims shown on the parts list and no washers on the mounting bolts either....... Don't know why the front caliper bolts have lock washers and the rears use lock wire but the bolts should be secured in one way or the other - loose bolts could have catastrophic consequences.

Ian,
My S4 definitely has washers under the bolt heads, which are then lockwired.
My rear brakes were squealing very badly, to the point of embarrassment. I have recently, just last week in fact, had some shims laser cut out of .55mm stainless steel. These have totally eliminated the squealing.
Some other, Lotus Club Queensland, Elan owners report no undue noise from their rear brakes. I suspect it has a lot to do with the type of friction material used. My rear pads are still original.
I got the dimensions for the shims from the vintagetechnologygarage (Yahoo) website. Look under files for the drawing.
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/SPkRUpmZX7 ... r_shim.pdf

Regards,
Colin.

bmcman.ie wrote:hi guys i am just about to fit the some refurbed rear calipers on my 71 sprint, 1st question, are the mounting bolts supposed to have washers with them? (i have steel wire for theholes in the bolts) 2nd question, do the rear brake pads have anti squeal shims like the front ones? thanks, ian.

thanks as usual for the help guys, its much appreciated, ian.