Parking brake pads, what’s best

[Brad B]

I was skeptical about the six month pad life, thanks for reporting a different experience.
With penetrating lube, should the arms open any wider, allowing the pads to come out?
I’ll disconnect the hydraulic line and removed the whole assembly if necessary, but any time I can avoid opening hydraulic systems I prefer not to.
All these comments are helpful, thanks everyone.

[Quart Meg Miles]

Intrigued, I waded through my Elan receipts and found a handbrake one dated 1995, 80,000 miles ago.

If the caliper arms are jamming because the pivots are dry then a lube may let them open wider, but as it's 25 years since I fitted a set I can't be sure!

I often take the calipers off without disconnecting the hydraulics, while replacing doughnuts or struts, and you just need to take the pin out of the handbrake link and look after the brake hose. Oh, and take out the rear pads, marking them for inner/outer!

[stugilmour]

Missed this question a while ago.

I took my handbrake pads into these guys in Calgary two or so years ago and they re-lined them for me. Might still work. IIRC I had to specify the desired thickness, but darned if I remember what I went with.

http://www.fleetbrake.com/

[h20hamelan]

That’s good news Stu

Do you recall a price you paid?

Kind Regards

[stugilmour]

Sorry, no I don’t. They were pretty reasonable though, maybe $30 or so?

I made the various handbrake mods including return springs. I bought a spring selection at Princess Auto that filled the bill.

I did not get the adjustable pull rods yet, but they would probably help as I think I suffer from the Spyder supplied incorrect cable length. I had not seen the reference to a cable length adjuster noted below; that is a new one.

The top tip to allow adjustment of the handbrake was this gem from jeff@JAE. I think he has retired now. To replace the missing bushings (who knew?) I ground down and drilled out a small nut and banged it into position to take up any slack.

Lotus used to have a clamp that fits the inner cable to shorten it, we have one here. My S3 had one from the factory and it seems this clamp was a way to deal with cables installed that were a little too long.

Also you must make sure the little bushing in the operating arm of the caliper to take up the difference of the small bolt in the linkage end is not loose in the larger bore of the arm. There has been a discussion of this in previous posts. If those bushings are missing it's nearly impossible to adjust so the pads are dragging and at the same time have enough motion to clamp the disc when setting the brake.

HTH

[h20hamelan]

I just purchased some parts from Jeff, he is still doing well.

[billwill]

Don't throw away handbrake pad mounts, I think they are becoming very rare and having a set re-lined may be the only way to get of such pads in the near future.

Notice that the pins (number 8 in the diagram) are thinner in the middle where the pad mount fits, perhaps yours have been replaced with constant diameter pins.

https://lotuselan.net/w/images/a/ac/Elan-Parts-JC.jpg