Rear brake handbrake?????

[nomad]

I'm in the process of setting up the little spring "fingers" that are supposed to hold the hand brake pads away from the rear discs. At one time I had an idea of how that was done but have forgotten it along with any other handbrake "tricks". My manual has little info.

The L shaped "pad retaining brackets" as Buckland refers to them should be adjusted exactly how? I'm sure I read something about clearances long ago. Also, I seem to have two L shaped brackets that are of thicker construction than the other two. Where should these be placed?

Kurt

[billwill]

They are slightly springy, so all you have to do is clamp them in a vice to flatten the free end of the 'finger' (if it has curved). Then gently bend it away from the pad to an angle of about 95 degrees instead of 90 degrees.

They will bend to the right place when you clamp them in position. As the pad wears they will bend closer to the pad until the pad is too thin when the finger will likely be around 85 degrees. Then get the pads replaced & repeat from the beginning.

Eventually of course metal fatigue will set in and the finger will probably break off, then its time to get new ones.

I believe they are 'designed' to take this permanent off set as the pad wears down.


Item 17 on this diagram:

[nomad]

Thanks, Bill. Any insight into why two of mine are thicker that the other two???

Kurt

[Tmac897]

Could be they were replaced at some point, and the part that was available at the time was just different than the ones installed originally. That would be the path of least resistance explanation.

The one I prefer, and certainly something I’ve seen first hand on my Elan is that Lotus in particular and car builders in general, is that NOTHING ever gets thrown away. As the newer models undergo modifications in the build processes, if there’s anything left lying around, it gets used.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “that shouldn’t be on your ‘67,” as I’ve gone through this restoration.

[Andy8421]

Kurt,

My personal view is that the two little springs / strips are hopeless, and a pain to set up.

The handbrake caliper floats, so not only do the the strips pull the pads away from the disc, but they also act to centre the caliper on the disc.

You will need to make sure you match the strips on the same caliper (thick on one caliper, thin on the other), or there will be a tendency for one pad to remain in contact and the other pad to pull away.

I don't think the absolute thickness of the strip matters as long as it has some spring in it, and as long as they match on the same caliper.

Good luck.

[Elanman99]

The main purpose of the strips is act as springs to hold the pads off the disk. Centralising is just an incidental by-product really.

Being made of plain rather than 'spring steel' so their range of springiness is limited and there is a limit as to how many times they can be reformed. (its probably in dozens but not likely to be in hundreds but how often to handbrake pads need changing)

When I have reset (bent) mine I have always overbent them and after the whole brake mechanism is then loosely assembled, have tightened the bolt until the eyelet end of the strips are fully seated. The two cast levers and the pads are then forced into their full outward positions and tightening the notched adjuster nut will close in both pads pretty equally.

Ian