plate lift on S2 and turbo calipers

[colin944]

I am a fan of the welding a 10mm nut onto the top of the caliper plate bolts.Makes it easy to undo also heat runs down bolt to free off locktite. It's really easy and any local garage or welder will do it for you.Just hold a 10 mm nut in a pair of vise grips and puddle weld it onto the bolt with a mig then use socket to get it off while it's still warm.Then go to local hardware / tool shop and buy bolts for around 29p each pop a bit of locktite on and bolt it back in .... Simples

 

[peanut]

lovely guide Oli. great job Rob[]

I'm going to wait for warmer weather before tackling all of my brakes. I had to do the front offside because the disc was so bad.

I think it was Antti I was referring to. I spent half the morning last week reading his thread on restoring his Son's 944 . Very talented bloke

 

[os951]

Plate lift is a very common problem with old school Brembos. I have done few dozen restorations.Here's few examples:

My friend Antti fabricates alli kind of adapers for our cars. We have a lot of his parts for son's project.
Here's a brake thread where some of my work can be seen.
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=648510&mpage=1&key=brake&#656047

 

[chrisg]

I would concur with the right honourable Oli, doing the callipers is a straightforward DIY job. My only hesitation in recommending the job is I never know different peoples skills, abilities, bravery and most important the facilities and equipment they have available.

Chris

 

[944Scott]

ORIGINAL: colin944

I am a fan of the welding a 10mm nut onto the top of the caliper plate bolts.Makes it easy to undo also heat runs down bolt to free off locktite. It's really easy and any local garage or welder will do it for you.Just hold a 10 mm nut in a pair of vise grips and puddle weld it onto the bolt with a mig then use socket to get it off while it's still warm.Then go to local hardware / tool shop and buy bolts for around 29p each pop a bit of locktite on and bolt it back in .... Simples

It didn't effect the alloy body of the caliper then? I need to do something because I have several stuck screws, still at least all the calipers are off the car now.

 

[peanut]

wow those wheels look gorgeous.! do the refurbishers clean all the muck off the inside of the wheel rims for you might I ask how much it costs?

 

[944Scott]

They powder coated them front and back plus wet painted the caps to match (as best as possible) cost me £180 inc the dreaded.

 

[colin944]

It didn't effect the alloy body of the caliper then? I need to do something because I have several stuck screws, still at least all the calipers are off the car now.
No not at all. just be careful and try not to get spatter on the plates .You need someone to hold the ten mil nut in place with a set of long nose grips and the weld puddle in the centre hollow of nut and onto plate bolt at the same time.Fill the nut almot full of weld and then let it cool a wee bit the undo with a socket. The move onto next bolt and repeat. Takes a bit of time but it works and they come out.

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: os951

Plate lift is a very common problem with old school Brembos. I have done few dozen restorations.Here's few examples:

My friend Antti fabricates alli kind of adapers for our cars. We have a lot of his parts for son's project.
Here's a brake thread where some of my work can be seen.
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=648510&mpage=1&key=brake򠊯

Don't you just hate it? Here we are, mere mortals, doing some DIY on our cars and generally making a mediocre fist of it. The likes of Peanut and I are generally getting more things wrong than right but life carries on. RobWright is doing a better job than us (as usual), but he is used to working on trains so has lots of good tools and a fine workshop at his disposal. ChrisG has loads of experience (and is pretty good) but keeps a deferential distance. Paul (Hilux) has more nice cars than I have had hot dinners (I'm still young) and maintains them all to a wonderful standard, but is too polite to shout about it. Edd and McNulters both outsource all this sort of stuff to the professionals.

And then 'ol Olli, from the land of snow, very cold temperatures and reindeer (350 miles away) comes on and shows all our efforts up as total amateurish nonsense - AGAIN! If it's not restoring his son's turbo to something that is some way in advance of anything that ever rolled out of Neckarsulm then it's creating body parts that most Formula 1 teams would give their right bollock to be able to make or conjuring more BHP out of a 951 than NASA got out of the space shuttle! And - look! - surprise surprise, when it comes to refurbishing Brembo calipers, he's done more than the rest of us put together, and produced a nicer end result than Brembo did when they manufactured the things!

All together now, in best Bill & Ted style, We're Not Worthy! []

(This is my way of saying you do very nice work, Olli, please keep it up!)

I'm off to cut off my right arm in depression at my practical inability. (But at least I have nicer wallpaper than Olli!)


Oli.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Edd and McNulters both outsource all this sort of stuff to the professionals.

Indeed. And the rebuild of all four calipers, new brake lines (and ARB drop links, bushes etc.) cost a whisker over £2K.

To be fair, you work that backwards and it's a few hundred in VAT, then take the parts costs off, factor in that my calipers were the worst the specialist had seen....it wasn't unreasonable, just expensive. [&o]

I think we need to factor in how easy this is to do as a novice? I'm happy to do a job like a clutch cylinder; simple matter of jacking the car up, undoing bolts, bleeding the system. But, I've learned that jacking the car up needs more tools than I own; my slave cylinder took me a day's work, and cost me a new jack, several spanners, frozen fingers and an arguement with the assistant "bleeder". [&:]

Bearing in mind that my calipers had to be sent away by the specialist for a few bolts to be welded and removed, is this really within the ability of the total novice with a 9mm spanner and an empty wallet? Fair enough, some people have the experience to tackle it, but brakes do make me nervous.

 

[zcacogp]

McNulters, my comment wasn't a dig at your lack of DIY-enthusiasm, it was a dig at Olli's immense DIY skills! (Olli, out of curiosity, what is your job?)

The notion of how gung-ho an amateur should be (and when he should leave it to the professionals) is an interesting one. I think it's down to your own confidence, which should be mixed with a healthy dose of caution. In practice, there isn't much that can go wrong with something like brake caliper lift repair; that's to say there is lots that can go wrong, but it would be unlikely that an amateur could attempt the job and end up with a caliper re-assembled dangerously. However it is quite possible that he could then re-fit the caliper to the car and bleed the brakes poorly, or leave some mounting bolt loose, and that most certainly could be dangerous.

Having someone else around to check your work once you are done is a good precaution. But often this isn't possible. BUT (and here I am aware that I am treading on dodgy ground), garages only employ humans, and I have seen workmanship come out of 'professional' workshops (and dealers) which I would be ashamed to put my own name to. Admittedly this is a little different to an amateur getting into stuff he doesn't understand, but the end result is the same; a dangerous car.


Oli.

ETA - Pretty much all of a 944 comes apart with an 11mm, 13mm and 17mm spanner. 9mm doesn't come into it much. []

 

[peanut]

I can see now oli where you have been going wrong all these years ..... You have been using a 13mm spanner instead of a 12mm one []
You need to get a 12mm spanner to use on the nuts that are too loose for the 13mm and too tight to use on the 11mm []

 

[944Scott]

ORIGINAL: colin944

It didn't effect the alloy body of the caliper then? I need to do something because I have several stuck screws, still at least all the calipers are off the car now.
No not at all. just be careful and try not to get spatter on the plates .You need someone to hold the ten mil nut in place with a set of long nose grips and the weld puddle in the centre hollow of nut and onto plate bolt at the same time.Fill the nut almot full of weld and then let it cool a wee bit the undo with a socket. The move onto next bolt and repeat. Takes a bit of time but it works and they come out.

Right i'd better get the mig out during the week!

 

[os951]

Even very bad calipers can be brought back to life. These are 964 front calipers son got free.

They were taken from this little bit worn out red one

Here they are powder coated red.Not sure if i have a picture taken where they are ready.

Bending new lines for caliper

Using "the Mig Method"

Brembo refurbish is not any rocket science. You can do it with the basic tools added with air compressor and a mig welder. If pistons are stuck, i use pressurised air to pop them out. Stuck screws are easy to remove when you weld a bolt onto stuck screw. Welding generates so much heat that locking fluids on screw thread get loose

btw those cloths which can be seen on some pictures are not wallpapers.... I just assemble brakes in our kitchen []

What comes to my occupation, i have IT background (about 28 years). Now running my own company dealing Porsche parts and services.I still do some IT work as well.

 

[colin944]

I can understand why some people would be nervous about doing work on their own car. However if you are an intelegent chap ( you must be cause you bought a 944) and you work in a methodical way,and use the proper factory manual ( you can get it on cd for a couple of quid ) print off the pages you need and follow the instructions then there is no reason why you should not tackle most jibs on your car.Dont be scared of jobs just take your time and check what you are doing with the manual at regular intervals. Mechanical work is fairly easy it's only when things won't come undone that you start to need skills that the manual won't explain.

 

[Hilux]

When I had my 944T I had some plate lift on the rears until I had them refurb`d.

I managed to get the pads out and lifted the plate and using an engineers scribe scraped out a lot of the gunge created from electrolytic action and road grime etc and brushed in some coppergrease to help stop it getting worse. This improved it but not fully.

The plates are only there to stop the ally being abraded so all I did was grind the pad edges a bit and popped them back in thereby ensuring they moved freely - job done.

A temporary fix but it relieves binding pads in the medium term (longer if kept an eye on)

 

[peanut]

ORIGINAL: Hilux

When I had my 944T I had some plate lift on the rears until I had them refurb`d.

I managed to get the pads out and lifted the plate and using an engineers scribe scraped out a lot of the gunge created from electrolytic action and road grime etc and brushed in some coppergrease to help stop it getting worse. This improved it but not fully.

The plates are only there to stop the ally being abraded so all I did was grind the pad edges a bit and popped them back in thereby ensuring they moved freely - job done.

A temporary fix but it relieves binding pads in the medium term (longer if kept an eye on)

yes paul but if you read the first post in the thread you'd see that I've already said all of this in detail with clear images mate .[] wink wink

 

[Catamax944]

Hi guys,

Those in the first picture Olli posted are mine ,he restored them for me ,came out amazing.
Unfortunatelly i have to sell them now to fund other toys, never installed them after the refinish.
If any of you are interested let me know, price is resonable.

 

[944Scott]

Does anyone know what size screws are used to secure the plates?

 

[robwright]

They are supposed to be M6 x 16 I think but I had to cut my screws down because 16mm was too big.