Hi,
Question 1: Why would anyone want to take the caliper halves apart?
Well, speaking from experience... when I used a grease-gun to pop out my
caliper pistons, I was left with a gooey mess of grease in every nook and
cranny. No amount of brake-kleen or similar product (along with 100 pipe
cleaners) would get all the grease out.
Popping the halves apart yielded full access to the cross drilling (these
were Girling M16P calipers on a TR6) and therefore a 10 min job to clean
everything up using compressed air, some brake-kleen and a couple of rags.
While grease is a last resort technique, it was called for in this
particular scenario.
A gasket from Dave Bean (I think... I got mine from a friend of a friend)
and another 10 min and they were fully assembled. Including new seals and
pistons.
So, there is a reason to do the job that way.
2. What torque??
Well, the Girling 16P has two different size bolts. There is no spec in the
book, but this list yielded the following:
Hmmm, can't find them. I see that Brian Schlorff came up with the numbers -
45 ft/lbs and 75 ft/lbs.
Anyway, there are reasons to take 'em apart. While not recommended, the
process is doable and the results in my case have been satisfactory.
I also recommend starting with brake caliper cores that are less nasty than
what I started out with! The pistons were frozen big time on the ones I
started with. FWIW, I'll be working on the next four calipers over the
winter. I think they're all coming apart for new pistons etc.
regards,
rml
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