Brakes

18th Nov 2007 - Didn't get much garage time last weekend but thanks to the bad weather (!!!) got in there today to start fastening the brake lines. I bought the brake line kit from GD, but whether it was my bad bending, pipe too short, or larger engine mount bracket for the Rover V8, I'm not sure, but I had to make a new pipe up for the front feed. No real hassle and the flaring was made easy with the tool I bought.

I used Rivnut's to hold the pipe down. Andy suggested normal rivets, but I like the idea of being able to take them out again if necessary one day without drilling the rivet out. I bought a Rivnut tool off the Internet for £20 which did the job fine. I used Alloy Rivnuts, A) because they were easier to apply (had practice with both them and steel ones), and B) they were only holding the brake pipe down and not having any real pressure applied to them. I needed to drill a 7mm hole to apply the 5mm Rivnut. This was a problem due to space, until I bought a 90 degree attachment for my drill and used a "Stub" drill bit with it. This made life a lot easier and the attachment proved to be a sound investment. I squirted Dinitrol down the hole and also smeared Copper Grease on them as well.

20th June 2009 - After a long afternoon in the garage, and change the pipe again, I am finally happy that it doesn't leak any more, so I can move forward and hopefully get the body on. Don't know why that one decided to be a sod, but after doing a new pipe and putting new flares (for the second time) on it stopped the leak.

14th June 2009 - Finally got round to bleeding the brakes and testing the hydraulics for leaks. I'm glad I did this before the body goes on because I had a few leaks!! I had one on the front offside calliper connection. this was nipped up and then OK. I then bled all the brakes and tested by placing pressure on the brake pedal for 10 minutes. This showed up a couple more leaks. One on the hose connection coming from the rear master cylinder at the back of the pedal box and then the one that is giving me the nightmares which is the nearside rear calliper connection. Fluid wept from the connection to the calliper where the pipe from the front reservoir joins. I tightened it and it seemed OK but then I started to worry!! So I have replaced the pipe which means I will have to go through the whole process again for my own peace of mind!! If this particular pipe leaks when the body is on, it will be an absolute nightmare to sort it without taking the body off. .........................Watch this space!!

3rd Aug 2008 - Sorted a little job that I have been meaning to do for ages today. The return springs for the handbrake callipers! Taking my example from other builders, I put a 5mm rivnut into the chassis and secured the spring end to this point with a 5mm stainless setscrew.

12th July 2008 - I need to tighten the crankshaft pulley in preparation for starting the engine but I'm having great difficulty doing that. Even If I put the car in gear, the wheels spin when I give the torque wrench some "welly" on the crankshaft pulley bolt. So.....plan 'B' is to get the handbrake working so I can stop the rear wheels spinning!

I got the XJS "Fly Off" handbrake from e-bay some time ago for £20 (they are becoming rarer and rarer), so I decided to strip it down this weekend and clean it up, then put it all together and connect it to a temporary mount so I could use it.

Following Simon's and Andy's example, I dismantled everything, cleaned it up, greased it and then reassembled. I had to open up the "hook" part of the handbrake mechanism in order to get the cable through, and then grind down the shoulders of the GD supplied handbrake cable in order for it to fit through the Jag handbrake connector. All in all I am quite pleased with the finished result, so I now need to make some sort of temporary bracket\support so I can use the handbrake.

2nd Jan 2008 - I spent a few hours this evening finishing off the front and rear rigid brake pipe work. The brake pipes from the rear union to the rear callipers are a real sod because you need tight bends in them to clear the handbrake levers. I had to make one up myself because I messed up the original one from the GD Kit by too much bending!! My flares aren't brilliant but should be OK. I will find out when I first bleed the system and see if I have any leaks!! finally got it sorted in a fairly neat fashion and with two very sore thumbs!!!

The front rigid brake lines were again a bit awkward because I had to take into account clearance from the wishbones when the car was at full bump. Think I have it sorted and clearance seems good, so that's it!!! All brake pipes sorted.

23rd Dec 2007 - Spent a couple of hours finishing of the rear feed brake pipe. I found it to be a bit to long (as other builders have found), so I took the excess out with a large bend by the connecting block. Hope this doesn't snag on anything later on when I put the engine in. I picked up some front brake braded flexible hoses from GD recently, so I put those on as well. Just have to sort out the short rigid pipes to the front and rear callipers and then that's about it for the brake pipe work.

1st June 2007 - Front and Rear Brake Callipers (including hand brake) arrive back from Ward's after reconditioning. They have made a really good job of them. along with the Callipers, I received a front and rear set of "Green Stuff" EBC brake pads.

17th March 2007 - Building up the front hubs and discs. Bolted the front discs to the hubs (35 ft/lbs torque). haven't got the calipers sorted yet. These discs have a zinc coating on them. I intend to use EBC "Green Stuff" pads. The latest version of these have a "brake-in" surface coating which scrubs the zinc coating off the pad track of the disc within a few miles to accelerate pad "bed-in".