General Brakes

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General Brakes

andrewballantine

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Feb 13, 2003
Messages
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Location
Bromyard, United Kingdom.
We have had a 1986 Panda 4x4 for several years now and its still going strong. The 4x4 has servo brakes which work well.

The problem is that we just bought ANOTHER Panda. This one is a 1991 Sergio Tacchini which does not have a servo. The first time I tried the brakes I thought there weren't any.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve the standard brakes?

Thanks in advance.
 
More knowledgeable people around here may be able to help, but I've just learned to live with it.

Came as a shock when I had a Seicento Sporting for a day though. That had *really* good servo brakes. Scared the bejesus out of me as I left the forecourt [8)]

Paul
 
My experience with the brakes is that they are OK when working properly.
The sliding caliper set-up corrodes up. Gives you half the braking effort, and wears out the (very expensive) hub bearings.
If the inner pads are worn more than outer things are sticking.
An hour or twos effort dismantling, cleaning, and reassembling with "copper ease" or similar on the bits which need to slide helps.
You also need all the surface area of the disk:
My CLX had disks which were badly rusted in from the edges.
30 UKP got me a pair of new disks and a set of "pagid" brand pads from a motor factor ( APE in Erdington, Birmingham ). They were not too difficult to replace, once I'd worked out which bolt to undo which wasn't mentioned in the manual [:(!]

The brakes are nice now, and don't come as much of a worry after driving with a servo. But I do wind the window the wrong way [:eek:)]

I believe it is possible to fit a servo from a donor (4x4?), but is more work than I'd consider.
Your enthusiasm and skill may well exceed mine :)


Regards

John H
 
Also while you're at it, check that there is no air or water in the brake fluid. Get the brakes bled if you're not sure. I've found that with a small amount of any kind of impurity you don't always have a spongy pedal but brake efficiency goes right down!

Also check the pistons aren't sticking. This usually results in pulling to one side during braking, but not always ...

Also again (and this is the last one honest) check that your disks are not too thin even if not corroded, as they will get hotter quicker and the pads will not bed in properly. A glaze will build up, again reducing brake efficiency!

John H, I'm glad you found which bolts to undo - but in my experience they are an absolute PIG to undo. They were so tight that I actually bent my 3-foot breaker bar.

You need a lot of grunt and muscle power - I'm 6 foot 4 and 14 stone and even I found it difficult.

Don't we all wind the window the wrong way? Or is this a reference to summat I'm not aware of? ;)

Steve
(I'm also on [email protected])

1989 Fiat Panda 1000CL
Electronic Distributor
Metamec copper brake pipes
Currently immobile with a knackered gearbox
Replacement 5-speed 'box and new QH clutch in garage ready to fit
and is likely to remain there for some time yet due to my EXTREME
LAZINESS (and it's cold and wet out there - okay, so I'm a wimp) ...
 
The business with the window (for me) is when I drive another car and want to wind the window up it goes down :I

THX for mentioning all the other bits about the brakes which I forgot to mention at whenever it was in the morning.


Regards

John H
 
Oh yes, the Panda windows wind up backwards! The Panda is correct. Every other car is wrong ;)

Steve
(I'm also on [email protected])

1989 Fiat Panda 1000CL
Electronic Distributor
Metamec copper brake pipes
Currently immobile with a knackered gearbox
Replacement 5-speed 'box and new QH clutch in garage ready to fit
and is likely to remain there for some time yet due to my EXTREME
LAZINESS (and it's cold and wet out there - okay, so I'm a wimp) ...
 
Thanks for the enthusiastic responses.

There is a company GSR Engineering that supply Red Dot discs and pads, which are supposed to be better than standard. I wondered if anyone has experience of these.

Yesterday I bought 4 Abarth Alloy wheels with good tyres for £40. The wheels do need rejuvenating but were effectively free since the tyres are worth at least £10 each.
There is a firm in Bromsgrove that will bead blast and powdercoat for about £25 a wheel. I can dig out the details if anyone is interested.

On the subject of brake fluid I now use silicon brake fluid that does not adsorb water and therefore lasts indefinitely. It is available from www.frost.co.uk an excellent supplier to enthusiastic restorers.

Great forum.

Regards,

Andrew.
 
regarding disk changing and the bolts:

steveyensen "I'm glad you found which bolts to undo - but in my experience they are an absolute PIG to undo. They were so tight that I actually bent my 3-foot breaker bar."

the only nut I remember being hernia inducingly tight is the front hub - there's no need to touch this one to do the disks.

Once you've got the pads and caliper out, and the bracket which locates them (that's the one which took a bit of working out), then there's just the wheel locating pin which secures the disk to the hub.


Regards

John H
 
No, it wasn't a hub nut.

Maybe I'd better tell you that the car was purchased from "Swithland Motors" in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire. I think that they employed cowboy mechanics who probably didn't know one end of a torque wrench from the other. All fixings were so tight that most people would have had a hernia trying to undo them!

I knew something was wrong when the spark plugs refused to undo easily.

Without bragging, I've been told that if I can't undo a bolt or fixing, then nobody can. This comes from the various people who've tried to turn on bathroom taps after I've been in there!

Steve

CURRENTLY HAGGLING OVER PURCHASE OF ELDERLY 124
(did someone say proto-Lada [?])

(I'm on [email protected] and [email protected])

1989 Fiat Panda 1000CL
Electronic Distributor
Metamec copper brake pipes
Currently immobile with a knackered gearbox
Replacement 5-speed 'box and new QH clutch in garage ready to fit
and is likely to remain there for some time yet due to my EXTREME
LAZINESS (and it's cold and wet out there - okay, so I'm a wimp) ...
 
Ah, yes.
I remember them.
They had an outpost near us which was the nearest FIAT dealer at one time.
A rather odd company.
We tried to buy a Tipo from them 10 or more years ago: the sales ladies had to keep calling head office for decisions and prices as they weren't "empowered" to do that. But they would keep trying to sell something which was exactly _not_ what we wanted.
We gave up.

ISTR we also had one service done there, and vowed never again.

I think they went bust.

Regards

John H

P.S. They also did some excruciatingly bad TV commercials too.
 
Yes, they did go bust in the end ...

Steve

CURRENTLY HAGGLING OVER PURCHASE OF ELDERLY 124
(did someone say proto-Lada [?])

(I'm on [email protected] and [email protected])

1989 Fiat Panda 1000CL
Electronic Distributor
Metamec copper brake pipes
Currently immobile with a knackered gearbox
Replacement 5-speed 'box and new QH clutch in garage ready to fit
and is likely to remain there for some time yet due to my EXTREME
LAZINESS (and it's cold and wet out there - okay, so I'm a wimp) ...
 
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