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« Last post by peteracs on April 25, 2026, 10:52:03 PM »
Been a while since I posted on the Spider, it has been dry stored over winter with the occasional engine start and wheel movement. So with the forecast these few days being warm and dry, I decided to take the plunge and strip the front calipers and reseal them in an effort to resolve the leakage from the piston breather hole. This was one of those jobs I had been putting off for ages because I know the front ones are a bit of pig with the two piston design, specifically the central retaining clip and separator, the first being a pain to get out of its groove and the latter often a pain to force it out. My method for the circular clip is using various dentist tools through the fluid inlet hole to get it started and then using other dentist tools to get it fully out of its groove. This part went okish, the real pain was the metal disk separater which on one of the calipers needed the housing warming before it would budge. To get them out I use compressed air introduced into the fluid inlet, initially in the front one to get the piston out, then in the rear to force the rear pistons and at the same time the separator. The separator took several goes of pushing the rear piston back and applying the compressed air to free it.
Eventually both were rebuilt, though the central separator never seems to seat fully even with significant pressure due to the sealing ring I guess. Time will tell if I have solved the problem. I took yen opportunity to refresh the brake fluid to the rear calipers as well as I had to bleed all round to finish the job. I had previously sucked out all the fluid in the reservoir. The brakes on a quick test feel ok, though will probably have another run through of bleeding when more dot 4 arrives as I only had a litre bottle.
After this I did the annual oil and filter change, so the car is all fit for going out, but will now be put away until June as hopefully off to France in May.
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