Brake Caliper Refurbishment

[Neil-yaj396]

Any recommendations for firms that would refurbish a Beta Bendix rear brake caliper?

I know that lots of forum members have had good service from Big Redd, but I had a particularly bad experience with them in 2019, so I'm looking for alternatives.

(Ironically this will be my third rear offside brake refurb. It's this one that has seized/failed/broken on my last 3 Coupes)

Thanks
Neil

[unclejam]

Hi Neil,
Not sure if you have found somewhere suitable for refurbing your calipers yet but I just got a quote for refurbishment of 2 x Beta Spyder calipers from "Brake Caliper Solutions" in their standard paint finish (silver, black, gold) for £129+VAT.  I believe they also upgrade to a higher quality finish for £169 + VAT.
Their blurb states: 
"All stripped down & blasted back to bare cast, finished to which finish you require, then new pistons and seals. Bleed nipples are used."

Not sure whether "Bleed nipples are used" means that they reuse your old ones, or just that they actually fit bleed nipples?

https://www.brakecalipersolutions.co.uk/

[mtulloch]

They're not difficult to do it yourself, I did some several years ago and bought some kits not that long ago to do more before I ended up selling the VX recently.

[Neil-yaj396]

Hi Neil,
Not sure if you have found somewhere suitable for refurbing your calipers yet but I just got a quote for refurbishment of 2 x Beta Spyder calipers from "Brake Caliper Solutions" in their standard paint finish (silver, black, gold) for £129+VAT.  I believe they also upgrade to a higher quality finish for £169 + VAT.
Their blurb states: 
"All stripped down & blasted back to bare cast, finished to which finish you require, then new pistons and seals. Bleed nipples are used."

Not sure whether "Bleed nipples are used" means that they reuse your old ones, or just that they actually fit bleed nipples?

https://www.brakecalipersolutions.co.uk/

Thanks for this. I'm currently waiting to see if the calipers need a full refurb or not, but will bear this firm in mind if they do.

[unclejam]

They're not difficult to do it yourself, I did some several years ago and bought some kits not that long ago to do more before I ended up selling the VX recently.

For me, it's time that I'm short of!  Outsourcing for a full refurb is also cheaper than getting a local garage to service the old ones.

[peteracs]

Hi

Personally either do it yourself or give the job to a company who knows how to do it as has done it before as they are not difficult, but probably easy for someone who is not prepared to take the time and has never done it before to make a cod’s of it…

Peter

[unclejam]

I'm taking your advice and decided to actually do the brake refurb myself - after all, how am I going to learn anything if I outsource it to someone else?
2 hours of straining and rolling around on the garage floor in 26c heat, I am wondering if I made the right decison!   The carrier bolts are super rusty & tighter than a ducks rear end on a winter pond and only after using a 3-foot long socket extension have I managed to get them off!   The discs and pads are actually virtually unworn, although obviously quite a few years old, which leads me to think that they were changed then the car was laid up for a few years?
Anyway, I'm fitting new discs and EBC pads, (copper grease on the rear of the pads), changing the fluid and hopefully will have a sweet-braking car again.  What brake fuid would you guys recommended btw?

Incidentally, I didn't realise that the front calipers have dual brake lines attached - presumably this is down to a dual-circuit brake system? (I haven't read the Haynes manual yet!  )

[unclejam]

Forgot to mention that I also pushed the piston halfway out and it is very clean and not corroded at all, looks new in fact!  So I decided to replace the rubbers and leave it alone.  It's obviously not the binding problem, although the rear of the disc has a very deep score in it, also the brake pad, which leads me to believe that it may have had a stone stuck in there?

[peteracs]

Hi

Yes, dual circuit on the front, single at the rear.

Be careful when undoing the bleed nipples as they often rust in and are a pain to release. If you break them off be prepared for more pain……..

Haynes will list the brake fluid though any Dot 4 should be ok

Peter

[unclejam]

Be careful when undoing the bleed nipples as they often rust in and are a pain to release. If you break them off be prepared for more pain……..
Peter

Thanks Peter - I'll be drenching them in fast release spray and leaving for a day or two before I touch them!

[peteracs]

If they prove to be just too difficult to undo or do break off, then a quick solution is to use a banjo bolt bleeder which replaces the banjo bolt where the flexi hose attaches to the calliper.

Peter

[unclejam]

Thanks Peter - are they available from Mark do you know?

[peteracs]

Hi

On his site, yes, currently showing as sold out, but they are available widely from memory, size is on Mark’s listing

https://353652584127257704.weebly.com/store/p20/Banjo_Bolt_with_Bleed_Nipple.html

Peter

[mangocrazy]

They are readily available on ebay and to be honest are better than the plated ones Mark sells, as you can get them in stainless:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131817736572

Thread pitch is M10 x 1.25

[peteracs]

Hi Graham

Good call, I also replaced my bleed nipples with stainless which will hopefully help long term.

Peter

[mangocrazy]

Hi Graham

Good call, I also replaced my bleed nipples with stainless which will hopefully help long term.

Peter

Yes, I will always use stainless fittings on brake unions, to me it's a no-brainer. I will also replace any non-critical steel fastener with a stainless equivalent, as long as the original fastener is grade 8.8 or lower. High tensile fasteners (grade 10.9 or 12.9) must be replaced like for like. But when using stainless fittings it's important to use aluminium or copper anti-seize paste/grease to guard against galling.

[unclejam]

Thanks guys, appreciate the input.  The offside front disc & pads swap is now sorted and done but I'm having some serious issues with the nearside!  After (finally) getting the caliper bolts out, I could see that the piston rubber boot was completely missing and the piston itself was much more dirty and corroded than the other side.  It is now pretty obvious why the brakes were binding and the wheel was getting hot on this side!   
Right now however, the biggest problem is that the old disc simply will not budge off the hub - I'm guessing that the previous owner driving it with binding brakes may have heated it up several times. 
A couple of days of spraying and whacking with successively-larger hammers is achieving nothing and I'm worried about damaging the bearing if I continue. As I don't have a suitable puller, the only option I can think of is heating the disc to try to loosen it.  Any suggestions gratefully received?
 

[unclejam]

Incidentally, in case anyone is wondering why I am not cleaning up / painting the calipers and suspension arms etc. whilst I'm at it - the bottom line is that I want to drive the car while there is some Summer left!  Removing the wheels again and refurbing the arms, hubs and calipers is a Winter job in a nice warm workshop! 

[SanRemo78]

I think you'll probably need a good three legged puller to get it off.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394192779995?hash=item5bc7b87adb:g:2w8AAOSwpEZi76ch
Other suppliers out there! or borrow one for someone? I'm in Formby, Merseyside if you're anywhere near?

Guy

[peteracs]

Hi

I suspect you would need bigger ones than the ones you linked to.

On the subject of bearing being damaged, I would also suspect if the hub has got that hot, then the bearing lube will not be in great shape and hence will need changing which is a whole extra amount of pain. However on the upside, that does mean you remove the whole hub assembly and would be able to use a press to get the disc off. The bad news is having to remove that hub nut.


Peter