Rikaitch: King of Excellent (according to Scaryduck)

I'm a chuffed blokey

My foray into car restoration has just taken a more sinister and worrying turn, in that I have successfully reconditioned the brakes. It might not sound like a major milestone (mechanics normally do it in a couple of hours) but to me it is a major boon. It all started so easily.

The Haynes manual (bible to car restorers) started out innocently enough, with comments like undo the caliper pins using an allen key. The Haynes manual (bible to car restorers) also fails to mention that the Allen key is not a standard size of Allen key, but is in fact a 7.5mm (!) Allen Key. On top of this the Haynes Manual (bible to car restorers) also failed to take into account that the car is 15 years old, and hasn't had any major work done on the brakes since it rolled off the production line in Gothenburg. I know I shouldn't use any sort of penetrating fluid near the brakes, but what else could I do? 2 large tins of WD40 later, and things are moving, slowly to start with, but definitely moving.

I finally get the seized caliper away from the wheel, and completely separated from the rest of the car. Much investigation reveals something the Haynes manual (bible to car restorers) had failed to tell me. You have to turn the cylinder in the caliper to return it back to the outer most position. I dismantle the caliper (worth 4 spanners in the Haynes manual, that's a first) and recondition it. Within 20 minutes the wheel is back on, and the brakes are working. I now need to bleed it.

I'm a happy chappy