Lancia Motor Club

I would welcome any advice on unjamming a rear calliper on a Flaminia. So far I have got both front and one rear freed up by the usual method of tapping with a hammer and turning the wheel along with cleaning surface rust off the discs.

The car is in neutral and the hand brake is off and one side is turning freely so I am pretty sure it is just the calliper binding. Unfortunately my workshop manual only covers drum brakes in detail. Access is very restricted even with the panel in the boot floor removed so any help will be greatly appreciated. I don't even have the instructions for removing the brake pads.

I might add the car was pushed into its present position a few years ago and the brakes have never been applied since, it has been up on axle stands, but the clearance between the discs and the pads is almost non existent so surface rust is enough to jam the brakes.

The panel in the floor could be enlarged I expect. I can look at my manual for information. I expect the piston assemblies need removal and servicing. I know it is a tight working space. Richard

Thanks Richard, I feared as much. An exploded diagram would help in seeing what I am dealing with.

Richard
The Dunlop braking system, when its set up, is very good, so this is well worth persisting with. Unfortunately, because they have stood so long, I would recommend rebuilding your calipers to ensure all the recently acquired rust is removed. Be careful when you take it out because there are some very thin spacing washers between the caliper and the bracket, which are used to centralise the caliper, and which can be easily lost.

To remove the rear calipers this can all be done through the hatch in the boot of the car. You need a 17mm socket which I can lend. This has been customised so that it is easy to get onto the 2 hexagonal bolts when you have bent the tab washer back. When you then disconnect the brake pipe you can lift everything out and strip it down and rebuild on the bench.

While the system is apart, I would recommend replacing the 3 rubber flexible brake pipes.

Rebuilding the whole system is then simply a reverse of taking it apart. Any problems, ring me.
Dave Gee

Thanks for the response Dave. At present I am just need to move the car so major brake work is not the order of the day. It is kind of you to offer the loan of your socket but is there a chance you could post details of your modification as I am sure I have a spare socket that can be similarly modified and also am likely to need one on an ongoing basis.

Diagram emailed to you Frank

Richard
It's a 17mm 3/8"drive socket, and the height of the socket has been machined down to 17mm.
Dave

Flaminia inboard rear calipers are a real pain to work on, especially with man hands, you may have to sacrifice the pads to get the wheel turning 

Thanks to all for the various help. I think I have a handle on the problem now.

I have come to the conclusion that the last rear brake won't be unstuck without removing the transaxle. However the suggestion of removing the half shaft worked very easily so the hub now turns and the car can be moved. It just involved undoing four castellated nuts on the outer universal joint and two through bolts holding the half shaft to the output splines of the pot joint. The castellated nuts were nicely greased from the universal joint and the through bolts have no exposed thread so nothing had rusted up and jammed.

Frank you are lucky that the coupling came apart so easily that last one I did ended up more like The Blair Witch Project 

I'm glad I didn't see that in advance! I note you were releasing the outer shaft from the coupling piece, presumably due to having clearance to get the bottle jacks in, whereas mine pulled the coupling off the inner shaft from the pot joint. Grease from the pot joint seems to have kept that side lubricated on mine.

The story was I had to replace the inner boot, but for the life of me couldn’t free the coupling, no matter how much heat or whacking with a big hammer. So after damaging it I decided to cut a slot, as I have some old spares. The picture shows how I managed to get the spare coupling off, with lots of heat, constant pressure of the jacks and a sledge hammer, it eventually came off. So now cleaned and on the car with lots of grease, strangely the other side just slid off with a gentle tap.       

Probably because it saw how you treated it's other half ;D ;D