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abmunro wrote:Has anyone else had a problem with the Hi Spec rear brakes sticking on?
The drivers side brake keeps locking on, Its so bad I had to pull over and let it cool down just so I could get home.
The car started to shudder so I pulled over, Then they just locked on.
Any ideas?
chrisP wrote:In a word yes, I have exactly the same problem and have had the caliper apart several times.
It is I believe down to the internal design. A test you can do is when you get the problem is to loosen the bottom banjo bolt off and if you can move the pistons back in the caliper the problem is elsewhere in the system if you cant - then the caliper has self sealed itself.
Basically as far as i can see the rubbers in the the handbrake piston blocks the inlet/outlet hole, the master cylinder can pump fluid past the seal but it then cannot escape. Have you got any pre-engagement of the handbrake at all? I am installing (in a vain hope) a spring to push the handbrake leaver on the caliper, back to a completely dis-engaged state. Incidentally I spoke to Alex at hispec and he knows the calipers, but did not say the was aware of problems (perhaps because there are so few out there in the wild.
Other possible cause is the inlet to the caliper piston is blocked - it is a 1mm diameter hole!!!!
It is a vicious circle as the brakes heat up and expand they lock even tighter
Chris
abmunro wrote:Has anyone else had a problem with the Hi Spec rear brakes sticking on?
The drivers side brake keeps locking on, Its so bad I had to pull over and let it cool down just so I could get home.
The car started to shudder so I pulled over, Then they just locked on.
Any ideas?
Steve A wrote:So basically because you had your foot on the brake peddle whilst using the hand brake your brakes caught fire
Mine have been sticky but the spring did the trick, it's a bit of a worry you having all this hassle with yours
Have you got the longer actuating levers ?
Steve A wrote:forum.lotuselancentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=17805&hilit=hi+spec+rears
Have a look at this thread Phil (when you get 5 mins )
It basically gives you the full history
chrisP wrote:It is I believe down to the internal design. A test you can do is when you get the problem is to loosen the bottom banjo bolt off and if you can move the pistons back in the caliper the problem is elsewhere in the system if you cant - then the caliper has self sealed itself. Basically as far as i can see the rubbers in the the handbrake piston blocks the inlet/outlet hole, the master cylinder can pump fluid past the seal but it then cannot escape.
Chris
Steve A wrote:Looking at the photo I would say you've definitely got the short levers.
I started with these but soon upgraded to the longer levers as I (and others) found that the hand brake was a nightmare to engage.
Having longer levers also gave the release spring more of a chance to do it's job.
lotusflasherman wrote:Yup, understood that, hence my comment "Presume the cable is held further out by the bigger alloy block so it's not pulling at an angle." in my post at 18:12 on 18 Nov.
Think I can probably work out dimensions of the longer components by comparing scale in your photo against the smaller ones. Did BB keep the thickness the same or did it increase on the longer ones?
By the way, in the photo your spring looks thicker gauge than mine but bit shorter, in fact looks to have a gap which seems to indicate an internal spring on the piston.. do you ever hear it rattle?
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