PNM engineering rear brake calipers

[pearman00]

i got 28% on the handbrake for the MOT with PNM rear brakes, its the best they have been by far

[muley]

Dorman calipers given up the ghost, handbrake been non existent for 12 months. Winged MOT last year but not this time. So are these a straight fit with standard read hubs & 16' wheels. I have AP calipers on front.

Jim, how are yours working ?

Scott

Hi. My rear brakes are working well.

I had to get 1mm machined off the inner face of my discs to get them to fit (there's very little clearance either side of the caliper carrier - this problem could be fixed by filing a little off the carrier).

The angle of the cable to the operating lever seems too acute on the driver's side. But it works.

The pedal travel might be greater although this is probably subjective.

Overall the brakes feel more 'modern'. Oh, and they are a piece of proverbial to bleed.

Can't forsee a problem at MOT time (Next April..)

Rgds

Jim

[Scott J]

Jim, did you have standard discs. According to PNM should be a straight swap? Let me know how the MOT goes, my handbrake is non existent yet again.

[Rice crispy]

Scott they are a straight fit on standard hubs and disks as thats what i have. I think Jim has the Bob brown/jeemy hubs with replaceable disks which need the skimming
David

[rip]

Fitted mine today. I finally have a handbrake which works After about 30-40 miles to bed the brakes in (I replaced the front pads too), they feel quite good.

[muley]

I discovered recently that the handbrake wasn't working on the driver's side. To fix it I dramatically rerouted the handbrake cable (under the exhaust pipe) and now it works well. I might have to create a bracket to keep the cable away from the exhaust, but that should be simple enough.

MOT soon!


Jim

[cliff]

I used P-clips, but guess that wouldn't work if you have the early top link.

Not letting me add the pic at the moment so here is a link:

viewtopic.php?f=79&t=19040&start=80

[Scott J]

so they are mk 4 Golf callipers so wide variety of pads available? So what are you all using ?
I've currently got mintex m1144 on APs at front and they are so so dusty my gold alloys are getting wrecked.

[Rambo]

i don't rate the Mingesex pads Scott. Had them on the front of mine for a while and got shot of them as fast as I could. Currently on Redstuff's and they seem good. Not much dust and they work from cold. Better than the Greenstuff's which required more of a warm up before they bit.

[Scott J]

Ordered the kit yesterday, apparently they have 3 sets on back order and have done 3 sets in past 3 weeks so maybe in the future Elans will all have handbrakes, something the Lotus engineers never envisaged

[surfboardfiller]

Ordered the kit yesterday, apparently they have 3 sets on back order and have done 3 sets in past 3 weeks so maybe in the future Elans will all have handbrakes, something the Lotus engineers never envisaged

They had handbrakes when they were new, don't forget they are 20-25 years old now. I don't know any other daily driver I have owned with brakes that lasted so long. My proton had poor efficiency at one point so the callipers were binned and new ones put on during an annual service, I see it all the time with all other makes, I don't understand the slagging off Elans get.

As a general statement to anyone buying them:
Its worth noting that you will get full efficiency when the pads are bedded in so if these are fitted to get the car through the MOT don't be to worried by lowish braking efficiency.
I ground the lip off the disk and wire brushed the surface too whilst fitting. I also painted any pits with smoothrite to stop them getting deeper and the other rusty bits the pads don't touch. Looks a lot nicer!

[Scott J]

Got the callipers fitted, now handbrake cable seems about 2cm too long

[muley]

Got the callipers fitted, now handbrake cable seems about 2cm too long

Your kit should have 2 alloy spacers to put at the end of the cables to fix this problem - or have you already fitted them and they are still too long?


Jim

[surfboardfiller]

They look like sections of pipe

[Scott J]

Got the spacers on, wondered what they were at first. Works a treat, 2 clicks. Thanks guys.

[rip]

Mine took its first MOT with the PNM rear calipers...& they caused it to fail.....

...well initiallly they did anyway. The dynaic brake balance was poor & the handbrake worked on the opposite side to the dynamic brake. After some work from GST, the car went through but only just.
They believed the balance may have been poor due to some air trapped in the system. I had bled the system more than once after fitting. I am not sure what they did to cure the parking brake issue.

It seems that the brakes are now TOO efficient & when testing the rears, the brakes had to be partially applied to get it through.
Even with uprated fronts, the garage advised me to be very careful because in their opinion, emergency braking in the wet could lock the rears.

For everyday braking, they feel great. Maybe after a year or two, the natural deterioration in performance will actually bring the brakes closer to working perfectly?!?

[surfboardfiller]

Mine took its first MOT with the PNM rear calipers...& they caused it to fail.....

...well initiallly they did anyway. The dynaic brake balance was poor & the handbrake worked on the opposite side to the dynamic brake. After some work from GST, the car went through but only just.
They believed the balance may have been poor due to some air trapped in the system. I had bled the system more than once after fitting. I am not sure what they did to cure the parking brake issue.

It seems that the brakes are now TOO efficient & when testing the rears, the brakes had to be partially applied to get it through.
Even with uprated fronts, the garage advised me to be very careful because in their opinion, emergency braking in the wet could lock the rears.

For everyday braking, they feel great. Maybe after a year or two, the natural deterioration in performance will actually bring the brakes closer to working perfectly?!?

Just don't slam your foot down, if you do take it off a bit. I doubt the rears would lock before the front as the fronts would be locked on the test anyway, nothing wrong with the old callipers except the maintenance, and that was better than the Mitsubishi callipers on my Satria/Colt Gti.

What they said makes no sense, were your brakes used much before the test?

[GeoffSmith]

Clive

Thank you for the post and the PM. I've double-checked and the bolt isn't standing proud. I suspect PNM have provided a thicker washer.

If I space the disc away from the hub with a spacer, all is good. Not the perfect engineering solution. Alternatively I could get 1mm milled off the PNM bracket then it would be OK, but I'd loose the passivated surface.

Almost stumped TBH..

Regards, and thank you


Jim

Hi. My rear brakes are working well.

I had to get 1mm machined off the inner face of my discs to get them to fit (there's very little clearance either side of the caliper carrier - this problem could be fixed by filing a little off the carrier).

The angle of the cable to the operating lever seems too acute on the driver's side. But it works.

The pedal travel might be greater although this is probably subjective.

Overall the brakes feel more 'modern'. Oh, and they are a piece of proverbial to bleed.

Can't forsee a problem at MOT time (Next April..)

Rgds

Jim

Bugger! I'd forgotten all about this, but fortunately I haven't cut the old hose yet and I also have the mounting bolt rubbing.

I've gone through the same thought process as you Jim and arrived at the same conclusion. However, at tea time I took to Google and found Pagid 52403 discs (EuroCarPart 104720128) which appear to be identical apart from being 10mm thick / minimum 7mm as opposed to Pagid 52404? discs (EuroCarPart 104590048) which are 12.5mm thick / 9.7mm minimum. Both are listed for 1.4l Vauxhall Ashtrays so I was going to buy a set and pick them up tomorrow except they only do mail delivery so it's back to OEM (suitably unseized) for the Vulcan trip on Saturday.

You don't have some pictures of the offside handbrake do you Jim?

[muley]

Like this?

DSC04970.JPG

Rgds

Jim

[GeoffSmith]

I was hoping for a picture of the handbrake re-routing, but never mind, I'm going back to OEM..... AGAIN!

It turns out that although the Pagid 52403 disc is 2.5mm thinner, the distance from the flange recess to the inboard face of the disc is the same and the carrier won't tighten up without impacting on the disc.

The jaws of the Golf carrier are 14.6mm and the normal (Pagid 52404) Astra disc is 12.7mm so I think the clearance (<1mm either side) is probably too tight and the disc need skimming. The disc I have bought (Pagid 52403) is 10.2mm which will give a clearance of 2.2mm either side, so I think I will get some 2.5mm spacers made up and then I won't need to skim any future new discs.

PS Is Jeemy's rear hub an exact copy of Bobbing Rastard's and has anyone had the same issues? It looks to me like the PNM kit needs to offset the caliper ~1mm further outboard while the face of the rear hub is out by about 1mm inboard. Thinking out loud - Adding another tenth of an inch to the face of the hub kit would cure the problem.