Hand brake shoes and new discs (Jul 10)

The new brake package which had been delayed owing to Pagid brake pads being out of stock, finally arrived. First up were the rears which I had changed once before just after I got the car. However this time I decided to also change the handbrake shoes. These look like they have done all 170,000 miles and although they still had plenty of lining left, were now rock hard:



The new shoes are exactly the same as the ones that are now supplied for the boxster and 996:



They were a bit fiddly to remove and refit - the retaining springs have to be compressed and pulled out and then the shoes levered out of the star adjuster. Everything then falls apart and you really need an extra hand to put everything back in the correct order. I gave the wheel carriers a good going over with a wire brush before fitting the new shoes:



Old discs with the classic corrosion eating into the inner faces:



Shiney new disc fitted:



This was the first time I'd changed the front discs which should have been easier. This was true until I tried to pull them off and found them to be siezed on. A rubber mallet made no impression so I used the M8 bolt trick:



The picture above also shows how I support the caliper on an axle stand once I've removed it. Then. a couple of turns on the bolts and the discs popped off with remarkable ease:



The disc shields didn't look like they were going to last much longer. So these were duly removed. Hopefully they'll help the discs cool better and the other plus is that they've saved me some more weight.......a whole 700 grams for the pair!



On re-fitting the calipers I used new caliper bolts (I also put new ones on the rear):



A shiny new disc and new Pagid RS15 greys fitted:


The job was finished off by going out and bedding the pads/discs in - sharp braking from about 70 mph to 10 mph without locking up with a couple of minutes in between to let the brakes cool before doing the same again another 5 or 6 times. At the end of it I can confirm that the brakes are now back to their best.

Nb. For the rear brakes I used normal Pagid road pads. This turned out to be a mistake as you will find out later in this blog.