Bristol 409 - Handbrake pad replacement

[Peter Valvona]

I'm having a bit of a nightmare trying to replace the handbrake pads on my 409.

Picture is of the caliper with the new pads fitted and the adjuster as wide open as I can get it - it's still too narrow a gap to be able to slide over the disc.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you solve it?

And here is a view of the old pads and the new pads alongside each other

[Geoff Dowdle]

Peter,
I suggest you file or grind a little off each new pad until it fits .
Geoff

[Peter Valvona]

Oddly enough Geoff I too am beginning to think that grinding down the new pad is the only way.

If you look at the profile of the old and new pads, the old is perfectly flat although angled - when it sits in the caliper it presents a flat vertical face to the disc.
The new pad isn't flat, it's got a curve which won't sit so well once it's in the caliper.

Never felt the need to grind down pads before, still I suppose there's a first time for everything!

[PEU186F]

Be very cautious of modern "standard issue" handbrake pads, they tend to be the wrong material, in that they are far too hard, and the wrong shape. Personally I’d recommend getting pads refaced, specifying a soft material, if you have anybody about who does that sort of thing. Hard pads means much wrestling with the handbrake, which results in stretched cables, which means that the pads rest on the disc in the off position, which then means that the pads wear oddly so that the bearing face when you do apply them is significantly reduced, which results in more wrestling and all in all you’re on a hiding to nothing.

I realised all this when, during an earlier discussion berating the V8 handbrakes, somebody mentioned that they lived an San Francisco, which is not exactly flat, their handbrake was simply marvellous and the pads had never ever been changed.

[Peter Valvona]

Well it's done..................I took an electric sander to the new pads and did my best to replicate the angle that the old pads were worn at.

I don't know how many miles of wear I took off my new pads, or more importantly how many miles of wear is left in them - but in any case it's more than there was on the old pads.

I also worked out how to change the handbrake pads without removing the caliper ..... too late in this case as I took them both off doe a cleanup anyway.

Thanks for your contributions !