If you read what I posted again, especially the bit about cranking out the pistons by hand, you'll get an even better handbrake possibly.
I don’t understand what you have done? When you say you wound the pistons all the way in do you mean all the way back into the caliper? What did you do then? Surely you must have adjusted the cables after refitting the calipers?
Exactly, adjusting cables should be the last thing. I presume he wound the pistons in, then pumped the pedal until they were out fully. Personally, i prefer to use the handbrake lever on the caliper, as it gives it a good, long travel workout to ensure it's operating freely.
The cables had set based on the old callipers. One of those had the piston wound out farther than the other because it was seized. The previous owner had tried to compensate for one calliper biting harder than the other by tightening one of the cables even more, and that just made the whole thing worse. With the new callipers all working smoothly I set the cables back to equal length, and pushed both pistons in the same amount so they now bite evenly on both sides.
Yes I tried what you described but as I have new disks and pads everything was quite sung to start with. I’m not sure if I managed to get it to work exactly as you described but it feels much better.
A few more things done in the run up to the cars MOT. With the rear end done, I needed to bleed the front callipers. They are proper crusty but I need the brakes to work for MOT and don’t have time to refresh the front end and fit the new ones in time. let’s just say it was an absolute PITA as both bleed nipples were rounded off and seized in the callipers. It took a full day of fighting to get them out. I won’t bore you with the battle, but will leave this here as proof I showed the bastard bleed screws who is in charge! Replacement in place and brakes fully bled. (Excuse the rough condition. Shiny new ones will be fitted after MOT). While the left front wheel was off I also took the time to let the excess gearbox oil drain off. Some of you may remember the gearbox oil leak that I experienced after changing the oil. Leaving the engine level about 300ml drained off so will see if that sorts the issue. Bit surprised how dirty it all is given it was 2l of fresh oil less than 100 miles ago but I suppose it’s never been flushed that often. I also picked up a Vibratechnics front engine mount on FB marketplace. I really want to limit the engine rocking so hopefully this helps. Not sure what to do about the two rear mounts though. Not many people seem to run anything other than standard mounts at the back. Any suggestions on the best solution for the two rears would be appreciated. Next up is MOT, and then the whole front comes off for a clean up / refresh.
Nice of you to keep updating the thread ! I have a question for you, in the 1st picture of your old gti, i noticed the front lip spoiler, i have a similar one fitted to a 8v gti but it has an extra added to it ! Do you know what make it was ? Cheers !
the lip on the old car was an OE one (same as the current car). Would be interested to see a pic of yours.
I will take better pictures tomorrow! It’s definitely a mk2 spoiler (it’s 1 piece though) and has a lip added to the bottom of it (not to my taste to be frank) !
Took the car out for its first shake down drive after rebuilding the rear end. Didn’t push it given that the brakes needed to be proven after the rebuild but first impressions were good. Looking forward to getting the front sorted now.
lets hope the MOT man thinks so later this month! Haha. It’s far less pretty under the bonnet and I suspect their might be a few issue flagged under there.
Back from its MOT with a clean bill of health and not a single advisory. Had to drive the poor thing through sleet and snow along gritted road there and back but really please with that result. Going to enjoy driving it for a bit while I continue collecting bits for the front end rebuild, and then hopefully get stuck into that during the summer.
