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Willbee
19-10-2011, 12:45
Im pretty sure my rear brakes are seized after the car had sat for 8-9 months. Ive only done a couple of days driving but there is only a marginal amount of rust removal off the rear discs. The front ones are almost totally shiny again.

What's the procedure.. remove calipers and clean them up? Or might this be something to do with the bias adjuster?

Coops
19-10-2011, 13:27
handbrake works okay?

check the bias adjuster first, wd40 it and work it free if its seized. then its rip the calipers off and check the sliders

Wobba
19-10-2011, 13:37
I give my bias valve a good clean every year, just for good measure :)

Willbee
19-10-2011, 13:41
cheers guys, as ever! Your knowledge on these cars is great. I'm on a big learning curve!

Yep handbrake seems to work fine.

Where abouts is the bias adjuster found?

Wobba
19-10-2011, 13:57
Behind spare wheel under the car, looks like some kind of contraceptive a woman might use. It's attached to a paddle that opens and closes a valve. When unseized, it should have a light spring to it. Remove the small locking nut, then the slightly bigger nut, and it frees the paddle. You can then WD40 it loads and wiggle it back and forth till happy its not seized at all.

When you reattach the spring/bar, only adjust the nuts so a light pressure is on the paddle. It needs to be able to go forward and backward. The more toward the front of the car the paddle is, the more open the valve will be, which is bad if the rear end gets very light (e.g. under heavy braking) as you can lock the rears up :)

It may take a wee bit of fine tuning, but tbh it's not rocket science.

Willbee
19-10-2011, 14:01
Exellent, many thanks! I'll give that a go tomorrow.

Maybe not rocket science for you Wobba, but to a complete amateur like me it might as well be :D

Willbee
19-10-2011, 14:04
incidentally, it would be great if i could maybe show my car to one of you lot with experience and knowledge of the Williams so I can draw up a list of what I need to do and what i should do first. I'm in London but willing to travel to a fellow petrolheads.

Willbee
19-10-2011, 14:05
perhaps in exchange for a passenger lap or two in a Radical 8)

Wobba
19-10-2011, 14:07
incidentally, it would be great if i could maybe show my car to one of you lot with experience and knowledge of the Williams so I can draw up a list of what I need to do and what i should do first. I'm in London but willing to travel to a fellow petrolheads.

Well, winter season is almost here. I guess your best bet would be to suss the car out at your leisure and read up here, then pop along to a meet or two next year and let some of the guys and gals have a poke about :) That way you can check out some of the other Willies and Valvers too.

Wobba
19-10-2011, 14:07
perhaps in exchange for a passenger lap or two in a Radical 8)

Hmm! Tempted lol.

Willbee
19-10-2011, 14:09
top advice wobba, I shall be doing so. I'm most concerned about the rust under the car at the front. The sills 'appear' to be pretty good but concerned whether the front rust is going to get through an MOT and what sort of costs a repair might be.

16v_paddy
19-10-2011, 14:20
Well if you fancy travelling there's going to be a large gathering of us at Shakespeare Raceway on the 29th for the weekend :wink:

irishandy
19-10-2011, 17:18
Im sure you know this but if you're going to leave your car sitting it's always best to put the car in gear and take off the hand-break.

I drive my W2 once maybe twice every two weeks and I always just leave the car in gear.

Willbee
20-10-2011, 11:44
Well if you fancy travelling there's going to be a large gathering of us at Shakespeare Raceway on the 29th for the weekend :wink:

MOT runs out on the 25th and it's not going to get through on those seized rear brakes. Looking forward to a winter of fettling though, with hopes of unleashing the beast in the Spring. :D

Willbee
20-10-2011, 11:46
Im sure you know this but if you're going to leave your car sitting it's always best to put the car in gear and take off the hand-break.

I drive my W2 once maybe twice every two weeks and I always just leave the car in gear.

Yep, thanks for the reminder Andy. I'm fairly used to doing that with the Radical too, not least because it doesn't even have a handbrake. But thanks for the reminder, it's the sort of thing (like most things!) that tend to slip my mind.

Willbee
20-10-2011, 11:47
perhaps in exchange for a passenger lap or two in a Radical 8)

Hmm! Tempted lol.

You're welcome anytime Wobba, right at the moment I only have a single seater for racing but I've plenty of buddies with Radicals with two seats (some of them road legal) who I could line something up :)

Willbee
21-10-2011, 17:17
checked the bias adjuster today and that all seems ok, it freely moves no probs. Hopefully a bit more running will remove the remaining s**t and get them back to near full strength.