You think you have it bad. Was - Changing Milano rear brake pads

[alfacybersite <acs@domain.elided>]

Bill Bain in V8 #370: "[Rant Mode On] Whoever was the sadist that
designed the rear braking system
on the transaxle cars should be forced to do nothing but change rear
brake
pads for an eternity or two.  After getting the locknuts on the adjuster

finally unfrozen (after an hour under the car in 4 degrees C weather), I

can't get the doggone pins out that hold the cross shaped retaining
springs
in.  Heck I can't even get the pins out I can see, let alone the ones on
the
top of the caliper that I can't see. What a design. [Rant Mode Off]

"Anybody got any tricks for changing these pads, other than "take it to
Hans"?  I'm about to admit defeat here."

**********

Bill...get a small mirror, trouble light, and needle nose pliers. There
are two pins holding each of the, ahh, errr, pins on. Trust me, you'll
see. Remove the two pins with your needle nose pliers from the pins,
then remove the 'main' pins themselves with the same pliers. Oh, yeah,
duck. The 'pad retainer' is under pressure and loves to fly off once
pressure is released. Find it in the snow, then remove the other pin
from the pin. You're practically homeassuming you backed off the pads
in the correct direction which is only sometimes counter clockwise, the
pads should slip out and in.

My turn for transaxle bitching: This falls under "You think you've got
it bad" department. Okay, must first admit we're having Santa Ana's.
Just accept that for the past few days in Sunny So. Cal. it really
ispure short sleeve weather (a bit above 4 degrees C).

This has come up before but having (finally) talked to the Man hisself,
Tom Sahines, he verified I either need to take up welding or will have
to drill out the (not one but two) frozen drain plugs in my Alfetta
transaxles. His somewhat casual comment was, "Start with small drill
bits then work your way up to larger ones until you can pick out the
steel parts from the threads. And, oh yeah, make sure you're dead
centered when you start." He also mentioned using grease on the drill
bits. The grease pretty much flew off, but apparently by shear dumb
luck, two hours of drilling (mind you, the transaxle is off the car), I
had the drain plug down to a nubbin. By kinking it, I could actually
unscrew the remaining part.

To get all of the metal chips out I used a magnet, sighed, then poured
about a cup of lacquer thinner in and sort of swished it around,
drained, then repeated (sort of get a dental feeling here?). The latter
was not part of Tom's suggestion.

Bottom line: Whoever designed the rear brakes on the transaxled Alfas,
was a nicer person than the one who designed the drain plug...but not by
much.

Biba
Irwindale, CA USA

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