Newbie from Hampshire

[mudhut]

Hi all.

I'm Peter from Southampton, Hants. I don't have a Beta, sadly, but I do have a kit car that has numerous Beta parts that I may need a bit of help with. It's the rear brakes right now from some ten years or so of having been laid up. I'm going to have a thorough poke around that section of the Forum to see what I can find.

All the best to everybody.

[peteracs]

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

What is the kit car?

Photos would be good.

Peter

[mudhut]

My kit car is a Transformer/Hawk HF2000 replca Stratos. I've had it since 2005 but is hasn't had any real use since about 2007. My son is of an age now where he can appreciate and he wants it so I've had to put it back together.

I'm researching how to remove the pistons in the rear calipers which are beta rears working on a Beta front disc.  The pistons are almost immovable - the calipers have been off all this time along with the rest of the rear suspension. It's time I booted myself in the backside and got on with it. I'm looking into the braking forum on whether the unscrew to remove or if they can be forced completely out hydraulically or a combination of both. The Haynes book isn't terribly clear.

I see you already have Guy (SanRemo78) on here - very well-known in the Stratos Club. If you read this Guy, greetings. Haven't been very active for a long time nor up your way for ages.

Here are some photos from today. Ashamed best sums up how I fell about the car right now. The last is of the offending slave cylinder.

Quick query: is the 1500kByte max attachment size per item or for all attached to a single post? It seems like it may be the latter, I think.

Peter

[mudhut]

engine

[mudhut]

Rear upright: Beta front upright in the middle with all the rest fabricated and welded on. Beta hub (not visible) redrilled 5 x 98 for the adaptor plate which is drilled 5 x 108 for the wheel studs. The brake disc is Beta/Trevi front. You can imagine what the original Beta hub looks like with hole 4 x 98 and 5 x 98 plus the disc retaining screws. I wish the brake disc was available undrilled.

[peteracs]

Hi Peter

First, yes the 1500kb is per total per post on attachments. I use an iPad where you can normally select photo size.

On the rears the piston does just push out, but you need to remove the handbrake assembly which will need to be cleaned etc. Here is a photo of my Spider rears broken down.

One thing Haynes says is not to remove the inner parts from the piston. No idea why it says that and took it completely to bits to clean and have had no issues since reassembling.

If you need any further help, get in touch.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

Hi Peter & Peter!

I've just finished the refurb of the rear callipers, you can get an overhaul kit from Big Redd brakes that includes the pistons and all seals including the rubber boot on the end. Leave the callipers attached to the brake hydraulics and remove from the carrier. Put a block of wood in place of the pads both sides and use the brake pedal to move the pistons outa bit, or a lot. Remove from the car, pull the boot off the back, remove the circlip and push/brift/hammer the handbrake lever assembly out. Catch the wedge and spring and unscrew the actuating rod from the back of the calliper. You can then push the old piston out with a drift/hammer. Clean and reassemble. Which is a bastard of a job. There must be a special tool for this.. I used brute force to get the handbrake assembly back in, the piston is pressed down to engage threads and twisted.

Bleed nipples are also at risk of shearing. I soaked mine in release fluid after scraping the crud away for a week and all six came out cleanly. Almost unheard of.

Alternatively, you can ship the whole lot off to Big Redd brakes and they'll do the job for you.

Guy

[mudhut]

Thank you both for the pictures and information and to Peter for the phone chat this morning. I'll take a look at Bigg Red to see what's what.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I could get all this sort of stuff, including discs, from Brakes International. Seems very different now.

I pulled the suspension apart to have the rear dampers revalved and replated (by Dampertech who seem to ba Gaz anyway) and to try to devise a way to get more rear braking effort from the rear as the fronts were locking up too easily. I'll leave it to my son now...

Peter

[mudhut]

One caliper dismantled and it's not the same part (being handed doesn't count) as the one on the other side...

On the right side, what I think it the correct Beta part with a return spring.
On the left side, something else that looks like a Beta Calliper but there's no return spring and the tapered "pushrod" is longer so there would be no space for a spring anyway.

Does anybody know if this is also a Beta part?

Now looking for a rear left calliper from a Beta 2000 as I'd like the same type on both sides. I'm going to continue this in the braking and in the parts wanted sections.

In the meantime, here's a picture of the piston I got out of the calliper. The circlip is loose and is exactly where I found it when I got the piston out. The hand brake has always been nearly useless and perhaps this is part of the reason why.