Chris,
Do you have to cross-dress to get into the Air Force salvage yard? Anyway,
I would bite the bullet and buy a new set of Fiat 124 calipers instead of
trying to overhaul a used set. I don't think they are very easy to work on.
You can find them at various places, but the ones directly from Fiat seem
to be the best (and most expensive), about $100 each. Maybe get one or two
out of the junkyard just to take them apart and see how they work. I'd like
to know too. One thing I do know is you cannot compress the piston
directly; you have to screw it in. Also, there may be a notch on one side
of the slot. I think this is supposed to be positioned up and the slot
should be set horizontal. There are differences from caliper to caliper in
how much play there is in the hand brake mechanism. It's this tricky
mechanism that I'd like to understand the workings of. I've talked to one
Fiat mechanic and a couple other people who might know and can't get a
straight answer about how it's supposed to work. I think it's supposed to
be self adjusting. But the correct procedure for installing new pads is to
screw the piston all the way in and leave it with the slot horizontal
(notch side up) and then, after everything is reassembled, apply hydraulic
pressure. Should be all there is to it and, hopefully, not much play in the
hand brake. If there's a lot of play, there's not much you can do about it
except adjust the hand brake cable, which you're not supposed to have to
do. I tried everything I could think of to get excessive play out of one of
my calipers and finally gave up and got a new one, which works fine.
For the rotor, you will probably want to use Audi (100?) rear disks. I'm
not sure how much you will save in the end by doing all this yourself
versus buying the stuff you need from Dale A. You might want to try a set
of carbon/Kevlar brake linings in the rear before putting on the disk
brakes. And get a set of them for the front calipers too. Oh yes, get a
couple of Alpine rear drum slave cylinders and replace the Tiger ones. The
larger Alpine cylinders work a whole lot better. I've never understood why
they chose to change the rear brake cylinders on the Tiger. If you used
carbon/Kevlar linings in back and some other type of material for the front
pads, you could have problems with the rear brakes locking up too early,
which is bad - very bad. I think the best choice of pads and linings is
Hawk and you want the hardest compound they have. You can get them through
Porterfield: 800.537.6842 They should know what a Tiger needs, but I
believe it's the same as a TR4.
Regarding the fan shroud, there's no way you can have the fan as far out of
the shroud as it should be. About 1/3 in, 2/3 out is ideal. You'll be lucky
to get 1/3 out of the shroud.
I admire your progress. Keep up the good work.
Brgds,
Bob
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