stupid brake caliper question

[jctucker]

So, I was at work late last night cleaning up a bunch of electrical contacts on the Spider and decided to take a closer look at the brakes. I've got a decent pull to the right during brake application (heavy or light) and thought I'd poke around for a minute.

Now, I've seen a lot of different brake calipers but these are interesting. No slides. No bolts other than what holds the carrier onto the hub. Just a lot of pins and retaining clips. My question is: how does one go about removing the caliper from the carrier to pull the pads?

Oh, it's a '79 Spider 2000 w/ wheel discs. Thanks in advance everyone!

[azruss]

dont know how familiar you are with 124 brakes. they dont use a round pin type slider like modern brakes. these is a V shaped shim on the front and back of the pad holder that is held in place by a spring pin on each end. If you pull these pins, the pad holder and shims should come right off. the entire caliper needs to be removed from the rotor and the pads removed thru the rotor slot before the pad holder can be removed.

[jctucker]

That makes sense. I think they're just really gummed up at this point. I'll probably just pull the caliper assy off completely and take it apart on the bench...or just get reman ones. Thanks!

[azruss]

Here are some pix of the calipers. easier to see stuff off the car. hope this helps. when you reassemble, put some anti-seize between the shim and the caliper. also worthwhile to clean the track where the shim slides with some fine sandpaper. the ability to for the shim to slide on the caliper is what keeps the pad wearing evenly.

[jctucker]

Thanks so much for the pictures! That makes sense now.

I managed to eliminate 75% of the brake pull by cleaning up the rotor surfaces.