Milano brake pad removal, how do i get that thing apart? (also: my 40 lira on towing)

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 2:44 PM -0400 5/6/02, alfa-digest wrote:
>Date: Mon, 06 May 2002 10:59:55 -0700
>From: "Derek Ealy" <dealy663@domain.elided>
>Subject: Milano brake pad removal, how do i get that thing apart?
>
>Well I've decided to tackle this squealing rear brake problem on my own.
>So I got under the car yesterday and could not figure out how to either
>swing up or remove the calipers to get access to the brake pads. My shop
>manual doesn't even provide an exploded view of the rear calipers (what a
>rip!) let alone a description on how to get at them.
>
>As it looks pretty damned crowded in there I'm guessing I'll have to
>disconnect the half-shafts from the tranny output shaft which goes
>through the rotors. Is this correct? I sure hope I'm wrong and that there
>is an easier way of doing this. Then is the next step to remove the
>rotors and hopefully then have access to the caliper for removal of the
>pads?
>
>If anyone has details or a link on how to take this bad boy apart I'd
>really appreciate it.

You don't need to take anything apart.  Just remove the clips, and 
then the pins, and remove the pads with everything in place.  Tricky, 
yes, but not as time consuming as you might think.  The real trick is 
getting them properly adjusted with the new pads if you don't have 
the factory tool.

>Oh and finally is it safe to jack up the car benath the center of the
>de-dion tube and then support the car with jack stands ahead of the rear
>wheels?
>
You mean jacking the deDion tube and putting jackstands under the 
jack points?  Sure.  That's the way to do it, IMHO.


re: towing:
I don't claim to know anything about towing, but I towed my GTV6 on a 
trailer behind a V10 Dodge van that was set up for 
towing--trailer-brake switch, etc. and it was pretty hellish, 
especially in crosswinds, but so is that van without a trailer behind 
it.  I suppose a proper truck might be better.  But I never feel 
particularly stable behind the wheel of a truck, anyway.  I've towed 
my Opel GT on a dolley with an '85 SAAB 900, and flat-towed it with 
an '83 BMW 735i.  The SAAB setup was great, and the sketchiest thing 
about flat-towing it behind the Bimmer was when we got home and 
realized that the guy riding in the Opel had nothing but the carpet 
holding him and the seat in the car...
There is something to be said for being heavy, I suppose, so you 
don't get yanked around by the trailer, but the notion that your tow 
righ *HAS* to out-weigh the payload+trailer by 2:1 is a foolish 
American one, as far as I'm concerned.  U-Haul, et al won't rent you 
a trailer unless you have a huge truck or V10 van (i.e. no Volvo 
240s), but if you've got the grunt to get up hills and the brakes to 
stop the whole rig, something like a Volvo 240 would be fine. (Ever 
wonder how people tow things in Europe where no one owns V10 
turbodiesel trucks?)  I think brakes are the reason U-Haul has this 
rule--American vehicles are traditionally under-braked, so the idea 
is that something that outweighs the trailer 2:1 will have enough 
surplus braking ability to stop it.  The huge discs and 4-pot 
calipers on my mom's 3500lb '86 Volvo, however, should be as good as 
those on any truck.  I will say (once again, this is only my opinion) 
that I think it's very important that your tow vehicle outweigh 
what's being towed by more than 1:1!

YMMV,
Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6
'73 Opel GT
(Did I mention that flat-towing an Audi 4000 with an Isuzu pickup 
DOESN'T work?)
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