Reinstalling circlip in rear caliper, Is there a trick to this? Options

[anderssj]

Good morning!

Spent a rainy Saturday PM rebuilding a rear caliper. Everything went fine until I got to re-installing the adjuster on the parking brake half. Am having a hard time holding the spring/cover down and compressing the circlip to fit. That the circlip doesn't have any holes in the ends makes things more difficult . . . .

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Steve A-

[jim912928]

hmmm...i just rebuilt mine....I used a long thin socket head and a c-clamp to compress it...then put in the circlip...but mine had the holes in the ends so I could use that funky tool for these things. Maybe you should go down and get new circlips?

[anderssj]

Jim,

Thanks for the tip. Just got back from the hardware store with new circlips and a 5" C-clamp. The clamp and an 11mm "deep" socket work like a champ to hold the spring-hat in place, but the ears on the new circlip will need to be ground down to clear the hat. Looks like I'm back on track . . .

Thanks again,

Steve A-

[IronHillRestorations]

Is there anything wrong with the old circlips? I would hesitate to use a FLAPS circlip, unless it was exactly the same size, ie metric.

The clips without the holes are more challanging, to say the least. You have to put the back part of the clip (the section opposite the open part of the C) in first, at an angle, and then push the two tabs of the C in with a small screwdriver. All of this whilst holding the spring and the little hat piece in place. IIRC, you don't have to compress the spring to get the clip in the bore, it's just got to sit there until you get the clip in, and then push it in with a deepwell socket (12mm IIRC).

Shoot, putting those clips in is the easy part, getting them out is the part that increases your biker vocabulary!

[anderssj]

Thanks for the advice. I was able to find a pair of metric circlips (non-FLAPS), but the "ears" interfered with the spring cover/hat. I put the original back in using the technique you described. I found that using the C-clamp as Jim described really helped too. Not too much biker language required . . . .

What kind of cover is that on your car (pictured in your avatar)? I've been looking for one like that--need to put it on my Christmas list. Great looking car too!

Thanks again,

Steve A-

[joea9146]

What kind of cover is that on your car (pictured in your avatar)?  I've been looking for one like that--need to put it on my Christmas list.  Great looking car too!

Its called an Umbrella cover for the 914. 914986 (perry) makes the covers contact him and he can supply you with one they work great.