Brakes

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
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littleorange124

Brakes

Post by littleorange124 »

What I thought was going to be a simple job turned out to be a lot more work that expected. I was going to put new pads in because the old ones were almost non existent. Then found out the calipers are seized and leaking so I have to take them off. So the line will not come off and every time I try to turn my wrench will slip. I took the slider of already the car is a 1981 fiat spider
cormac
Posts: 123
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:03 am
Your car is a: Fiat 124 spider 1976

Re: Brakes

Post by cormac »

I know this is an obvious question, but are you using a flared wrench?? and PB Blaster??
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azruss
Posts: 3659
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:24 pm
Your car is a: 80 Fiat 2000 FI

Re: Brakes

Post by azruss »

pb blaster, lots of patience, and vice grips are the way to go. if you have the space, use the vice grips to clamp the wrench so it wont spread.
vandor
Posts: 3996
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 1:23 pm
Your car is a: 1971 124 Spider
Location: Texas, USA

Re: Brakes

Post by vandor »

FLAT jawed vice grips, not the common curved ones! Curved ones will just round it off.

BTW, are you trying to take the banjo bolt out of the caliper (that is all you need if you are replacing the caliper) or trying to undo the metal brake line where it goes into the rubber hose?
Csaba
'71 124 Spider, much modified
'17 124 Abarth, silver
http://italiancarclub.com/csaba/
Co-owner of the best dang Fiat parts place in town
ralphcap

Re: Brakes

Post by ralphcap »

You need a 10" Locking wrench 10LW (Irwin) and a10mm flare nut wrench and lots of BP Blaster to separate the brake hose from the brake line. If you are rebuilding the caliper and the brake hose does not need to be replaced, save yourself a lot of grief and just separate the hose from the caliper at the banjo bolt as recommended above.
DieselSpider
Posts: 2130
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:21 pm
Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider with Isuzu Turbo Diesel

Re: Brakes

Post by DieselSpider »

I find that a small ViseGrip Wrench many times works better than the pliers or the flair nut wrenches.

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ralphcap

Re: Brakes

Post by ralphcap »

That's the 10LW locking wrench I was referring to. Use it on the hose and the flare nut wrench on the flare nut on the brake line.
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mattyd7
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:39 am
Your car is a: 1979 Fiat Spider
Location: Nashua, NH

Re: Brakes

Post by mattyd7 »

I know it looks gimmicky, but this tool works great. I bought one of these in 10mm to use on my brake lines and had zero problems. No stripped nuts or anything. You can put a breaker bar or ratchet in the center to really get some torque on it. And the way it is designed, as you apply torque, the wrench tightens its grip on the nut from all sides.

http://agscompany.com/product-category/tools/flexforce/

-Matt
DieselSpider
Posts: 2130
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:21 pm
Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider with Isuzu Turbo Diesel

Re: Brakes

Post by DieselSpider »

The local Home Depot was practically giving them away because nobody seemed to understand what they were. They ended up in the discount bin for a dollar or so. I picked up only two small ones and now wished I had picked up two sets of all three sizes
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