www.jec.org.uk

TODAY I REPLACED THE HANDBRAKE PADS....IN THE GARDEN, A VERY LONG DAY BUT A WAS SO SCARED BY THE MANY READINGS I MADE BEFORE THAT AFTER ALL IS NOT SO BAD.
JUST NEED NORMAL TOOLS AND VERY SMALL HANDS (THERE IS VERY LIMITED SPACE IN THERE!!) AND A PILLOW.... WILL HELP BECAUSE YOU STAY HORIZONTAL ALL THE DAY.
THE TWO CALIPERS ARE REALLY WELL MADE AND DEFINETLY NEED A GOOD CLEANING WHEN REMOVED. NO NEED TO REMOVE THE BOTTOM PLATE.
GREAT SATISFACTION AFTER ALL AND NOW I CAN PARK IT IN THE ROME HILLS!
I' LL TRY TO POST A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION WITH PICTURES, IN THE MEANTIME IF IN DOUBTH DROP ME AN EMAIL FOR SOME TIPS.


VALTER, XJS MANUAL 3.6 1987 ROMA ITALY

Hello Valter, welcome to the forum.
The handbrake is a beast to do, but when done will hold the car very well indeed. I drop the whole subframe myself as I have the hands of a gorilla.
Pop

WOW What a Job! All the IRS!!

In my case was very tough but possible. Probably I was close to my phisical limits, my neck was painful as I staid all day horizontal.
At the end in the evening, after all that work I drove the car down the ramp and pulled slowly the handbrake ass 'y...great it stopped!!

I was stressed by this problem and also It would not certainly pass the MOT.

I lost almost 2 hours trying to re-fit the LH caliper in place, infact from below I could not see that a piece of the old material had detached from one of the handbrake shoe and was making me not push the caliper in it's position...until I used a dental mirror and saw this piece of stuff laying there!!! Anyway, I am very happy...really happy...I spent several days wondering how to manage this repair, studying and reading..and I was a little scared about it.
Thanks for your mail.

Ciao,
Valter

Yes, such fun, today I had the pleasure of doing the handbrake on a 1990 3.6 auto, one i've bought to sell on.
i didnt find it too bad, undid the holding bolts, and slid the caliper back round the disc and out. only problem i did have was the final adjustment, as i couldn't get a screwdriver in after the calipers replaced, i think i guessed close enough though, as they seem to work....hopefully enough for the mot.
next problem i have is to sort out the front/rear brake balance, fronts fine but rears dont lock unless pumped hard ( another mot failure) oh well, see what tomorrow brings !!

HiMaybe you have some air in the rear duct. Have you tried to flush the air?
Yeh, the handbrake is a beast, for me the most difficult part was setting the tip of the fork right in the calipers...A nightmare,

Good job

Cheers

the cars been stood for a year or two, so will change the fluid as probably become aeaerated, hopefully that should cure it. I think theres a balance valve somewhere as well which will need checking out. it all good fun (i could think of better, cleaner things to be doing!)

thats aereated, i think !

well, the handbrake works fine, and after changing the fluid, so did the rear brakes, so now have full mot on car, (even though it did cost and extra £20 for re-test!)

Good!
it's good to know that the fluid can do such problems...I thought maybe just some air..

Cheers

At least with our cars its good old fashioned mechanics.
Many new cars (generally speaking - not necessarily Jags) need computer interfacing to de-pressurise the system and open the brake callipers due to Electronic parking brakes. More electronic diagnostics are needed to bleed the brakes as well. The Volkswagen Audi cars now even need the callipers to be electronically calibrated following pad changes.
Good income for a well kitted-out and trained garage maybe, but for the home enthusiast, well.....
Pop

Useless to say these cars are wonderful.. some people could think people like us are crazy spending so much time and money on these cars but really for those like us, it's just wonderful.

When I bought mine I was looking for this model right because I can almost do anything by myself, that's the real pleasure.

Before the XJS I had a Lancia Gamma Coupe, of course, a 2.0L not the same stuff, but when I sold it in June, I knew everything about it having touched all the details.

The XJS has always been my favourite one since my first travel to UK in 1981. Since then I had to wait a long time to have one. Here in Italy they are still very expensive.

Ciao