KerryS Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 When I installed the RH rear caliper to the Westfield cast upright, the threads in the plated (cast iron?) part felt tight and when I torqued them up I was not convinced the correct end load had been achieved, almost as though the bolt was torsionally twisting. On the LH rear, I cleaned the thread out first and it went together much more satisfactorily. That the RH was iffy has been bugging me so, like most things that I have installed, I took it off again, to find that the upper bolt was damaged and the thread in the casting not too good. Again, I cleaned up the internal threads but it seems that this is not good enough as there are damaged threads. I noticed a couple of things. Firstly the lug in the Westfield upright is as-cast where the head of the socket head bolt goes, which is poor practice, also the face where the calliper attches and the as-cast face are not parallel which will put a bend in the bolt. Also the combined thickness of upright and calliper is about 45 mm and an M10 x 45 bolt is used - fine except a spring washer of about 1.5 mm is under the head thus the bolts do not give full thread engagement. So I think, though partly to blame for not being careful enough I think a 50 mm bolt should be used. Also I need a new calliper mounting thingy. Q1. I assume this can be separated from the aluminium casting part of the calliper assembly? Q2. I assume I will need new bolts for the sliding part of the assembly or can I re-use the bolts using a high temperature Loctite? Q3. Is it possible to get the cast iron part separately from the whole calliper assy that Westfield want £170 for? Update for those interested: 8 weeks after collection engine is ready to go in; all riveting done, all pipes in place, suspension on, diff in, driveshafts in, wiring in, wheels on sort of (to keep them out of the way), bodywork ordered yesterday for collection at end of November. Kerry S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jak Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 Best book the SVA then Glad to hear things are going well with the build. Making careful note of these hiccups for when I start my build. I was in the local DVLA office in Nott'm yesterday, could n't beleive the queue in there - mental note to book a full day off when I register the car John. PS. Did you get my PM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerryS Posted October 30, 2004 Author Share Posted October 30, 2004 John Yes - thanks. Need a telecon methinks. Kerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arm Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 You can buy these parts from a VW dealer. Or post a pic and we'll see how it may be fixed. Ash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerryS Posted November 1, 2004 Author Share Posted November 1, 2004 Further investigations shows me to be a bit of a wassock! Though, there's mitigation! The manual describes the fitting of Sierra callipers and calls up the M10 x 45 bolt. According to the factory, there are some M10 x 50 bolts supplied -true! - but these are metric fine thread .......... So you can see what I did can't you? Put the wrong bolts in which are not quite long enough into the wrong thread and b*****d up the threads. Have ordered new parts from VW dealer at £40 each. Apparently the manual is under review.................. Kerry S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddy5 Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Aaargh, I've just made the same mistake. Thought the bolts were a little tight when installing them, and when I came to torque up one of the bolts it completely cleaned out the threads. On closer inspection the bolts aren't long enough and the thread seems wrong too. I followed the manual which states the M10x45mm bolts. Hmmm, will have to get Westfield to send me some new calipers with the CORRECT bolts. They really need to update their manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerryS Posted November 21, 2004 Author Share Posted November 21, 2004 Eddy5 That makes me feel leass of a tw*t, sorry you've had same problem. I wasn't sure whether I should get the factory to replace the calliper brackets or not. Sure, their manual is pooh with regard to the VW callipers but I really should have twigged something was wrong before I tightened them up. I bought new brackets from the VW dealer and they are thicker castings than the one that the factory provided. Mind, it took 2 weeks to get the replacements. They claim to be handed but they looked identical to me. Did you find the M10x50 fine thread bolts that they gave you as well as the M10x45 coarse ones they shouldn't have? Kerry S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catflap Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Dudes, can you report back on the pedal feel with these VW calipers, interesting Think we will be waiting for ever and a day for you know who to come up with a direct replacement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddy5 Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 I trusted the build "manual" too much I think. I found the smaller pitch 50mm bolts, but they don't seem to fit properly either. IMHO Westfield should replace the calipers as the instructions they supply are wrong, but then maybe I shouldn't have been so naive to believe them, but they didn't feel like I was ruining the threads when I was installing them. Only when I tightened one up with a torque wrench (And hence really screwed the threads) did I start to wonder what was going on. Quick visit to this forum and reading this thread made me understand. We'll see how it goes with Westfield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerryS Posted November 23, 2004 Author Share Posted November 23, 2004 So pay and join, Eddy5 Kerry S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddy5 Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Ah yes, of course.... Edit: ooh it's all old school and offline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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