Progress is being made on the Jag as I now have all required components either in hand or on order, and that feels nice.
When we last left the action I was having a hard time sourcing idlers and tensioners and as such had started buying generic replacements and contemplating pressing bearings.
The last piece of the puzzle (I thought) was the tensioner, which I hadn’t yet managed to extricate from the car to see whats what.
That is what I did today.
It was a pain.
But it was out. I removed the pulley and felt that it looked strangely familiar...
Yeah turns out it is identical to the replacement serpentine belt idler pulley I bought off RockAuto.
Good thing too because the serpentine idler pulley is not.
Well... “not”. I’m sure the replacement Rock shipped would work, it just lacks the shoulder the OE pulley has. Consequentially the stock pulley felt, by far, the best of them that I’d pulled, with almost completely silent operation under no load.
However it did have a bit of a rattle.
But if I chose not to replace it I could start reassembly TODAY.
But the bearing is clearly slinging oil so... it is fine NOW, but how long until it isn’t.
But seriously it sounds fine.
But it is the worst one to get at, necessitating removal of the supercharger tensioner, expansion tank, and part of the oil cooler to get to.
But I probably won’t own the car when it does fail.
I went back and forth for a while. It is a tough one because it is so close to good but also I’ve come so far it’d kill me to cut a corner now.
Luckily all the research into bearings and such proved useful and I quickly identified the bearing to be a 6203. In a surprising fit of competence, Amazon said they could get one to me on Monday.
Monday.
Alright well fair enough. I guess I’m going to learn how to press a bearing!
Moving on to the brakes
The correct rear brake pads arrived Friday, so I set about installing them on the rears.
I would also note the parking brake had clearly seen better days...
The driver’s side pads went in easy.
As did the passenger!
Except the parking brake.
The retaining pins were hard to get out of the driver’s side parking brake caliper, but the passenger side pins didn’t want to budge.
I brought out the big hammer and wailed on them.
I brought out the bigger hammer and wailed on them.
I soaked them in PB Blaster.
I shot them with freeze spray.
I heated them with a torch until the caliper started smoking.
I used vice grips, punches, and chisels.
I broke two punches.
I drilled, scraped, and smashed.
Finally I cut the pins and split the caliper.
I drilled out the head of the retaining pin and finally was able to drive that half of the pins out.
Not so the other side. No amount of drilling, hammering, and swearing seemed to have an effect.
I’d broken all of my punches, something I wasn’t aware was an option, and the nails I was using as a substitute kept bending.
The caliper has defeated me.
Plan is to.... well I’m not sure. I’m letting it sit in PB Blaster overnight.
I think I’m going to cut and drill the pins from the other side and see if I can get them out that way. If that doesn’t work... uhh I’ll likely have damaged them beyond repair at this point and go ahead and spring for a replacement caliper. OE replacements run $400+, but they’re plentiful used on eBay for under $200.
Yes, $200 for a used parking brake caliper.
Hey at least they say Brembo on them though... right?