Re: Front Brake Pads

["Glenn A. Merrell" <gmerrel@domain.elided>]

Hello John,
    Please thank Mr. Allen for allowing me to hold his toes to the
fire.  I appreciate his timely research and  providing his verified
information.  I believe that Mike Wattam is away on business this past
week on the continent, not allowing comment on the list until he returns
this week.  I'm sure he will respond though.

A bit longer with the toes in the fire, if you please ...
    The ROM section 10.00.16 (56) shows a completely different type of
pad similar to TR250/5/6 pads, depicted by Triumph Drawing # MT 2718,
having holes and solid pins to hold the pads in place.  Any comment as
to possible caliper change?  I know that when the Stag was originally
designed with the 2.5 litre, smaller calipers and pads may have been
planned, but thelatest ROM is in Revision "D" and published 8-10 year
after this original design.  Agreed, the ROM is not perfect.

    There is also a comment in Autobook 808 page 106 section 11:3
states:  "Make sure the pad assemblies are able to move freely in their
recesses, using a fine file to ease any high spots if necessary."  I'll
bet that some machanics took this literally, filed or ground off  the
positioning tab in order to get the split pins to fit.  With the tabs
gone, the pads are no longer handed and can be easily reversed.  I'm not
saying this was right,  just probable, as I've a set removed from my car
that were ground off, intalled by DPO or garage.

Now, here is another odd occurence, something that I believe may be a
potential safety issue.  The pad handed "tabs", what are their purpose?
Is it to keep the pad from rotating out of the caliper on hard front
braking, or reverse braking?  I've spent many hours looking at this on
my calipers and pads, but I'd like to have some observations from the
professionals as to specifically why the tabs are there. If you say hard
front braking, please check again the orientation of the pad and tab in
the caliper carefully, and tell be how it stops against the caliper body
with the forces applied.  If you say reverse braking, please explain why
this would be needed with the forces in play?  Maybe the calipers on my
Stag are incorrect??

Food for thought, In My Humble Opinion, some simple observations.

Regards,
Glenn  Merrell, VTR Webmaster ProTem
Triumph Stag Register USA VP
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