This update is a little late, it should have been up some time before Christmas but it is a busy time of year and I am only just playing catch-up. Sorry about that, but finally the braking system overhaul is complete!
So having completed the front brakes (some time ago now), it was finally time to go through the same process with the rears, flush through the system with new brake fluid and that would be job done, easy!
Having learnt from refurbishing the front callipers that they were actually in very good condition internally and were limited to just an accumulation of dirt and rust externally I decided that I wouldn’t split the rears callipers and just give them a simpler external overhaul. This should speed things up and get me back to focusing on the things I really want to be doing, like getting the car moving. The Calliper bolts had other ideas and needed a bit of gentle persuasion to let go.
The callipers themselves only needed a clean up with a wire brush and some brake cleaner before they could be painted, but the brake pad retention springs and pins were shot, fortunately replacements are easily sourced, along with some need bleed nipples of course.
While I was at it I removed and cleaned up the discs, inspected the parking brake and painted the brake shields before putting it all back together with new brake hoses and solid lines as these were seized and destroyed when trying to remove the old hoses.
With that done all that was left to do was to bleed the system which should have been simple enough. I use an Eezibleed kit which pressurises the reservoir pushing new fluid through to each brake calliper making it a very quick and easy one man job.
Unfortunately one of the float sensor caps had split and so the reservoir could not be pressurised until I got a replacement. A couple of weeks later I had some new replacements from Germany and with that in place the brakes were bled and all working again. YAY!
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Mercedes W123 230 Restoration 