I was trying to adjust the parking brake caliper through the access hole in the disc. I over tightened it, and now I can't get it to back off, and it is so tight, I can't get the rotor off. I have made sure the brake lever is fully released. The brakes are outbound. Question: Can I release the tension on the brake calipers by adjusting the parking cable? If so, where is the access to the cable adjustment? I have a repair manual, but I can't find good directions. Do I need to remove the sill panel by the driver's door? If so, how does it come up? A quick 5 minute project has taken 3 hours and disabled my car.


Thanks in advance for any help. Kent

 

Kent,

The difficulty is that the movement of the adjuster is now holding the shoes pushed out to the edge of the disc drum cavity. Removing the cable won't resolve this.

You really need to get back in there via the access hole with a good torch and turn that adjuster back. With the right tool, it should be quite feasible to turn it.

As a (2nd) last resort, you could put a large puller on the disc and pull it off. It's really not easy to do this so only do it if you know the adjuster is broken and the shoes are jammed out. (You really need to try and undo that adjuster.)

A really last resort is to undo the shoe retaining pins from the back of the backplate and then pull the discdrum. I have done this once on an XJS to remove an absolutely stuck discdrum. BUT, I warn you, you are as likely to jam the shoes this way as release them! Only do this if you have absolutely explored every other option!

Good luck

Paul

 

We should add to our American friend here that ptjs1 means a flashlight, he doesn't mean you need to heat up the adjuster lol! Just in case you didn't know, thought it was worth making sure...

I second un-doing it all and using a puller to get the disc off. Then again, I'm not sure how it is setup, so I don't know how realistic trying to simply back it off would be. I'm guessing pretty difficult given how most brake adjusters are usually setup. Maybe honestly try a few more times before going to something more desperate. At that point we can agree hard lessons learned always stick with you the best.

 

Hi I just went through the pain of redoing my rear brakes and the parking brake pads.
The drivers side parking brake shoe was locked on and I had a devil of a time
getting the rotor off. The philips screw that held the rotor on was seized and it took a
2 day soak with penetrating oil to get the screw out.

I removed the brake caliper assembly and then proceeded to bang on the rotor
on the lefthand side while applying a pry bar to the right hand side.
I was going to replace the rotors anyway. Hint: do not order slotted rotors for the rear
on a 94 XJS 2+2. They are too thick and will not fit into the calipers assembly.

I also applied a liberal amount of penetrating oil (PB Blaster and WD-40 ) to the center hub and
through the rear of the rotor on the lefthand side to the brake pad area.

I had both rear wheels jacked up with stands and cranked the engine and put the car in gear to move the rear hubs a little.
After few rounds of beatings the rotor finally came off.
The parking brake cable for the lefthand side would not move due to the parking brake lever arm on the rear axle was seized
at the pivot point on the rear axle differential.
You have to raise the entire rear end to access the differential/axle area where the 2 parking brake pivot levers are located.
I again applied more penetrating oil. After waiting about 2 hours I was able to loosen the bolt that attached the pivot arm and
clean most of the corrosion off. The parking brake cable going to the brake shoe finally released.
I working on it with more penetrating oil to make the "repair" longer lasting.
I'm not sure why only the lefthand parking brake pivot was so bad. The righthand unit was fairly clean and worked correctly.

The parts manuals in the JHTS1134 and the Jaguar Classic parts both show the
2 Pivot levers mounted horizontally on the Differential. On my wifes XJS 2+2 they
are mounted on the front of the differential in a vertical position.

While trouble shooting the problem I got to use the neat Thermal indicator instrument
. All of the wheels were at a nice 57F except the leftrear wheel which read 155F.
This was after 1/2 mile test drive. This led to the rear brake repairs.

After the repair all wheels read 55F now. I will pursue the parking brake pivot
arm seizure problem.

The parking brake cable is an expensive little piece for just a bit of wire.

P O R - Press On Regardless

 

Finally got the brakes pads to loosen up. I did think a torch was a torch. I used a "flashlight" to look in the hole and carefully align a large screw driver on the star wheel. A couple of taps with a hammer freed it up. Didn't take much. Not sure why it got so bound up. I didn't really over tighten the brakes that much, just tried to get them to the point where they rubbed, and then planned to back them off a couple of turns. I guess the XJS didn't like being treated like an old Chevy. Thanks for the help.

 

Kent,

Apols if our use of a common language caused some concern! In the UK, a "flashlight" is really quite a large lamp whereas a torch can be tiny or right up to a 3" lamp. And what you call a "torch" seems t be an abbreviation of a "blowtorch"!

Anyway, glad you got it fixed. When accessed correctly, the adjuster is usually ok to move, hence my suggestion to you to really focus on that rather than anything more extreme.

Cheers

Paul