On 25/01/2020 21:15, T i m wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 20:23:58 +0000, Roger Mills
wrote:

I've just replaced the front discs and pads on my wife's 20-year-old
Ford Puma, and I have a query about the so called retaining clips. They
are made of highly tempered steel wire and the free ends plug into holes
in the caliper. They have loops which hook behind lugs on the caliper
carrier. They look like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292224457537?ul_noapp=true

According to my Haynes Fiesta manual (Haynes don't do a Puma manual, but
the running gear is the same as a 1995-onwards Fiesta) they look like
this when fitted:

https://app.box.com/s/jelr78aedt1uandeka74e05dnqjc8bq8

Anyone know what their function is? Is the middle bit supposed to
contact the back of the pad? Mine don't - by 2 or 3 mm - see:

https://app.box.com/s/b8vaov18obat0kvldauu8bzt5r16vjrx

Aren't they just to provide a bit of resistance between the moving
parts of the caliper to stop them moving too easily?

Sadly, I didn't make a careful enough note of what they originally
looked like before I removed them. I wonder whether I have put them back
correctly - but I can't see any other way they could go. The loops look
as if they should go further onto the lugs - but if I tap the free ends
further into the holes, they pivot on the caliper body and the loops
move *outwards* rather than inwards.

Any informed comment will be greatly appreciated.

Assuming everything is sitting in the right place, then I think that
looks right, assuming the clips are the same design / size as the ones
you took out?


Thanks. They're the original clips - I didn't get new ones. [The Ebay
link was to show what the clips look like when not installed]

I'd still like to know what their function is. If, for example, it's to
damp lateral oscillations of the caliper on its carrier, it doesn't need
to be in contact with the pad. But if it's to push the pad away from the
end of the caliper when the brakes are not applied - which would, in
turn, retract the piston a bit and provide more clearance and less drag
between pads and disc - it *would* need to contact the pad. I just don't
know. It definitely doesn't retain anything. Nothing would fall off it
it wasn't there.

Your digital camera is your friend on this sort of thing (before you
take it to bits). ;-)


Yes, I know - and I usually do. But I erroneously deemed it unnecessary
on this occasion!
--
Cheers,
Roger