Right then Chaps. Money and time have been a little tight at the moment so haven't been able to move on this until now.
So as I am leaving Chris to fettle with the idea of the prop brake (cos I haven't got the skills) I have been looking into other calipers as I have said.
So far the outlay has been very high, a massive 18 quid would you believe. £15 for the caliper and carrier and £3 for the HB cable. I was very lucky to get them as the vehicle they were on was just about to go into the crusher. These particular calipers are like hens teeth. Very few models had them. As far as I can tell they are from the "sporty" versions of the avensis on some models between late 1999 and early 2003.
Any how this is where I am at so far. (sorry about the photos taken in my immaculately clean and tidy workshop)
This is the original LC carrier
And this is the slider that holds the caliper in place
This is the slider that holds the Avensis caliper in place. The rubber is the same length as what is left sticking out from the LC carrier so my thinking is to pop it off the Avensis slider and pop the LC rubber over the retaining lug on the avensis one. As I only have the 1 caliper at the moment I have not done this but there seems to be no reason why this should not hold it in place.
The idea behind using the existing carrier is so that I can keep with the slightly larger original LC pads.
Just a couple of pics here to show that the caliper fits perfectly into the LC carrier. I have now wound the caliper back but it looks as though there is plenty of room for the disc between the pads.
This is the HB mechanism. The cable passes through the U bracket and attaches where the split pin is. I assume that when it is pulled on it turns some sort of worm drive screw that pushes the piston out. Pulling on the lever does push out the piston and it returns when you let go (the spring pulling it back well) so it looks to be in good working order. The black plastic to the right is pushed out of the way in the pic but should spin round 180 degrees and act as a dust/crap cover/collector for the HB cable.
Grabbed the leaver off the Avensis just in case it came in handy. It is the same setup as on the LC, Just bolts down in different places. I am undecided as yet weather to use this lever or see if the existing one will work just as well.
Cable goes down through the floor and connects to the compensator
Here there was just a small bracket welded to the floorpan. It looks like it was there just to hold the cables in place. Shouldn't be too hard to fab one up.
And this is the end that connects to the HB Actuator on the caliper. The cables seem to be plenty long enough to reach to the back axle and the Hy Brake line hoses look to be the same connection type.
Right then all that being said...Points will be awarded for those who spot the glaringly obvious problem
Chris