Cascade Crew

aaron_sK

Long post, kinda pissed off, bear with me for the moment.

Thursday, first day off without rain. Pull passenger tire, caliper (the leaking one) and rotor. Caliper is in terrible shape. Inspected the rotor, looks fine, no gouges, doesn't really need to be turned. Cleaned and reinstalled rotor. Installed pads in caliper, and attempted to install on the car. New pads/caliper will NOT fit over the rotor. Appears to be about 1/8th of an inch to narrow.

Starts raining like a mother****er, so I quit for the day.

Friday: Got off work earlier than expected, pulled the drivers side off (caliper fine, only needed pads). Removed everything, and inspected. Caliper was dry, and looked fine. Pads where flat, but worn down to the metal warning tab. Took off the rotor, and compared it to the other side. This is where things started to go downhill fast. The rotors are different widths.

The edge of the rotors are exactly the same width. However on the passenger side there is more meat on the surface. If you lay them flat next to each other, they look like this:

Not quite as exaturated as that, but you get the idea. I figure WTF, I'll try and at least to the driver's side today. So I removed the parking brake lever, and compressed the piston. The piston went in fine, so I took a quick trip down to the Baxter's down the street to pick up a couple copper washers, and get washers to replace the worn out ones on the parking brake lever.

Of course they don't have the lever washers, so I installed the old ones again. Tightened the p. brake lever, and when I tried to pull it down against the stop, I found it would barely move. The thing is now stiffer than hell, and won't push the piston out at all.

At that point I had been driving a Ford for the last two days, was pretty sure I had just ruined a $60 part for no reason, and was probably going to need another rotor. All that added up to me being WAY to pissed too think straight so I decided to take a breather, and check to see if TGO had any info on this.

Then I found this: http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/brake-board/305774-how-hell-do-i.html

More specifically this post: http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/2405042-post16.html

At this point I think I'm pretty thouroughly screwed, but I figure I'd ask here before spending any more time and money butchering this job up. Mad

1) WTF is with the rotors? Was one of them just turned way to much, or what? Can I just have the passenger side rotor turned, or is this going to cost me too? There's nothing physically wrong with the rotor, it's just too thick.

2) By compressing the old caliper in a clamp, did I f*ck it up? (I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one.)

3) In trying to fit the (new) passenger side caliper, I did crank the parking lever a few times to run it out. Can I compress it normally, as that TGO post suggest, or am I screwed here too?

The thought has occured to me that during the rear end swap, some mix-and-match may have happened. I notced that the passenger side caliper has a partial rubber line, whereas the drivers side is straight metal. Rolling Eyes

rjmcgee · The Hammer Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 2328

I always compress the piston with a C clamp. Other wise new pads won't fit over the rotor. Differant thickness rotors won't matter.

Xophertony · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 5:21 pm Post subject:

ok, apperently the novel of a post i made erlyer never posted #$%^&*

i must have hit the wrong button. anyway, like rod said, clamps are A-ok

so let me get this straight, one side of one of your rotors is larger then the other? if this is accurate the rotor will need to be turned, or replaced.

and secondly, is your ebrake hydrolicly controlled? both of mine are cable actuated.

aaron_sK · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 6:16 pm Post subject:

Mine's cable. After work tomorrow I'm going to recheck the casting numbers on the backs of the rotors to see if they match. On getting the rotors turned, will they even do it that much? I always thought they only turned them about .05 to .1 of an inch, not 1/8 inch or more.

rjmcgee · The Hammer Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 2328

They will turn them as much as needed to clean them up and no more than the minimun cast in the back of the rotor.

QwkTrip · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject:

When I did the brakes on my Aurora I had to screw the piston cover plate back into the housing to make room for the new (thicker) pads.

I never touched the brakes on my Firebird. Can you really make room for the new pads just be compressing the piston? If so, how do the brakes adjust clearance as the pads wear?

aaron_sK · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject:

On the old school ones like mine, it's a function of the parking brake ratcheting the piston out of the bore. Dunno about how the PBR ones work.

QwkTrip · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 10:02 pm Post subject:

I have PBR calipers on my Strange 12 bolt. I guess I never paid attention. Just bolted them on.

Xophertony · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 12:15 am Post subject:

on a non screw in caliper the piston is forced out by the fluid, farther and farther as the pads wear. this is why you have a reservoir, it will slowly get lower even on a system that does not leak, until you compress the piston and put new pads on, then it would fill up again.

aaron_sK · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 5:44 am Post subject:

That's how any brakes I've ever worked on before work. Dunno if Chevy was just trying to be different, or what.

aaron_sK · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject:

Quick update: Compared numbers on the back of each rotor, and they are the same. After inspecting and measuing them a bit, there's not as much difference as I thought. It looks like one had just been turned to remove a deep gouge or something.

After a bit of work, I unfroze the old driver's side caliper and cranked it out with the parking brake lever. Recompressed it and this time the actuator bolt spun easier. However once it bottomed out, it froze again. Figured it was shot, but decided to try running it out again, at which point the piston shot out onto the floor, which kinda confirmed what I was thinking. Razz

As for the new caliper, I had never seen a new caliper that was not fully compressed, but sure enough, this one dropped back around 1/4 inch, and a dry fit over the thicker rotor fit great.

So I figure a completely new rear brake system for $140 out the door, less core charges.... not too bad.

Xophertony · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject:

nice, and now you can stop again Wink

aaron_sK · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 7:06 pm Post subject:

Well I could stop again, but I still need to swing by and get the other caliper from Ian, then install everything while being soaked by rain. Rolling Eyes

Danked · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 3:06 am Post subject:

heh the front brakes on my camaro are bad.. the warning tab was pissing me off so i broke it off, (big mistake) then i noticed a hard grumbling sound, sure enough, front brakes, my rotors are completely destroyed, dug in a good 1/2 inch, luckily i can buy 2 rotors that have slightly been used for $20

aaron_sK · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:47 am Post subject:

Front's are easy.... it's the back ones that screw you. Laughing

Xophertony · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 10:48 am Post subject:

yeah, butr you don't realy need the back ones.

Danked · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 7:20 pm Post subject:

i don't ever plan to fix my back brakes Very Happy

maybe the e-brake one day

Al Hasse · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 7:40 pm Post subject:

aaron_sK · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject:

As long as you have all the right tools, drum brakes aren't hard, although it's been a long time since I worked on any.