I just installed new ceramic pads on the 9-bolt and went for a test drive to brake them in. The entire time that I was on the road, the car was kind of sruging forward adn back. I had no clue as to what was going on, so I went back to teh house. Well, the rotors where smoking hot and i figured out that the pads were always in contact, heavily. I know that they are always supposed to touch a little, but this was obviously too much. My real question is what to do to fix that. I looked in Chiltons and Haynes, and it said there was no adjustment to the caliper because they are self adjusting due to the e-brake. Would loosening the e-brake at the connection near the driveshaft help. or is there a better fix?

Thanks for the input,
Brett

 

What year is your car? Also do you have PBR rear discs (89+) or the older setup? There are a few things that can cause the pads to stay in contact. Check your brake hoses, bad hoses can cause a sticking caliper. Also the caliper may need to be rebuilt.

 

The car is an 85, and is the old setup. There are brand new braided brake lines, and brand new hard lines. I changed the rear pads to ceramics because the right rear was cracked and wearing funny. The calipers are new rebiult units, and I blead the brakes afterwards. Eargo my porblem, i kinda don't know what to do about this one. The only thing that you also might need to know, is that when i pushed to piston back into the caliper, I used the bolt on the back as one of the lever points for the c-clamp and learned about five minutes later that it was bad to do so. I didn't do that to the other side, and it is also doing the same thing of touching, so i don't think i hurt it. but I don't know.

Thanks for the help,
Brett

 

Well, update time. The rotor was scarred and blud, so i'm replacing that at 4 oclock, and I'm also replacing the caliper and pads. The caliper was trashed, adn the pads glazed but now it'll be back to safe and drivable so it'll work out in the end.

Brett

 

Are both sides rubbing or only one.

Note: If you bought any parts from Autozone, they are probably not the correct ones. Your pads are for something else and if you bring em back you might get the right ones or you might get a load of crap about how it's your fault and you should know what parts you need. YYMV.


You said there were new hard lines. Who put these in, are you sure they are done right. If you pinched the line somewhere, this is exactly the problem you would have.

Why did you install new lines, was there a problem with the old ones?

There are several valves in-line to the rear breaks, I pretty sure you have a proportioning valve and metering valve. Don't have an 85 but that sounds right to me. Check that neither of these have been turned around and that the metering valve is centered.

After that, it's time to pull the calipers off and start checking em again.

I hate autozone.

 

The reason everything was new was because I did a ground up resotration/rodiation , and just wanted to get everything right and replace it. I installed everything, and it was working fine except for the pass rear brake because I installed incorrectly. I'm finishing the install as I type, but i think it will be fine, and I used Napa not Autozone, and I got al lthe right parts so that's okay.

Brett