Hey guys, I have done brakes before on non-thirdgens. I mostly grabbed the economy pads and tossed them on. This time, on my 86 trans am (4 wheel disk), I bought some mid/premium pads. After retracting the puck as far as I could get it with a c-clamp and retracting those bushing fully, I was able to barely squeeze on the calipers.

Normally I find the brakes move or have some freeplay to them at this point and I need to pump the brake pedal to set them and such. However, the capilers barely fit on and the pads I bought are resting right against the rotors, impeding their travel (atleast by the force of my hand). I don’t want to test them out and drive the car just in case I run into a situation where I need to take them off and will never be able to. My question is, is this normal to have pads this tight against the rotor on a thirdgen with better pads?

My car is still jacked up from when I put the pads on, I haven’t done anything, and I assume the puck cannot be retracted any further (so I don’t think it could be a flex problem).

 

Take the bolts out of the caliper you loosened to take them off. (slide bolts)
Then clean them up and grease them.

Had a 91 Corsica that was taken to a brake shop, the guy there sanded the pads down to make them fit.

I beat the old slide pins out of the calipers, then put on new slide pins and calipers. Worked just fine.

 

Alright, so I guess I will have to be sanding down the pads then. Thanks for the help.

 

rears? they need to be "turned" in with a caliper tool.not forced witha c-clamp

 

I am working on the fronts.