87350IROC

iTrader: (2)

Guys

I could really use a favor. Can you take a look at your front brakes and let me know if the top of your pads overhang the edge of the rotor. (IE, they are mounted too far from the center of the rotor).

I have been chasing down a number of issues with this brake kit and I'm beginning to think my BP-10 pads aren't quite right.

Ok, here is the story.

I installed the brakes and had a bunch of squeal after the initial bed-in process. So I pulled a wheel and noticed the pads overhang the edge of the caliper. Like in this picture.



This caused a ridge to form in my pads like this picture.



So I contacted Ed and told him I thought his caliper mounting bracket was the wrong size. We agreed he would make new ones for me. In the meantime I decided to slot the holes 0.1" on my existing bracket so I could change the caliper location to where the pad didn't overhang the rotor. With the caliper re-located I found the clearance between the caliper and the edge of the rotor to be really tight. Like this.



I was a bit concerned that with heat expansion the rotor would contact the caliper. However I shrugged it off realizing that the only way to increase clearance is to have my previous problem of pad overhang. I also sanded the pads flat to remove the ridge. I reinstalled the pads and re-bed in the brakes and had the same squeal from the pads.

This time I decided to try a new pad compound. So I ordered the Hawks Ceramic pads. I installed them tonight and to my shock they sit inside of the edge of the rotor by about the same amount that I moved the caliper inward. So it seems as though the Hawks would have worked perfectly with Ed's brackets and the caliper. My new theory was that the BP-10s were constructed with the friction compound too close to the top edge of the backing plate, causing either pad overhang or to have very limited clearance between the caliper and rotor. You can see from the above picture, it sure looks like the rotor struck the caliper at some point. The paint on far edge of the rotor is scrapped off and you can see a buildup of metal on the caliper in the picture.

Then I remembered I ordered a set of Wilwood Polymatrix B pads for track use. So I popped them in the caliper and they fit very slightly better than the BP-10s but still not right. Is it possible that both the BP-10s and PolyBs were constructed with the friction material too high on the backing plate? I wouldn't think so, but I have no other explanation for why you would either have pad overhang or rotor/caliper interference.

87350IROC

iTrader: (2)

Here are pictures of each pad in the caliper. Notice the difference in the edge of the pad compared to the edge of the rotor. Again, this is with my modified bracket to get rid of the BP-10 overhang issue.

Wilwood BP-10 pad, the edge of the pad is basically even with the edge of the rotor.



Hawks Ceramic, the edge of the pad is about 0.1" from the edge of the rotor.



Wilwood Polymatrix B, the edge of the pad is very slightly in from the edge of the rotor, but basically the same as the BP-10s

87350IROC

iTrader: (2)

So basically what I'm looking to find out is the distance of your pads from the mounting ears of the baking plate to the start of the friction material. I think this can be measured by first putting the pad into the caliper. Then lay a straight edge across where the ears of the pad rest on the caliper. Then measure the distance between the friction material and the straight edge. Thanks for any help that you can offer.