This past weekend i put a posi rear in my camaro that came with disc brakes. From all the things ive read on this website and after looking over plenty of stuff in the books it seemed like an easy conversion. Well now the rear is in the car and everything is hooked up but the brakes arent working at all in the rear! i changed the proportioning valve, bled the brakes, replaced lines where needed, pads look fine and plenty of meat, and rotors have service rust but nothing major. Im beginning to think that the calipers may be frozen. I dont no how long they have been sitting but the guy i bought the rear off of claims it was in a 86 camaro iroc. now that ive been looking more on this website and have been looking more online for new or refurbished calipers it seems like none of the ones ive seen online look anything like the ones i have. also when i did do the rear swap to the car the master cylinder was almost completely dry in the reservoir. I read somewhere along here that i may need to bleed all the air out of the master cylinder? The pedal in the car only sits maybe 2 inches off the floor board and is spongy as hell. When i did bleed the brakes i had plenty of clear new fluid like i put in and no air bubbles. Any suggestions or help would be great as of where the best/cheapest path would be to go. Im leaning towards new calipers. Below are pictures of the calipers on the car. They arent the best but unfortunately its almost night here. I believe this is the delco moraine disc brakes?

 

hey local, i live just south of you in Ringoes

those look like the typical delco morane (spl) iron calipers. they suck and probably dont work on 95 percent of 3rd gens.

anyway, if the master reservoir did run dry, you have to bench bleed it. ITs the only way to get the air out of it, and that will explain your spongy pedal. After that, things should be working better.

there is a thread from the past week or so about a "free" mod to the propvalve to get some extra brake bias to the rear using a replacement spring. that can help. The other option if to remove the factory prop and install a aftermarket adjustable one that will let you adjust the rear pressure up some and get the brakes working "better"

something like this i did to my 92


here's that thread, i think it explained the whole crappy rear disc thing as well
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/brak...e-upgrade.html

 

Hey hey ringoes alright man im actually located right in branchburg hah. i just put flemington as my address because most people have no clue where the **** branchburg even is haha. alright well knowing that the delco brakes are junk what would you recommend as a reasonable upgrade that wont dent the wallet too much? thanks again

 

rads, do this: unscrew the brake light fitting so you can see the inside of the valve. This will allow the pistons to release. Now, bleed your brakes using vacuum and ONLY vacuum. Don't pump the brakes until bled this way. Is your brake light on? I had the same exact problem. I replaced everything and modded the valve with a different spring, but nothing untilI tried this.

 

you can make them work, its just with the stock prop and pressure setting that make them crappy. that and i believe they have to be "adjusted" from time to time by backing up and braking or something like that?

I personally like swapping the 98-02 f-body rear discs onto the stock drum axles. its so simple it almost cheating. only hangup are the 100 dollar custom e-brake cables to keep ht parking brake working. I believe you can swap the entire cable and handle from the 4th gen but i havent bothered with that. Besides, after having me 86 roll away from me and into a guard rail a few years back, 100 bux seem like a small price to pay for a working parking brake.

i have done this swap to both my cars, and you can find the complete brake setups on ebay for about 150 bux if you look around and wait for the deals to pop up.

Dont think this will bolt right to the disc rears though, fylnbye has a bunch of conversions, but they can get pricey,

 

How exactly do i go about doing this? Im sorry im a bit confused as to how to go about this?

 

Are you saying to do this at the new proportioning valve? Thanks again

 

i believe he is talking about removing the brake warning switch, its on top of the stock prop valve, it had the wire pigtail connected to it, the fitting in the prop is yellow. it unscrews. I haven't ever heard of doing that before, not sure what it proves? It wont solve the bench bleeding issue, if that needs to be done.

 

well ill give that a shot first being thats the quicker/easier way to try and solve the issue. if not ill have to try the bench bleeding. somehow i feel the bench bleeding is going to be necessary.

 

You're just not getting pressure to the rears because the the valve inside the prop is stuck on the pin inside the switch fitting. I tried THREE prop valves, two sets of rear calipers and two MC's. It wasn't until I got curious about the inner working of the prop valve that I came to the conclusion that it was the way I was bleeding the brakes. Even if the MC was dry, you should still have SOME pressure to the rears given that the calipers aren't seized up. Try this before you buy new calipers, but bench bleed the MC above all first. It's easy.

 

Also note that bench bleeding the MC means you'll have to rebleed all four wheels.

http://autorepair.about.com/od/fixit...ench-bleed.htm

 

Have any of you guys ever herd of pressure bleeding and or have tried it? My dads trying to tell me to try that before bench bleeding the MC

 

Yes, the one I'm familiar with introduces fluid to the system via the calipers which pushed the air out the MC reservoir. You will not need to bench bleed the MC if this is done.

 

AFAIK thats not true. The only way to get all the air out of the master if to bench bleed it. you cant get it out this way.