Just put a fresh set of pads on my 89 TA. The Carbon Metallic Performance Friction pads from Auto Zone

While installing them:
1. They seemed tight slipping them back over the rotors (Had to press the crap out of the piston again to get clearance).

2. After they were on, spin the rotor, and could hear the pads rubbing on the rotor a little.

3. Went for a drive, felt ok for a minute or two then noticed a slight pull to the right.

Seems as the rotors heated up, the pull took a mind of its own, and when I apply brakes, it wants to skitter all over the place.

I pulled the thing apart again, and almost couldnt get the calipers back off of the rotors.

Looks like the calipers aren't releasing and the pads are riding against the rotors, as the rotors heat up, and expand, they just pull worse.


A friend says the shoes are to thick, that I should exchange them for different ones, is that possible. Why does the caliper seem to not be completely releasing the pressure when I release the brakes....

Need help on this one quick, gotta drive this thing to work today....

Any ideas.....................

 

Replace the flex hoses on both sides.

 

Matt
Do you mean both hoses on both sides. I'm new to this.....there is one off the caliper, a small metal fitting where the hose clip is, then another rubber hose up to the brake line.

Never done this either, hoses cant be that expensive....or are they. Thinking, since Im yanking all this out anyway, what does a new set of calipers cost?

 

Sounds like your calipers should be OK.

I'm talking about the flex hoses, jsut the rubber ones that the caliper would hang on while off the mountng point. They're about 8" long, black rubber. Get braided stainless ones to replace with if you can afford to.

 

Just pulled off the new pads, put the old ones back on

Drove around the block, still wanted to pull to the left when I put the brakes on.

Jacked it up again, the Passenger side rotated fine, no scrubbing, but the left side was really scrubbing tight, hard to rotate the wheel.

Does this confirm the caliper hose problem??

Should I replace the hoses before I exchange the pads for different ones? When putting them on, just didn't seem right that I had so much trouble getting them over the rotors.

 

I'd say the hoses are your culprit. I went thru 3 sets of calipers before I swapped out the flex hoses, they fixed the problem.

 

Thanks Matt

Swapped out the brake hoses....worked like a champ.
Bought the standard rubber, passed on the stainless ones.

Learned something too, I was looking/feeling for a weak/soft spot in the rubber hose but the hose was covered by a braided material and an outer harder rubber covering. Its the softer rubber hose underneath all this that was the problem. Something an average weekend wrench puller would never notice.

Anyway, big thanks to ya

Rick