Technical disc brake swap issue..still got a soft pedal

As usual, there is some great advice and a crazy amount of knowledge share. I'm going to be addressing this issue on a 57 Chevy soon, and really appreciate @57 Fargo, @31Vicky with a hemi, @Kerrynzl and @gimpyshotrods info.

 

if there is a chance of seized calipers replace the bloody things hell of a lot cheaper than a set of gauges.if they were (are) you could be driving by now.

 

Yeah,,,Well ,,,

 

Guess I'll throw my thoughts in the ring again. If you are running with a brake booster, I guess you did ck vacuum and got a normal reading (somewhere around 18" or so at idle).
I know what opinions are, and everybody has one, so here's mine.
On the camber issue, if the whl brg's are ok, not loose, all that, then the only thing wrong here is the spindles that came with your kit are definitely not correct. They are shorter or longer from the ball joint out, they are physically wrong, and no other way to fix. That is the only other thing that could cause such a camber change. If so far out that camber cannot be brought back into specs you need to chg the spindles to the correct part.
All this time/ money spent on the brakes, I agree with "31vicky with a hemi", you get what you pay for and from my own experience, I no longer waste my money on cheap stuff, always costs more in the long run, and hopefully not throwing it all away to fix it right, but usually that's the case.
Since you had decent brakes before throwing this "cheap(?)" setup on it, I would suggest removing everything that was replaced, and buy a decent kit that has all the parts needed from m/c to the spindles. Everything.
If you have issues after that you can contact the manufacturer for answers. I've never kicked myself in the ass for buying the good stuff, and if I don't have the money at the time to buy the good stuff, I'll leave things be and save until I can afford to get the good stuff.
If I have something wrong here in my understanding of what has been done so far, my apologies, but from what I've read from the start this seems to be where you are at now.

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There’s wisdom there...
the only way I know to own wisdom is to make the mistake, take the walk and pay the toll.
Anyone can take advantage of another’s wisdoms and save griefs especially if the owner of the wisdom is willing to share.

 

I have been following this tread foe near enough to a year. lots of money spent and still no answer.
Way back I suggested a good brake shop with a rolling road set up (post 86). A good shop would not need a road test to find the answer to this. The beauty of the rollers, is you can have one man on the pedal, another observing at the wheels, and the gauges tell how much braking is happening. There is always a simple and logical answer.
Some times you just gotta find an expert to save money.
Garpo

 

When i did a pressur test i had to remove the caliper from there braket and I put a block bettwen the pads. Block was smaller/thiner than the rotor . caliper piston are moving good.

I also try different set of caliper to be sure
Exactly i tried 2 different set of calipers ( same kind - metric caliper ).nothing change.

Id like to be able the pressure test while the car is on the wheel...
The bleeder is so close to the spindle i cant fit a gage...

 

I hear what you said here and believe me its a learned lesson

The kit that i got didnt came with spindle.
I still have the original spindle

 

Since we’re not there seeing it and pics are scarce in this thread,,,,
Why do think the fluid pressure might be different.?
It really should not be any different if the car is in the air, on the wheels, stationary or moving. I’m not saying your pressures isn’t or won’t be different but I’m saying it shouldn’t be. And if it is then there’s a reason you see and we don’t.

Now if your wheel bearings are loose or the caliper brackets are off then your braking surface area might be lessened for sure. That could change with weight on the spindles or off.

 

^^^^^ I agree. Detailed pics could definitely help. On the camber, if the original spindles are on there then something was not put back together correctly / got out of whack going back on. You need to take a seriously good look there, and again, a few good close-up pics might be the way to go here. Seems like if all you've been suggested has been looked at and no problems, when of course there is obviously a problem, something is being overlooked or possibly not understood(?). Hate to be a dog on a bone, but the detailed, closeup pics may be the way to go at this point, lots from different angles, but very clear

 

btw, I hope I didn't come off in a "bad" way with my reply above, certainly not intended, just passing along info that may help solve your problem

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I will get good picture soon as i can.

 

here some pictures. hope guys can see them

 

Hard to tell from the pictures, but is the bleeder clearing the very top of the fluid chamber? Could be picture angle, but looks like it could leave a small air pocket just above the bleed port. You may have covered this previously, but worth checking.
Garpo

 

I’m no expert by any means but does that calliper look like it’s not square with the rotor? Where the bracket bolts to the upright it looks there is a spacer between bracket and upright that appears to be making the calliper sit out of square to the rotor.


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Are you SURE the caliper brackets are on the correct sides? It looks like the caliper is riding on the bolt head instead of the slider bushing and there is a lot of bolt sticking out of the other side. It looks like if they were swapped side to side everything would be more centered in the mounts, possibly making for more rigid mounting and all of the fluid pressure being applied to where it's supposed to be and not compensating for a wobbly mounting too. Also, are the o-rings in the caliper slider holes?

 

i bled them out of there brackets bleeder upright

 

The upper bolt / pin appears to be threaded into the outer part of the caliper and also into the mount. This appears to me to lock the caliper body to the mount, but for the caliper to work it has to be able to slide on the pins so that the outer part of the caliper moves toward the disc providing the clamping force. Looks like you could only have the pad on the piston side pressing against the caliper, ie no clamping, which could explain your problem. Suggest you remove the pads and reassemble to check the free movement of the caliper, particularly moving inboard. Those fancy pad replacement gauges would help!

Chris

 

After looking at the pics with a fresh set of eyes, please disregard what I posted earlier about the mounting brackets, I really shouldn't post after a 16hr. shift, things tend to get a little confusing to me. My apologies.
Although it still looks like the caliper is riding on the bolt head instead of the slider bushing. When mounted correctly, the caliper should not have that much of the pin sticking out of the outboard side. Looking at the pics, presuming that everything is installed correctly, it looks like the rotors need to move outward. Were the correct wheel bearings supplied with the kit? Did you get the camber issue sorted out?

 

Ok something is off
When you step on the brake the piston moves/goes with red arrow.
The caliper needs to be able to move with green arrow.


But the caliper is already at the end of its travel on the slider

One more pic.
Take a c clamp and squeeze the caliper full open and take another pic.
Sometimes pads have the same shape but thicker materials and rotors have the same layout but thicker brake surface.
I’m wondering if you got narrow rotors and skinny pads and it’s got no room to move closer.
If squeezing that caliper gets you a bunch of room between pads and rotors and moves the caliper to the other side of the bushing/slider then you’ll know what’s going on.

 

Not sure from the pics, but if the brake feed lines to the calipers are on the bottom, swap the calipers side to side so the brake lines are on top, then bleed one more time

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No

 

Bleeders have to be on top, not the feed lines!

 

My bad, thought it had 2 bleeders at each caliper

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Take a good look at ALL the pics in this link.
I just brought over one.
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-GM-Brake-Caliper-Slider-Slide-Bolt,1368.html

Study it and see what you have going on there.

You’re caliper mounting pins should look like this. Head of pin sticks out from caliper - Did you leave the bushing out?


Not like this - head of pin nearly flush with caliper.

 

Your Chevy II reminds me of my old 66 SS Chevy II, I had Doug Thorley FW Headers on my Chevy II back in the 70's. When I changed over to PDB on my Chevy II I was blessed to have several Chevy II's Chevelle's and Camaro's for part's car's (and Marquis Used Auto Yard as a neighbor) and I just swapped over my parts from several different donor car's and bled the brakes and drove off happy. All my part's were GM factory used part's. I know now it's nearly impossible these days for many people to still have access to a Old Junk Yard that has the older Chevy II's//Nova's Chevelle's Camaro's and other old classic cars and trucks in there neighborhood. But if you could locate an Old Junk Yard that still have those old gem's my advice would be to try and get original PDB GM part's for your swap over. I'm doing the same thing on my 63 C10 pick-up this coming summer God Willing. I have a friend that has twenty Acer's of 40's-80's GM Ford and Mopar car's and truck's and Jeff has been a great help to me. So far I've traded Jeff for my much needed PS pump and all part's and a complete auto steering column and Rams Horn Exhaust for my V8 swap on my 63 C10. Next I'm getting from Jeff All the PDB part's to swap over my now four corner Drum manual Brakes and a 3.73 12 bolt posi God Willing soon for my 63 C10. Jeff wants my old I6 and 3speed trans that came in my 63 C10 and will swap my unwanted part's even up for his parts No Cash. I hope you both can find out what is wrong with your Chevy's PDB's swap. But if you can not maybe you both can find you a couple old Junk Yards and get ya some old original used GM PDB part's and swap them onto your Chevy's! It has worked for me many times... Hope this helps some how??

1Nimrod

 

O.P. seems to be still fighting his but did finally get mine sorted out and posted it on here somewhere. Manual disc, went to a 1 1/8" bore master and works perfectly.

 

31 Vicky has you on the right track, something is fucked up with how that’s all assembled


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I would also agree with something bring screwed up with the assy, but at this point I would swap out that entire caliper/ mount setup for a decent setup as 1nimrod states with his use of factory gm parts. I don't see where the incorrect bolts/ missing bushings woul cause anything other than brakes dragging, as the correct bolts and bushings allow the caliper to move and apply/ release pressure on the pads.
This looks to me like a "bad" disc brake setup from the start. To me, looking at the pics closer just looks like poorly manufactured parts. I would chuck that setup and hit some junk yards or buy new Wilwood calipers and mounts, or something along those lines, not the cheapest stuff out there.

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I think it’s $3.00 pin problem not a $1700.00 wilwood deficiency