bnytro

where do you buy rear shims for rear rotor or do i have to make my own, working on aircraft i know they make sheets of peal ply shim stock thats .003 inches thick per ply, made of titanimum, stainless steel, aluminum, kapton (1500 degree plastic) and other low temp materials, that comes in various thickness (0.030 inches thick) can be cut with a knife, but where do you find a brake/rotor cutter thats cuts rotors on the car???? or do i have to get machined ant a machine shop???? :confused: :steering:

MIKER

I made aluminum shim stock from a Dr. Pepper can to shim my rotors. It can be cut easily with scissors.
Practically free and worked perfectly.

bnytro

yes but being here in hawaii with the humidity, steal and aluminum dont mix they cause galvanic corrosion because of dissimular metals, the aluminum will turn to power and i'll be back to where i was before

Turbo-Jet

http://www.reidtool.com/pdf/464.pdf

these shims work perfectly. measure the rotor run out as shown below. for best results, disconnect the halfshaft from the drive flange. then use some math to calculate the req'd shim thickness and install them over the lug stud. this is a better method than machining. why would one want to remove material from a rotor (especially if new)? rotors need mass in order to operate. more mass equals more heat capacity, resulting in less fade and reduced chance of warping or damage.




[Modified by Turbo-Jet, 12:36 AM 8/27/2003]

Barry's70LT1

I bought a cheap set of feeler guages , and used the "fingers" as shims.
It's great, they are all labelled.
When you check the runout with a dial guage, you can select the exact size to do the job.

When you have selected the exact size, use some weatherstrip glue to fasten it to the spindle flange.

ROD NOCK

To get rotors cut on the car, you'll have to find a shop that has the machine to handle this.
The alt is to remove the spindle, and have a machine shop with a large lathe cut the rotor attached to the spindle.
Try shimming first. I say less hassle, and cheaper. :smash:

Kevin_73

I had a sheet of brass shim stock that I used for various things for my model jets and cut it to fit.
You can get this stuff in various thicknesses from most hardware stores, and brass should not have a bad reaction to your evil thick salty tropical air. :D

mrvette

I say spread a thin coat of wheel bearing grease all over all hubs and lug studs, and also the aluminum, I used aluminum foil in several layers for this purpose.....make it a thin coat of grease, we not bedding something here, just a thin layer...I been doing this for decades, and it's stopped all corrosion problems, discs, druns, hubs, wheels.....all of them flop on and off easy....

GENE

bnytro

greese???? man you guys must not drive your vette hard, im brutal on brakes, 100+ mile an hour stops, plus this car is going to see track time, im thinking about building a rotor resurfacer my self, hope it works, i'll let you know if it does, but thanks for all the ideas :steering:

flood

the rear brakes are going to be a huge PITA I can tell by the ammount of posts. Why didn't GM just make it easy to turn the rotors and be done with it. ... :crazy:

Tom454

Disconnecting the half-shaft is a good tip. This is a technique I have been using for many years. You need to rotate the rotor without interference to get an accurate runout figure. With the half-shaft connected, there is too much drag to spin the rotor without wobbling the assembly.

Also... if the wheel bearings are loose at all, you will not be able to get a good reading either. The spindle will wobble giving you unpredictable numbers.

I don't consider a rotor runout reading accurate unless I have eliminated all of the other possible sources of movement. I have a special jig and spindle support/spindle that I use just for checking rotors off the car.

Spindles also have runout.... so even if you have a "true" rotor, your spindle can have significant runout.

About "new" rotors... I used to work in an Auto Parts Store many moons ago... new rotors are usually not straight... they typically need to be turned right out of the box. One of my high volume customers who did a lot of brake work insisted that we turn every rotor we sold to him before we delivered it. Most of them had significant runout.

Technology has not progressed in this regard... recently I purchased several new rotors for my Silverado and my Mustangs... they were all crooked.

GM turned the spindles and rotors as an assembly, riveted together. This was the only cost effective way they could build the cars and keep the TIR (runout) at the minimum amount necessary to provide adequate braking performance. Turning them as an assembly requires special tooling... drum/rotor machines are not designed for this task. You need a lathe with a large chuck and above average accuracy because of the large rotor diameter.

Edit: Oops.... forgot.... you can get STAINLESS shims here if you don't feel like manufacturing them yourself. http://www.mcmaster.com/ This is where I buy them in various thickness.



[Modified by Tom454, 9:41 AM 8/29/2003]

GTR1999

Tom is correct about new rotors having runout. I just installed a new rear rotor and it had .005" out of the box. This was checked with T ram off the car after rebuilding the rear arm and bearings. I used ss shims to dial it in to .0005" TRO. I use the shim and punch kit that MSC sells,cost about $100 to get setup but worth it if you plan on doing several cars. http://www.msc-direct.com
Gary