Buffalo Dude

Finished my brake project after almost two weeks. I couldn't break the rubber lines off the steel lines in the front, so ended up chopping them off and replacing the line. Replaced the calipers with Precision engineering o-ring calipers and it really does stop now! Here's some pictures:

the old calipers, leaky, rusty, and has frozen bleeder screws:


the new stuff, with black paint


primer


paint



And the finished project on my brand new BF Goodrich Radial T/As:


:party:

But, just as I was driving back from getting one of the tires rebalanced because of a clearance problem, I hear a snap and a grinding noise :eek: I think the worst, one of the calipers broke loose and is now flailing around, grinding itself between the wheel and the rotor. I limp home and pull everything off, only to see no damage. So, that leaves me with maybe two possibilities:
1) parking brake parts are rattling inside the hub, making lots of noise, but not causing serious damage and I can probably fix myself

2) broken wheel bearing that will cost $$$

Hopefully I can get it fixed over Thanksgiving, cause I'm at school right now and I'm about 450 miles away. Oh well, at least it was a great 50 miles on the new tires with brakes that work :rolleyes:

flynhi

Wheel bearings don't snap.
Look over the entire front end closely - When I heard a snap on my 71, it was a broken weld and a tear in the steel front crossmember.

Eddie 70

Nice job. Looks good. Red calipers look good on your wheels.

Buffalo Dude

Here's a post to the problem: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=652758

I'm pretty sure it's coming from the RR, it was making noise earlier that week. Didn't see any tears or breaks in the frame or crossmember, but I'll check it more thoroughly when I get back to my car.

flood

Did you get the rotors turned?

Doesn't look like it by the pics. I recently went to new calipers on all 4 w/a new master. Worked pretty well untill the squeaks came. I finally took everything off and had the rotors turned. Now its nice and quiet. No problems with runout yet either. :cheers:

Love the rims. What size are they?

Buffalo Dude

Thanks! They say American Racing on them, and they're probably about 20 or so years old, maybe older. They're 15"x?, although the rears are about an inch wider than the fronts.

The rotors haven't been turned in a while, mainly because if I turn them again, it might be too thin. It's not a squeak anymore, it's a constant grinding noise, like metal on metal, not very pleasant.

MN-Brent

I had the snap noise happen to me. You better check your E-brake hardware. My drivers rear self-destructed while I was on the road and I had to get a tow home since my rear tire was locked up.

It started with a click-bang, then another and another. This was doing 30mph in a city area. I pulled over in a parking lot and looked underneath the car and everything looked OK. I try to back up the car out of the parking stall and the car wont move. Luckily Hagerty has the tow policy.

I get the vette home on a flat bed and the car was facing the rear of the flat bed. We tilt it down and let loose with the chains and I coast the car down into the garage without a problem.

I disassembled the driver rear brake and the E-brake hardware litterally fell to the garage floor. The E-brake shoe pins were sheared and the studs for the rear bearing assembly were hit a few times.

Needless to say today I have no E-brake hardware in either side of my rears now and have never missed them.

EDIT: Oh yeah, this all happened right after i did all my caliper rebuilds. I suppose/guess the rear rotor moved laterally just slitghtly during all the dissassembly/reassembly and when I tightened everything back down, the E-brake might have had some possibly misalignment going on. It the only thing I can make sense of for this to happen.

Brent...


[Modified by MN-Brent, 10:14 PM 9/17/2003]

DMONSVETTE

:cheers: :thumbs: :seeya

Buffalo Dude

Thanks Brent,
sounds like our cars are making the same sounds. I did adjust the ebrake while I was doing the replacement, I hope I didn't futz it up :smash: The wheels aren't locked up, but it sure does make a terrible noise.

Greg

stingry

:iagree:
Had similar noise. Replaced E-Brake and bearings. E-Brake locked up on mine.

lvrpool32

Those are the original American Racing S200's "daisy" or "coke" bottle wheels as they are sometimes called.
Thye are my favorite "classic" wheel. American racing still make them, but in two piece, either all polished or with a powder coated center. The good thing about them for vettes is that you dont need a wheel spacer to clear the calipers on the 15X8 (4" backspace) wheel.

Nick

Buffalo Dude

That's true, but it's a REALLY close fit, maybe 3/8" gap between the rims and the calipers. Where do you think I could get these still? I'm looking for possibly another set so I can have winter tires and summer tires.

lvrpool32

I bought mine direct from American Racing, at the time the where not making the ones with the powder coated centers, so I bought the all polished and painted them myself. I was at Englishtown dragstrip in June and American racing quoted me $720 for 4 15x8 (4" backspace) on the powder quoted ones...which is very good. i woudl expect to pay about $190-$200 a wheel with lug nuts.

I didnt realise you guys had Winter in California!!!

Cheers,
Nick

Buffalo Dude

:lol: Maybe not so much winter tires as it is an old set and a new set. The old set for cruising around town, storage, and when it's generally dry. The new set for faster freeway driving, long hauls, and when it's wet. Driving in CA when it's raining is hard enough, and I'd rather have new tires to tackle it in :yesnod: