Big Brakes on a not-so-big Budget? YEP

[crownvic97]

Ordered all my parts last night, $352 for everything shipped to my door, how could you beat that for a big brake setup?!

Ive had the bracket from Jerry and the TCE lines in the basement for years so I’m not counting that expense, lol.

[crownvic97]

So of course I get the calipers in the mail today and they have the Corvette script on the side, ugh. It says right in the description that they are “without” logo. So I’ll have to call them tomorrow and deal with that.

Anyone just ground off the Corvette script? I’m planning to paint them anyways...

[03Merc]

So of course I get the calipers in the mail today and they have the Corvette script on the side, ugh. It says right in the description that they are “without” logo. So I’ll have to call them tomorrow and deal with that.

Anyone just ground off the Corvette script? I’m planning to paint them anyways...

Find someone to engrave them! Might as well now.


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[crownvic97]

Find someone to engrave them! Might as well now.


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After dealing with way too much stupidity I ended up returning them and buying a new set from Rockauto for a few bucks more. Apparently Autozone will not guarantee the calipers will come without Corvette on the side, even though the listing clearly says “Without Corvette Script” The store employee just could not fathom why this was an issue...

[blazen71]

I bough the "Non-logo" from Rockauto and they were correct!

[crownvic97]

Order from RockAuto came in. I now have one without a Corvette logo, and one with.

[BigCars4Ever]

I ended with two completely different calipers. I had to return them twice before I got a matching set. And yes I ground the corvette off of them and ground the fins down a little for better wheel weight clearance.

[crownvic97]

I ended with two completely different calipers. I had to return them twice before I got a matching set. And yes I ground the corvette off of them and ground the fins down a little for better wheel weight clearance.

that’s what I have, I’ll have to call them Monday and see if I can try this again...

[03Merc]

I ended with two completely different calipers. I had to return them twice before I got a matching set. And yes I ground the corvette off of them and ground the fins down a little for better wheel weight clearance.

You can do a static balance and move the weights to the center of the wheel...if it were to be an issue.


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[ClayBelt]

I ordered both of mine without, they both came with so I just kinda said screw it and highlighted the corvette script as some mild revenge for all those 32 fords with SBC in them. Rock auto sucks at selling them consistently without from what I’ve heard and your best bet is to grind them off

[ledzilla]

You can do a static balance and move the weights to the center of the wheel...if it were to be an issue.


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I think that's actually a dynamic balance. I had to do that for mine because it was a hair too tight on one wheel. A nearby shop was able to balance the fronts with the weight set towards the center. Been butter smooth even when reaching triple digits.

[MercLSU]

So last week I finally got off of my rear and installed these brakes. Unfortunately I’ve had issues with brake noise on the driver’s side. I don’t believe this to be an issue with the adapter brackets whatsoever but I wanted to run the situation past y’all and to see if anybody had a similar issue or had any advice to offer. If I should post this in a separate thread, please let me know.

Also, this will be a bit long so I apologize for that. I’ve probably way overthought this but it’s one of those little nagging things that has me stumped.

The parts I used were:

• Adapter brackets from lji372
• Hose kit from TCE
• Raybestos rotors P/N 680497PER
• Duralast Gold Ceramic Brake Pads P/N DG731
• Duralast Bracketed Brake Calipers P/N 18-B4702 and 18-B4703 (reman)

From start to finish it took me about three hours and everything looked good and moved freely. Upon driving the car, however, there was an intermittent metallic scraping noise coming from the driver’s side (no issues with the passenger side). I say scraping and not grinding; it sounds like the sound makes when sharpening a knife on a wet stone. It’s definitely not a normal brake squeak or super high pitch noise. It also appears to occur briefly once every revolution briefly (depending on speed). It’s constant upon braking and iffy when driving, though it does seem more audible when turning left.

My first inkling was the wheel weights hitting the caliper. After jacking the car up I did notice slight contact between the wheel weights and the caliper fins. Two minutes with a belt sander and all appeared well. When that didn’t fix the noise, I thought that perhaps I hadn’t adequately opened up the rotor I.D. such that it wasn’t properly seating on the hub. I opened it up a bit more and was then concerned that perhaps it was too loose on the hub and that was the issue. Yesterday I tried both a new rotor (very carefully ensuring that the hub fit was tighter). Nothing changed. I tried a new set of pads. Nothing changed.

I used a black marker on the outside of the rotor to ensure that it wasn’t rubbing the bracket / pad clips or anything else. I also did the same with the wheel weights. Nada. Even though I was certain I’d removed enough material from the spindle, I removed the brackets and checked for any burs on them (I recall dropping one from a couple of feet in the air on the concrete). Everything looked good but I removed a little more material from the spindle near the inside curved part of the bracket to be sure. I drove the car 20 miles to ensure that it wasn’t some odd break in issue with the pads. Nothing changed.

There is no visual alignment issue that I can see. I’ve checked this when the wheel off and the rotor tightened to the hub both with centering lugs and without (to ensure I didn’t enlarge the I.D. too much but again the second rotor fits plenty tight to the hub). I’ve also visually checked the alignment with both with the brake applied and not applied.

One thing I do notice that’s appeared on both rotors is an odd groove on the lower part of the wear pattern that I can’t explain. It’s definitely below the bracket / pad retaining clips. The only thing that would appear to be contacting the rotor here is the pad. A picture is below. I can get pictures of everything else once I pull it all back apart.

IMG_20200413_231237231.jpg

Additional details / things I’ve thought of / checked:

• The car has never been wrecked to my knowledge and I can’t find any obvious damage to the spindle
• There is no play in the hub / wheel bearing
• There are no marks on the inside of the wheel where anything could be rubbing / scraping on the caliper that I can find
• The car stops well, has great pedal feel, and doesn’t pull to one side when braking. Everything was bled properly.
• There are no vibrations when braking, thus I feel the rotors are flat enough to not be causing the noise
• All hardware is adequately tight but not overtightened or stripped. Only the OEM bracket bolts and supplied adapter bolts were used.
• I cannot reproduce the noise when the car raised and turning the wheel, either with no brake applied or it being slightly applied
• The calipers appear to be undamaged and the floating pins move freely in and out
• The previous rotors were anything but flat; cheesy eBay rotors that the P/O installed. Warped as they were, they never made any noise.
• The factory dust shield was retained but there is adequate clearance between it and the inside of the rotor; there are no grooves on the inside of the rotor.
• There are no other noises, rattles, clunking, etc. that would indicate anything being loose.

When I get some time this week I suppose I’ll try to keep ruling things out by switching the driver’s side wheel (temporarily of course), adapter bracket, rotor, and pads with that of the passenger’s side. That would leave me with these culprits (please chime in with any others you can think of):

• An alignment issue that I can’t visually determine (either between the rotor and hub, between the spindle and the adapter bracket, between the adapter bracket and the caliper bracket, between the caliper and caliper bracket, or between the caliper / pads / rotor)
• An issue with the caliper. It’s possible that one piston is stuck or not applying the same amount of pressure as the other, which I suppose the former should be easy to check.

Again, sorry to be so long but as previously mentioned I would appreciate anybody's $.02. Thanks!

[marauderrocks51]

maybe some one can sort this out . with the stock rotors the entire surface is covered with the pad . i also have installed the 14inch set up and at least 1/2 of the bottom of the rotor is not contacted by the pads . i have onlly a few miles on this set up , and to be quite honest i think it was better stock . and yes i have ss hoses . my 2 cents

[Mr. Man]

So last week I finally got off of my rear and installed these brakes. Unfortunately I’ve had issues with brake noise on the driver’s side. I don’t believe this to be an issue with the adapter brackets whatsoever but I wanted to run the situation past y’all and to see if anybody had a similar issue or had any advice to offer. If I should post this in a separate thread, please let me know.

Also, this will be a bit long so I apologize for that. I’ve probably way overthought this but it’s one of those little nagging things that has me stumped.

The parts I used were:

• Adapter brackets from lji372
• Hose kit from TCE
• Raybestos rotors P/N 680497PER
• Duralast Gold Ceramic Brake Pads P/N DG731
• Duralast Bracketed Brake Calipers P/N 18-B4702 and 18-B4703 (reman)

From start to finish it took me about three hours and everything looked good and moved freely. Upon driving the car, however, there was an intermittent metallic scraping noise coming from the driver’s side (no issues with the passenger side). I say scraping and not grinding; it sounds like the sound makes when sharpening a knife on a wet stone. It’s definitely not a normal brake squeak or super high pitch noise. It also appears to occur briefly once every revolution briefly (depending on speed). It’s constant upon braking and iffy when driving, though it does seem more audible when turning left.

My first inkling was the wheel weights hitting the caliper. After jacking the car up I did notice slight contact between the wheel weights and the caliper fins. Two minutes with a belt sander and all appeared well. When that didn’t fix the noise, I thought that perhaps I hadn’t adequately opened up the rotor I.D. such that it wasn’t properly seating on the hub. I opened it up a bit more and was then concerned that perhaps it was too loose on the hub and that was the issue. Yesterday I tried both a new rotor (very carefully ensuring that the hub fit was tighter). Nothing changed. I tried a new set of pads. Nothing changed.

I used a black marker on the outside of the rotor to ensure that it wasn’t rubbing the bracket / pad clips or anything else. I also did the same with the wheel weights. Nada. Even though I was certain I’d removed enough material from the spindle, I removed the brackets and checked for any burs on them (I recall dropping one from a couple of feet in the air on the concrete). Everything looked good but I removed a little more material from the spindle near the inside curved part of the bracket to be sure. I drove the car 20 miles to ensure that it wasn’t some odd break in issue with the pads. Nothing changed.

There is no visual alignment issue that I can see. I’ve checked this when the wheel off and the rotor tightened to the hub both with centering lugs and without (to ensure I didn’t enlarge the I.D. too much but again the second rotor fits plenty tight to the hub). I’ve also visually checked the alignment with both with the brake applied and not applied.

One thing I do notice that’s appeared on both rotors is an odd groove on the lower part of the wear pattern that I can’t explain. It’s definitely below the bracket / pad retaining clips. The only thing that would appear to be contacting the rotor here is the pad. A picture is below. I can get pictures of everything else once I pull it all back apart.

IMG_20200413_231237231.jpg

Additional details / things I’ve thought of / checked:

• The car has never been wrecked to my knowledge and I can’t find any obvious damage to the spindle
• There is no play in the hub / wheel bearing
• There are no marks on the inside of the wheel where anything could be rubbing / scraping on the caliper that I can find
• The car stops well, has great pedal feel, and doesn’t pull to one side when braking. Everything was bled properly.
• There are no vibrations when braking, thus I feel the rotors are flat enough to not be causing the noise
• All hardware is adequately tight but not overtightened or stripped. Only the OEM bracket bolts and supplied adapter bolts were used.
• I cannot reproduce the noise when the car raised and turning the wheel, either with no brake applied or it being slightly applied
• The calipers appear to be undamaged and the floating pins move freely in and out
• The previous rotors were anything but flat; cheesy eBay rotors that the P/O installed. Warped as they were, they never made any noise.
• The factory dust shield was retained but there is adequate clearance between it and the inside of the rotor; there are no grooves on the inside of the rotor.
• There are no other noises, rattles, clunking, etc. that would indicate anything being loose.

When I get some time this week I suppose I’ll try to keep ruling things out by switching the driver’s side wheel (temporarily of course), adapter bracket, rotor, and pads with that of the passenger’s side. That would leave me with these culprits (please chime in with any others you can think of):

• An alignment issue that I can’t visually determine (either between the rotor and hub, between the spindle and the adapter bracket, between the adapter bracket and the caliper bracket, between the caliper and caliper bracket, or between the caliper / pads / rotor)
• An issue with the caliper. It’s possible that one piston is stuck or not applying the same amount of pressure as the other, which I suppose the former should be easy to check.

Again, sorry to be so long but as previously mentioned I would appreciate anybody's $.02. Thanks!

Assuming it's not something like a dust shield rubbing or a piece of grit it one of the pads it's sounds like a wheel bearing starting to go. As you point out it happens when turning left.

[MercLSU]

Assuming it's not something like a dust shield rubbing or a piece of grit it one of the pads it's sounds like a wheel bearing starting to go. As you point out it happens when turning left.

To clarify when turning right, left, or going straight if I'm depressing the brake the noise doesn't change. After releasing the brake and going straight for a short distance the noise disappears. If I coast to a slow enough speed to turn left I hear the same noise but much less audible. Also, I was regularly driving the car with no noise or such issues before the swap. So based on that I had ruled the wheel bearing out, but I'll add it to the list. Thanks!