Smokin' Brakes

[BenBrausen]

Yesterday I changed my rotors and pads. I put in some PF's and bled them a lil bit. I didn't wanna waste tons of time bleedin' them cause I'm waitin for Monday to get some heavy duty brake fluid from Ford (parts department was closed by the time I got there on Saturday). The brakes seemed all good. They stopped VERY good at high speeds but it seems you need to push the pedal down much farther then before to bring the car to a complete stop. The pedal feels a lil' mushy. I stopped at Best Buy today, and my front driver side was smokin. eek! What did I do wrong???? How tight do you wanna tighten the slider pin and should I have greesed it??? Is 50 miles with the pad mabe rubbin' gonna have ruined my pads or rotors???

 

[ThumPa]

The first they taught me in tech school was to grease all moving parts.ie; the tabs that the pads slide on, the pins, etc. You may have a frozen caliper. As far as the spongy feeling, I think you need to bleed the breaks more.

Good luck

 

[BenBrausen]

So how do I check to see if the front calipers are frozen and if it is, how do I solve that problem?????........ And do tight do I want the slider pins?

 

[pjtoledo]

You still have the factory 10" front brakes??? With that setup it does not matter how tight the slider pin is, as long as it stays in. You should use some Lock-tight on the threads. You can put some hi-temp grease on the pins if you want. How about the nylon sleeves inside the rubber? Are the tabs on the back of the pads properly set in the piston and outer side of the caliper? Could be the piston is jammed sideways in the caliper, kinda unusual, but possible. Go get a big C clamp, loosen the bleeder, and push the piston back in. Slowly apply the brakes to see if the piston freely moves back out, hit it with the clamp again,,etc,,

Perry Toledo,Ohio

 

[BenBrausen]

Should the brake caliper move at all? The boots seem fully intacted and the pins came out without much work.

Any chance I air bubble caused the brake pad to pop out?

I'm gonna take it all apart tomarrow and see what I can find. Should I apply greese to the 2 clips that hold the inside pad inside the caliper because I did when I installed them. I covered the back of the pads with an anti-squeek grease. What kinda grease do I wanna use on the pins? Is there anything else I should grease? I followed the instructions on SHOTimes and had to use a block of wood and a c-clamp cause AutoZone didn't have the loaner brake caliper compressor in. What else should I check when I have it all taken apart????

 

[BenBrausen]

I took everything apart today and checked the calipers. They worked when the brakes were applied. We bled out ALL the old brake fluid and replaced it with Wanger Dot 3 in a 1qt can. It was $3.99 at a Bumper to Bumper. I tried the Ford dealership before that but they said that the brake fluid in a can is discontinued. They only had the rear slider pins and said the front were discontinued earlier this year. They had the caliper grease but it was $9.99 a tube so I got some other caliper/slider pin **** from Bumper to Bumper also. I drove it about 40 miles in light traffic to my girlfriend's place today and then back tonight. When I got home the rotors weren't red hot. The squishy feelin' is gone now and they stop better at low speeds. Everything feels great like it did before a changed them minus the shakin' from the warped rotors. We bled all the fluid in the resovwair out through the front driver side by bleedin' it about 50 times or more. I know I should used a trukey baister but one wasn't handy. There was no air up until about the 20th time we bled them at which point there was a good amount of air in it for about 6 or 7 times. We checked out the passenger side too and bled it about 20 times. The calipers slid on over the rotors without any trouble but seem to be touchin' the rotors. Greased the pins good and tightened it all up. I'll keep watchin' them.

 

[sdpatt]

After the first brake application followign installation, the pads will always be in contact with the rotors. The pads relax against the rotors as you release the brake pedal, but they will still be touching. That is the way they are designed. Man, that was a lot of bleeding going on. One of the major risks of getting air into the brake system is opening the bleeder valves.

 

[BenBrausen]

Ya the bleedin' took a while. The brake fluid that was in there had a bit of a greenish/black tint and was dirty but that could been from some of the pickle juice from the pickle jar.