Issues with the Brakes

[thegalant]

I am on my second set of rotors and ceramic pads. The rotors keep warping and the drums warp too. I buy the Adaptive One Pads from Napa and standard rotors and drums. They keep warping, I get steering wheel vibration and E-brake vibration. ...The rotors get grooves in them, the last time I did it the pads were totally destroyed in less than 1000 miles. They had deep grooves in them like some one took a spoon and grooved out the middle of them.

I do everything right, for me brakes are easy. I clean the rotors and drums very well before putting them on. I even installed new cylinders and spring kits on the drums, cleaned and lubricated the self adjusters. The only thing I can think of is that there is some rust on the hub assembly. That little bit of rust might have something to do with it? The front right caliper is a little harder to turn back and fourth than the front left, but isn't that because the front right axel is longer and the front left is shorter? Should they both turn with the same resistance?

How do I correctly adjust the drum brakes? The brake shop says it should be 1 rotation when you turn it hard. But that sounds like it would be way too tight causing far too much heat.

I first bought rotors and drums shoes and pads from orielly, I warrantied those and bought it all from napa, these have lasted about 3k before they started warping AGAIN... I am told I can have them machined... I am told they are not true even out of the box... I am told I can have them machined on the hub... What should I do?

[oakrdrs187]

This might be of some help, the last 3 posts by RedGalant2k1.


https://www.thegalantcenter.org/show...ean+hub&page=2

Gawd I love the search bar.

[wetamup2k3g]

If I could add one thing, this page has some excellent info about rotors warpage (or thickness variation) and coupled with the link in oak's (Wassup Vic) post, it should set you straight. Following the bedding procedure and altering my braking practices as outlined in my link have kept any rotors of mine from warping since I started doing this. Good luck!

[oakrdrs187]

^ Sup Greg! Link made for an excellent read.

[thegalant]

Thanks for that link. I now understand the problem is most likely run out. The article states that the pad material is supposed to adhere to the rotor so that the pad is not just rubbing on the rotor but a rotor coated in the pad material... So the break-in or bedding is seriously important. What I don't understand is why this doesn't happen right away, it takes a while for the judder to begin after a brake job, the first one lasted 500 miles and the pads were obliterated by 2k. the second job lasted 4k before they began juddering. Now it's a complete judder when I hit the brake pedal, the funny part is that the brakes are working great excepting the judder. I'm going to get these rotors lathed... But I wonder if the pads aren't effed up? I guess I can see if I can get those sanded? I hope the pads are fine... They look fine, one pad has 2 very small grooves in it. But the rotors look shitty just by looking at them. You can see grooves that look like rock deposits all over. My goal right now is to get the rotors lathed and to do a extensive break-in or bedding procedure. ...I just don't want to have this keep happening... If it happens again I think I'll have no choice but to replace the hub assembly. It is the last thing that could Be wrong here and I guess it's slightly possible that beating off the old rotors with a hammer may have untrued the hub assembly. Another thing is perhaps there is too much with these rotors and I could get slotted rotors... Could give that a shot but it's more money... hm..

[thegalant]

The first time I did this brake job I replaced the driver side caliper and replaced all the brake components except the passenger side caliper with parts from Orielly. -And in 500 miles I got serious vibration in the steering wheel and rear drums too. The rear drums got over heated and seriously warped - I tightened them to 1 revolution with the wheel on which is how you adjust them via the star adjuster tool which believe it or not works to adjust the star wheel from behind the hub assembly with the wheel on ...So I think I had bad drums out of the box. The front vibration may have been do to the passenger side caliper being old, the vibration was very bad, the fron pads disintegrated to almost nothing in 1.5k SO what I did was warranty every thing at Orielly, the pads, shoes, drums, rotors, cylinders, I kept the spring kit and the driver side caliper.

The second time I did the job I bought all the parts from Napa. I installed everything and lubed everything up perfectly and had week/poor performing brakes for about 4-5k when all of a sudden the vibration returned and became progressively worse.

At this point I had no choice but to go further than I had before so I checked the passenger side caliper and discovered that the wheel when in the air was more difficult to rotate back and fourth than the driver side with the new caliper. I replaced the passenger caliper for 40 bucks with hardware. I removed both front rotors but had to destroy the passenger rotor in order to get it off, I'm not sure if that tells me anything about that old caliper but I didn't get to check if it was warped. I brought the driver side rotor in and it was not warped but we machined it any way to clean it off since it was very dark and blued .They machined the drums too -one of the drums was warped which you could clearly see as the lathe mad passes over it, it looked like a low spot when the cutting bit passed over it and it wasn't cutting that low portion (this was at orielly in mound MN) and they were friendly about machining the rotor and drums and let me watch, they did not charge me for machining the rotor. I bought 1 new rotor for the passenger side and got the new passenger side caliper.

The mating surface on the hubs were a little rusty and coated in old brake dust and crust so I cleaned all the hub assemblies by soaking them in PB BLASTER and using a steel wire grinder on a 2500 rpm drill. Some of that crust was so stuck on that the drill was not removing it, I used a flat head screw driver and a razor blade and spent some time on each hub to scrape it off. The rear hubs were by far the worst. I could not remove a lot of the crust on them, I would need to splash them with muriatic acid which I did not have on hand. They were coated completely so I did my best using the razor and screw driver to scrape off the mating surface. After doing my best on the hubs I coated them, the drums and rotors with anti-sieze.

I installed the new passenger caliper and put every thing back together. I currently have NO vibration! The braking is extremely smooth. I'm being very easy on the brakes for right now trying to brake the rotor and drum surfaces in properly. One thing I did not do which I wish I had was sand the pads so they were fresh too, but I didn't.


Right now I have full ceramic pads on the front and full ceramic shoes. with standard issue rotors and drums.

After this experience I would seriously recommend to every one to just make a small pass over new drums and rotors with a lathe just to make sure you don't have a warped rotor or drum. Especially so for drums, because drums have to be tightened down to 1 revolution with the tire on. IF you have a warped drum and you tighten them down properly the shoes will be riding so close to the drum that you will cook your fluid and damage your cylinders with all that heat caused by a warped drum.

My vibration may have been caused by that old caliper...