Brake Swap.... Now I'm not stopping?

[SimonTuffGuy]

Alright guys... Over the winter we swapped the Aspire brakes onto my car. I got the assemblies (master cylinder and all) from the junkyard and I bought new pads, shoes, rotors, drums, bearings, etc... Everything is installed and running... However, when I stop, it does stop but it seems like it's dragging, as if they are rubbing and sliding more than stopping.

I took them apart today, used a bit of sandpaper on the inside of the drums, on the sides of the rotors, incase they weren't bonding with the pads... But it didn't seem to help.

Everything seems to be bled correctly, I have a good pedal feel, it's not squishy and like I said, it DOES stop. Ebrake works fine, everything.

What's my problem?

[mattswabb]

Are the rotors new? If they are used did you have them turned? If they are used and unturned from the yard and you used them as is the surface could be uneven. The pads will then need wear in. My setup was very nice from the yard and I used the rotors and pads. Mine didn't stop well at first because I got the rotors and pads mixed up. Once they wore in the car stops great.

Check to see if your pads are glazed, maybe hit them with the sandpaper.

Does the aspire m/c require a different booster? Is the festiva booster powerful enough for the aspire m/c?

matt

[SimonTuffGuy]

Everything is new, the pads and shoes, rotors, drums, etc (the only thing I didn't really replace were the spring sets inside the drums or the clips on the brake calipers (they loops around into the pads)

It's possible that they just didn't break into the rotors yet, I didn't exactly get through those 30, 30's that Wil explains in his article, but I did go from stop sign to stop sign a bunch of different times.

And I'm assuming that everyone with the Aspire MC would work correctly, as most people posted not having problems with using it. I mean, it bled everthing correctly, it's definatly pushing them to stop, it just seems as though it's rubbing and glazing more than stopping.

[strat81]

did you get that other nut you needed for the master cylinder?

as for stopping power, my festy takes a bit to stop with the new pads and rotors... i think it's just part of the break in process... i may try bleeding the brakes again though with the car running. sometimes it seems to help with the car running... at least on other cars i've bled the brakes on... :shrug:

[SimonTuffGuy]

Maybe that's it too... I don't quite recall about that other bolt... :shock:

[Silv3rBull3t]

You might need that... :shock: -Kyle

[SimonTuffGuy]

Spencer was there to help with the swap and we had dropped the second bolt.



Guess I'll be making a trip to the spare Festiva to see what parts are left and if I can grab that one... :lol:

[mattswabb]

If your missing one of the nuts that mount the mc to the booster then that is your problem. Have someone press the brake pedal hard and watch if the mc is moving. Any movement will decrease your braking force.


matt

[Gro Harlem]

are they used calipers?

were the sliders moving freely? those can freeze up b/c ppl never grease them.

you are actually supposed to regrease the sliders ever 30k miles but no one ever does (including lazy mechanics). If they aren't moving freely the "floating caliper" design is locked in one position, causing one pad to contact the rotor & the other not to which = bad braking, dragging & other problems including a vibration.

Try to check into that, although they are probably sliding semi-ok if you were able to get brand new thick pads on w/out a problem since you have to slide them al lteh way back (along w/the piston) to fit the pads far enough back to fit over the brake rotor.