Very hard brake pedal marginal stopping

[Dennis Mosley]

Well here is a little update. Talked with the folks at Wilwood and they suggested that I continue to use the 3/4 master on the front and use a 7/8 for the rear. Also said to check the pads and rotors to see if they looked like they had been broken in properly. No sure what that would look like. but I changed out the rear MC and that had no effect. so I pull the front tires to check the brake pads and rotors. Both the pad and the rotor look almost brand new. One thing I noticed was that when I pulled the pads, the pistons didn't move. This is my first time working with Wilwood calipers but I have never pulled brake pads and the calipers all stayed compressed. Pads had an orange substance on the back that looked like liquid gasket material. Guessing it was some kind of anti squeel stuff.

Called a friend of mine over and with the brake pads removed and a makeshif spacer in place as to not totally blow out a piston, I hit the brake pedal and on the tested caliper, 1 of the 4 pistons moved. we cleaned up a lot of the orange stuff from the pistons and with me pumping the brake we were able to get the others to move a little.

I'm guessing the calipers are as old as the car and given the 1 of 4 pistons moving when the brake is applied, I'm pretty sure that would contribute to poor stopping.

I plan to chat with Wilwood on Monday but I'm guessing a rebuild is in order.

Thanks for all the above ideas.