Rear brake help

[Randy M.]

Help. My rear brakes are starting to drag after about 2500 miles. I have put the car on jackstands. It requires quite a bit of effort to turn the rear tires while in neutral and has a grinding metal on metal sound. The noise seems to be symetrical side to side. After pulling the tires I noticed that the brake pads seem to be touching the rotors. There does not seem to be any fluid leaks, the brake pedal is firm and the fluid resivoir is full. Are these adjustable? Should I try braking while in reverse to help adjust? Thanks

Randy

p.s. I have to go to work now so will be unable to post thanks and response to further questions until tonight.

[Blas]

Sure it's not your parking brake causing the binding?

[priobe]

What kind of brake system do you have i.e. Caliper, power /manual double master cylinder ?

[Randy M.]

Standard Superformance stuff. Wilwood disc brakes. Parking brake is off and is standard Superformance drive shaft brake (totally useless) that won't even hold the car in my driveway. The brakes are gripping enough now that they are providing more resistance to roll than full application of parking brake.

[priobe]

Hey Randy,

Make sure if you are running manual brakes that the bais bar setup is not binding. You might want to take off 1 side of the bais bar to free up the front or the rear to see if that solves the problem. This has happen to me. Or you might check that a caliper did not freeze up.

But you are noticing that both tire are dragging when trying to turn them I would check the bais bar.

Hope this helps

[trularin]

Strange as this might sound, I have talked to a few guys who have noticed that the weight of the pedal itself, makes the brakes drag.

Is the return spring firm enough to pull the brake all the way back?

To test, devise a way ( bungee cord, person or support of some sort ) to pull the pedal all the way until it can not move any more forward and see if the rear wheels free up.

Hey, it is just a suggestion.

[Randy M.]

Thanks for the help. The return spring for the pedal is strong and functioning well. The bias adjustment sounds like a good idea but I don't know if there is bias adjustment on a Superformance. I've looked for one under the car and under the hood and can't find anything that looks like it would function as a bias adjustment. Does anybody know if Superformance has one?

[Blas]

No, Bias adjustment know does not exist...

[Jerry Clayton]

If you have Wilwood brakes, your calipers must be centered on the disc--they have shims to do this--your metal to metal noise should be planely visable by looking for bright shiny spots---your comment about the parking brake says that you don't have it adjusted properly --the same guy probably installed all your brake compoments so I'd also check the fronts for proper mounting and adjustment


Jerry

[JCoop]

Originally Posted by Randy M.

Standard Superformance stuff. Wilwood disc brakes. Parking brake is off and is standard Superformance drive shaft brake (totally useless) that won't even hold the car in my driveway. The brakes are gripping enough now that they are providing more resistance to roll than full application of parking brake.

Randy, the driveshaft E brake is actually a major upgrade from the earlier E brake system that went to the rear discs - which really didn't work well. I paid $500 for the parts for the driveshaft system upgrade...and can now park even on a grade.

Maybe there's something caught within the caliper. I had a stone get stuck in mine that made a horrible noise occasionally. If you take the split pins off and pry the pads sideways off the disc gently, you can then pull the pads out and then spray Brake-Kleen liberally around the area. The pistons may be getting stuck due to some cylinder corrosion or gum.