Brake guru's...i need help please....

[JH23]

ok...last saturday i went and picked up a 98 Cobra vert....i drove it 250 miles home with no absolute problem at all.The next day i noticed the pads on the passenger side rear was wore down REAL bad.So being as the car is lowered some,i backed it up in my garage up on to 2 bricks laying side by side.When i got on the bricks,i set the E-brake for extra security.I changed pads on all 4 wheels.The driver side rear wheel had almost brand new looking brake pads,while the passenger side had brake pads almost totally gone and wore at an angle.So i got them replaced and took it right up the road.When i got back,i could smell the pads ( i just assumed the smell was because it was new ) and also noticed the passenger side rear brakes was hotter than the others.Now on the way home i had no problems at all. Since i have replaced the pads,now the passenger rear side gets hotter.....now i have done brakes before on all my vehicles....what i'm wondering is did i do something wrong ?...was there a specific way for the pads to sit up against the caliper ? could the caliper all of a sudden be sticking ?...is there a way for the e-brake to sticvk ?...i'm at a loss...so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, when i jack the car up and try to turn the passenger rear wheel,it takes both hands to do it
Jamie

 

[Mike97gt]

pads worn at a angle could indicate a frozen caliper slide, plus it's somewhat common on this rear brake setup for one of the calipers to stick. I would get a new caliper for that side.

 

[JH23]

so if it was wore at angle almost completly gone...that would mean the caliper has been sticking for a long time right ?....but if thats the case wouldnt the guy that had it noticed ,smelled it or saw it smoking or something ?

 

[Mike97gt]

so if it was wore at angle almost completly gone...that would mean the caliper has been sticking for a long time right ?....but if thats the case wouldnt the guy that had it noticed ,smelled it or saw it smoking or something ?

Who knows if he noticed it, I have had customers come in with the brakes all the way to the floor or the engine knocking and you look at the RO and they are in for something unrelated..

 

[JH23]

lol..boy does that ever sound familiar lol...so you would say just get a new caliper and be done with it huh ?....is there somewhere online to order a new one ?...just looking for a stock regular ole caliper if thats still possible these days lol

 

[stangman]

Do the pads have small nipples on the outside? I was dealing with uneven wear on my pads & it was due to those nipples. the only reason i even caught it was that the caliper didn't want to go back on. i had to take a grinder to the center nipple & take it off to get everything back to par for everything

 

[JH23]

come to think of it stangman...the pads did have nipples on the opposite side of the pads...those little nipples will i assume make the pad stick out just a hair further when its against the caliper piston ?

 

[stangman]

come to think of it stangman...the pads did have nipples on the opposite side of the pads...those little nipples will i assume make the pad stick out just a hair further when its against the caliper piston ?

yes & what happened was when the caliper would compress against the pad it wouldn't be square. so it was compressing against the pad at an angle, causing the uneven wear on the pad.

some have several nipples on them. put the calipers on & see if there are any of those nipples in the way of the caliper & go from there

 

[JH23]

thanks man...will definately do what you reccomend...if that doesnt work...then i'll go with svttech's idea

 

[stangman]

thanks man...will definately do what you reccomend...if that doesnt work...then i'll go with svttech's idea

yeah, that's what i was about to walk out of the garage & do when i happened to take one last look at everything

 

[JH23]

well it has to eb something like that i would think...it dont seem like i coulda drove it 250 miles one day,then it start stickingthe next...although i guess it COULD happen....maybe its one of those nipples...thatd be great

 

[stangman]

well it has to eb something like that i would think...it dont seem like i coulda drove it 250 miles one day,then it start stickingthe next...although i guess it COULD happen....maybe its one of those nipples...thatd be great

also, if you have a sander or something, it couldn't hurt to take the first layer down. that way you can at least see if it is continuing to have an abnormal wear pattern

 

[JH23]

no sander...all i have is a grinder...and that would probably mess them up or take way to much off,i assume

 

[Mike97gt]

those nipples are supposed to be there, they are supposed to line up with the slot in the caliper piston face, if you had to grind them off then you did not have the slots on the caliper piston face in the correct 12- 6 o'clock position..

I would not grind them off, when you compress the piston back in just make sure it's in the correct position when you stop. Remember they compress in by rotating in clockwise.

Even if you were able to get the caliper back on this should not cause a tapered pad wear issue. It is normal on this style rear brake for the outside pads to wear faster than the inside pad. if the pad itself is worn more on one side than the other that means that the braking force is being applied to one side of the pad. this is usually caused by a stuck caliper slide or if it's the inside pad then it could be a sticking caliper piston.

 

[JH23]

so the 2 notches in the piston ... one should be straight up and one should be straight down ...correct svttech ?

 

[stangman]

those nipples are supposed to be there, they are supposed to line up with the slots in the caliper piston face, if you had to grind them off then you did not have the slots on the caliper piston face in the correct 12- 6 o'clock position..

I would not grind them off, when you compress the piston back in just make sure it's in the correct position when you stop. Remember they compress in by rotating in clockwise.

oddly enough, they were. i didn't know about the 12-6 thing (actually forgot about it again until you mentioned it there), but my buddy that was helping me did, so we just ground it off since we couldn't get it to mesh up. we just couldn't get it to line up no matter what. i guess i just got a screwed up pad (the other side was fine)

jh23, having said that, i'd listen to SVT. go to advance & rent their disk brake master set & try lining it up with that. i beleive it's around $100 that they'll put on a credit card as a holding deposit, but you get it back in full after you return the tools.

 

[Mike97gt]

oddly enough, they were. i didn't know about the 12-6 thing (actually forgot about it again until you mentioned it there), but my buddy that was helping me did, so we just ground it off since we couldn't get it to mesh up. we just couldn't get it to line up no matter what. i guess i just got a screwed up pad (the other side was fine)

jh23, having said that, i'd listen to SVT. go to advance & rent their disk brake master set & try lining it up with that. i beleive it's around $100 that they'll put on a credit card as a holding deposit, but you get it back in full after you return the tools.

was it the inside pad that was wearing uneven? if that pin is not in the caliper slot then maybe that did cause the uneven wear in your car, I did not think it was possible to get the caliepr back on with the slot misaglined.

well first thing he should do is check to see if the pad is installed correctly, then check to see if the caliper slides are ok, if they are then I think he needs a caliper.

 

[Mike97gt]

so the 2 notches in the piston ... one should be straight up and one should be straight down ...correct svttech ?

Yes it should be one up one down, and check to see if the pad sits flush against the piston. if not then see if it the pin or nipple or whatever is too long maybe thats what stangman ran into.

I use only motorcraft pads at work so maybe there is a issue with the nipple being too long on some aftermarket pads, I just thought of that after I posted about stangmans suggestion.

 

[stangman]

was it the inside pad that was wearing uneven? if that pin is not in the caliper slot then maybe that did cause the uneven wear in your car, I did not think it was possible to get the caliepr back on with the slot misaglined.

actually it was the outside part of the pad if i remember correctly. but i've not had any issues with the one where we had to grind it off

what i'm mentioning now wasn't that time, but before i got the caliper on with the caliper not aligned because i didn't know about that positioning until the last time i worked on the rear & got frustrated & called my buddy. it was one of those things where you feel really dumb after someone asks you if you did this step

 

[Mike97gt]

actually it was the outside part of the pad if i remember correctly. but i've not had any issues with the one where we had to grind it off

what i'm mentioning now wasn't that time, but before i got the caliper on with the caliper not aligned because i didn't know about that positioning until the last time i worked on the rear & got frustrated & called my buddy. it was one of those things where you feel really dumb after someone asks you if you did this step

Ohh man speaking of feeling dumb ford uses this same rear brake style on taurus with rear disc, contis, sables and now the new five hundred and freestyle..

on the five hundred and freestyle one of the calipers is left hand thread so the first time I did a brake job on one I thought I had a seized caliper. Then I thought maybe it would be a good idea to check the book and thats how I found out abotu the left hand thread...