So I got my Baer brake kit installed on my '90 GT. So far, the braking isn't very good at all and the pedal is very stiff. Is there a break-in period? I mean, I couldn't lock those brakes up right now if my life depended on it.
every performance brake upgrade has a break in period it's usually around 300-400 miles of urban driving. This is easy braking miles, like slowly coming to a stop and putting easy presure on the pedal(you can do emergency braking if needed) this allows the pad to bed into the rotor.
did you upgrade to braided brake hoses? If so they are going to offer a stiffer pedal over the rubber brake hoses. the rubber hoses expand when the pedal is applied and pushes the fluid the braided hoses give a more positive brake feel. If the car wasn't stopping, pulling left or right under braking, or the pedal is going to the foor I would think everything is okay, if not you may have to give some more info.
I'm pretty sure the Baer kit doesn't use rubber hoses. The pedal is just very solid when depressing it. It's not pulling in either direction when braking, it's just not an instantaneous STOP when I step on them. These brakes literally have less than a mile on them right now, it was just a few quick trips around the block last night when I got it back.
What all did you get installed? Is it one of their kits? Did it include a new master cylinder and booster matched to the brakes? If not, that could certainly cause you to have a hard brake pedal, or there just could not be enough vacuum for your booster to work properly.
Everything but the prop valve was repalced. Baer said it wasn't necessary to swap it out. Before your brakes were broken in, how was the stopping ability?
give baer's tech guys a call or talk to the guys who installed the kit for you, but the break in period or bed in time is like a stated 300-400 miles. I have a brembo kit on my contour and I looked at my old instructions and they have 300 miles and the EBC sport rotors/green stuff pads I just did on my exporer have 300-400 miles, so I would think baer would be somewhere in there. This won't help much on your problem but a good bed in period of warm up and cool down cycles will give longer life and better performance out of the pad/rotors.
Everything but the prop valve was repalced. Baer said it wasn't necessary to swap it out. Before your brakes were broken in, how was the stopping ability?
Poor, but it literally took maybe 2-3 miles of driving before they started to get grabby. Within 10 miles or so i could brake fairly hard with them. They weren't up to max breaking performance for a few hundred miles...but i could still stop pretty confidently. I only needed that few miles to maybe wear off any oils or so off the pads/rotors. Once i did maybe 3-4 stops, the braking performance improved dramatically. If you have been driving for a while and they still suck...something's wrong. I was impressed with my brakes on my first ride
Are they spongy? Or hard as a rock? Did you change the booster? Do you have vacuum?