Brake Pads won't fit on Passenger Side

[SLP LS1]

This has been a problem for me going on a year now, last year I ended up just going with a half worn brake pad and a new brake pad for fitment. I probably should of took it in and had them fixed, but I half assed it. But now I'm getting squealing everytime the wheel goes round, it nicks one of the brake pads.

Anytime I put in new brake pads, the whole wheel just locks up. My buddy suggested taking some brake fluid out then pressing back the pistons. But I don't think it's that, because when I press them back with the c-clamp they go all the way back.

I do have aftermarket rotors front and back, I thought it might be that. I put the old stock rotor back on to see if it was some fabricating issue, nope, it's not that. Because even the stock rotor locks up.

The brake pads that don't fit are Hawk ceramics, I've tried other brake pads and they have had the same problem. Can't be that either, because the Hawk brake pads fit fine on the other calipers of the car.

My guess is something is bent, the whole caliper bracket or something. Going to be taking it in today to some local shop, have them look at it I guess...

This might just give me a reason to upgrade my brakes in front to something such as Wilwood or something.

[SLP LS1]

By the way, if anyone can recommend me a good shop, I would appreciate it. The local shop near me, the guys know there stuff, but they primarily don't deal with fbodies and high performance upgrades.

[steddy]

Have you checked the slides on that side? They may be seized, causing the caliper not to auto-adjust. It kind of sounds like that.

[98blackbeauty]

slides would be my bet too. When you compress piston all the way in. and have new pads installed the asm should slide right down over rotor. What does yours do?

[SLP LS1]

I'm not sure what the slides are on the brakes. When I press back the caliper piston, put the brake pads in, and then put it on the rotor it slide over fine. But the rotor is turning kind of tight, after I bolt the wheel up it's so tight the wheel won't even move.

[SLP LS1]

Ok did some research, I think you guys are right, probably a slider pin. Had no clue the caliper had another part on it called a slider pin. My guess is too pop them out, sand them with 2000 grit, and grease them up again.

[meissen]

You'll have two pins that look like this:



The red arrows:


Dan and I just dealt with this yesterday on his Mountaineer. If one of those pins seize ... good luck. We had to buy a whole new caliper bracket ($15 @ O'Reilly) and a new caliper pin (~$10 @ Autozone).

When you take the caliper off, look exactly where the caliper bolted to. Those should be the sliding pins.

[SLP LS1]

Thanks Bry, yeah, I think one of them might of have been.

[steddy]

I had no pics. Sorry, but those are them. The mounting bolts go through them and they can be pushed out. If necessary, I'm pretty sure you can get new slides/mounting bolts as a repair kit.

[SLP LS1]

Yep, you guys were right, thanks. One slider pin was seized up. Ended up going to the dealership to buy a new bracket and pins, there's probably no way in hell that pins coming out. I didn't bother going to O'Rileys, don't want any aftermarket crap, OEM is the way to go for fitment.

[meissen]

Yikes - how much are you paying from the dealership? The parts we got over the weekend from O'Reilly were mint parts and fit great.

[regularshmoe]

Same thing happened to my brothers 99 trans am but it was a hardware kit for him. Shims i think? Either way he tried putting a new hardware kit on and it didnt make any difference because he didnt scrape away all the corrosion.

[phoenix_rising]

Those calipers are only like $50 after the core charge. Why not replace them?

[SLP LS1]

Well, few things came up this past week. I went to pick up a new fishing boat, so been busy with that.

I finally managed to put the brake bracket on along with the ceramic hawk brake pads. Fitment is ok, nothing locks up.

But the hawk brake pads still touch the rotor just a tad bit to make some scraping noise while driving at 25mph. I do remember reading on LS1tech that some fbody owner have had this problem. I should of just stuck with my AC Delco pads. I think these Hawk Brake pads are tad bit beefy.

So what do you think, just drive it until the scraping sound stops. I mean the hawk brake pad will eventually wear away where it's touching right?

[SLP LS1]

When I think about it, it might be the clip that holds the brake pads in place. The brake bracket came with new clips and I decided to put them on.

And does the wear indicator go on the outside or inside on 02' Trans Am?

Read this post on LS1tech http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/suspen...ing-noise.html One person says inside, another says outside.