Baer brakes = INCREDIBLE stopping power!

[Aurora40]

If you mean the caliper is pushing the rotor out, I can only assure you the rotor is frozen on the hub and not moving back and forth.

[GOLDCYLON]

No both are canted at an angle. The rotor and the caliper. Look at the space on the sides of the caliper and yes the rotor is also canted.

Originally Posted by Aurora40

If you mean the caliper is pushing the rotor out, I can only assure you the rotor is frozen on the hub and not moving back and forth.

You need to get the rotor off and clean the hub. If the rotor is frozen in that position, you would have had an issue with the stock system as well.

Also, pull the caliper off and get me another shot from straight overhead (with the bracket installed).

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by Jeffvette

You need to get the rotor off and clean the hub. If the rotor is frozen in that position, you would have had an issue with the stock system as well.

This is what the Baer guy said too. I'll do that this weekend. Though the rotor spins perfectly true, it doesn't wobble around. With the caliper and no pads mounted, I spun it to recheck the clearances and it was always the same (within the accuracy of my ability to measure).

Stock I never had any issues like vibration or pulsing or anything. The pads haven't worn unevenly.

Hopefully cleaning it up will fix it. Though the way the rotor is on there, I may have to replace the whole car with it...

Clean it up, use two lug nuts to secure the rotor, then go through all the mounting steps.

[Aurora40]

So I got the rotor off. Then I cleaned the hub up and coated it with antisieze. It had a rust haze but wasn't covered with scale or anything. I also brushed the rotor's backside, though that really won't come very clean. But it's a smooth hard surface.

I mounted the rotor, secured it with three lug nuts, and tightened them down. I put the bracket on with the same number of spacers, and mounted the caliper with no line connected and no pads. I ended up removing a .015" shim to get it centered. All looked good (though it still had 4 shims totalling .11") so I torqued the bracket to spec.

So I put the pads in and remounted the caliper to the bracket. All still looked good visually, though I can't measure at that point as the pads are in the way. I torqued the caliper to spec.

Then I hooked up the brake line, and it all goes to crap. The middle piston right behind the brake line fitting gets pushed out. Now the caliper has way more clearance on the backside than the front. Either it is moving the rotor in spite of 3 lugs holding it down, or it is flexing the bracket and/or its mounts. To ensure the rotor wasn't being pushed, I removed the three lugs, mounted a tire, and torqued it to 100 lb-ft. You can't see the caliper too well, but I could clearly see the gap in the front part hadn't changed. So either the piston pushes so damn hard that torquing the wheel won't seat the rotor (which would have come unseat in spite of three lug nuts), or the caliper is flexed back.

Just to see if it will all magically seat itself, I drive the car up and down the block. The brake is clearly dragging hard as I have to use a lot of gas and clutch to move the car. And this is only one Baer caliper mounted (and presumably full of some air as I have not even bled it).

With both calipers mounted and bled, it's no wonder I could not move the car.

I have to think spacing the bracket out with 4 shims is not doing anything good for its rigidity. My guess is the caliper is pushing back, not the rotor pushing. Just to be sure, since I obviously won't be leaving the car like this, I will tighten up lugs on the rotor before I remove the Baer caliper. If in fact the rotor has moved, there should be slack in the lugs once I get the caliper off. Then I will test the rigidity of the calipers by driving over them several times...

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by Aurora40

Just to be sure, since I obviously won't be leaving the car like this, I will tighten up lugs on the rotor before I remove the Baer caliper. If in fact the rotor has moved, there should be slack in the lugs once I get the caliper off.

FYI, so I did this. With the wheel off, the rotor was pushed out more. It tightened down some, but even at that the caliper was still offset too much from the rotor. I removed the caliper, and the rotor was not loose. I tried to tighten the lugs more but they had no slack.

I really don't think you are supposed to use more than one shim with this thing...

[HIZNHRZ]

Bob, how is the incredible stopper power of your brakes? Any progress?

[GOLDCYLON]

Send them back sounds like you are the test market.