New c5 brakes, lines, the whole shot. Finished bleeding the system, slapped the wheels back on, fired her up, put in reverse to back out of garage and she wouldnt move unless givin a lot of gas! Turns out to be a problem with the rear calipers (Both). Examined the rotors and both have grind marks on the back side of rotor from trying to back car out of garage. Called a mechanic buddy of mine and described the sitsuation. New rotors and pads for rear! The only thing different I did was I added a washer to the caliper support bolts.(why) because I noticed the threads came through the inside of caliper and could possibly rub against a rotor. A washer fixed that and I dont suspect it would affect the position of the caliper at all. My buddy thinks bu using a clamp to squeez the piston back I might have destroyed the calipers. He recommends I buy new loaded calipers that already has pads in them and also has a new parking brake on bracket on it. Your thoughts!

 

You left the parking brake on?

 

Don't know anything about your brake problems, but your cammed LT1 sounds awesome!

 

I don't understand? You replaced the rear calipers with C5 ones? Or you did nothing to them and they just suddenly got jacked up? What exactly did you do to them before they developed this problem?

 

C5 for fronts. The rears got new rotors and pads. Stock calipers!

 

Are the rotors identical to your old rotors?--it sounds like maybe the offset is different---setting them inboard too far. I can't see how just compressing the caliper pistons could do what you describe.

 

First I don't understand why you decided to re engineer by putting a washer where it does not belong.

Second I do not understand what you are saying about the "parking brake on bracket on it". A new parking brake handle? Did you adjust it after wards?

Third it is pretty much standard to use a "C" clam to compress the cylinder back for new pads so I do not know what your buddy is thinking. Never seen a "loaded" caliper for sale either.

Did the caliper go back on easily or did you have to hammer it on? Does the caliper have the ability to slide like it should and did you grease the slides?Either you have fubared the parking brake or have pads that are too thick or the wrong rotors. What kind did you buy?

 

If all you did was pads and rotors, the same fasteners that you removed should have worked for the re-install. Is it possible that you may have gotten front 12" rotors in error and installed them on the rear? The offset of the hats are different but the caliper should not have lined up correctly if you installed front calipers on the rear.

The caliper mounting bracket bolts do extend past the holes in the bracket. The bolts for the brackets are supposed to have a washer.

The two small bolts that hold the caliper to the bracket do not use washers. Did you replace the rubber cups that cover the caliper guide pins ?

Pushing the piston back into the caliper is normally done when new pads go on. If you open the bleed screw, it makes it easy to push the piston back and it can bottom out in the caliper with no problems unless you push it at an angle. That may unseat the seal.

Did you also clean the threads of all the bolts and female threads and use some blue loctite and torque to spec?

The parking brake lever should be part of the caliper assembly. The cable simply goes over the end of the lever. If you are careful, there is no need to readjust the parking brake cables once you re-install the calipers.

"Loaded" calipers are pretty common with reman calipers. The pads are typically generic stock replacement versions and IMHO are not that good. depending on where the calipers came from, they may or may not have included pads.

 

After further review, looking at the set up put together with wheel off you can clearly see the back side of rotor is pressed against the inside of caliper. The offset is wrong and I threw out my old rotors to verify. Never order any thing from BSI. Thay are a forum vendor and if you do a search you will see many pissed off members. Live and learn. Thank you guys for helping out!

 

Probably got early style rears or 88-96 front rotors to install on the rear. How thick are the rear rotors?

 

I'm surprised you could install the caliper back over the rotor if it were offset wrong? Glad you got it figured out though.

 

My question, before you bash BSI is this: Did they send you the wrong rotor, or did your installation of the additional washers affect where your caliper lined up to your rotor? When you went back to inspect your setup, are the washers that you installed STILL on the car? If not you should have removed them, tighten your bolts down to allow them the full travel to seat that you were afraid of prior to your extra mod, then check your clearance in that position as well. It's hard to believe that the rotor offset is wrong, but then again ANYTHING is possible.

R/Noland

 

3/4" Im thinking they may be front rotors because thay sent me front C4 pads when they should have been rear c4 pads.

 

The off set is 1"3/8 I put the hat against a wall and measured off wall to front of rotor or where the outside pad would press against. Im thinking I need 1"3/4 offset

 

A C4 front rotor has a total height of something near 2.19" and the rear 1.97". You should certainly be able to check this just using a strraight edge and a quality rule.

I just measured a rear for "back spacing" and I got 1 11/16" but we could call that 1.75 I suspect. They were used!

 

I did pull the second washer off and installed the stock application(one washer in front of the head of bolt). The threads polk threw the caliper bracket and rub against rotor. The extra washer I added does not change the placement of caliper but does flush mount the threads with caliper bracket. The caliper is tight against the support arm. Now if I placed a washer between the support beam and caliper that would shim the rotor out some. My buddyd 92 ZR1 sevice manual shows only one washer in front of head of bolt. As for BSI. They made mistake after mistake. Lie after Lie and once they no your pissed they avoid you like the plague. Capitol One reversed the charges and is investagating. I cant even get BSI to take there old crap back. I have wrong Hawk pads, brake lines, and rotors. They told me I could keep em and they would reverse the charges. They didnt! My freekin car has been jacked up for a month now waiting for these guys to send correct stuff. Even if the product were free I still wouldnt recommend BSI. Not worth the aggravasion

 

Total height is 2 1/4" on these rear rotors they sent me.

 

OH KAY!.......So there's MUCH MUCH More to the story!.........We'll I'm very sorry to hear that and now that your where you are, what is your recovery plan? I have a few brake parts laying around here, let me know if I can be of any help!

Noland