Brake question

[patrickt]

Other than regular flushes with ATE Super Blue, and pad change outs, mine have required zero maintenance.

[Jerry Clayton]

are the calipers mounted correctly? as in on the correct side of the car?????

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by classical glass

Hi, I run a corvette restoration shop specializing in 53-67 Corvettes. I have a good feel on what non power brakes are like. My Cobra is nothing like that. I have a 57, 58 fuel injected and a 67 427 430hp.I can lock up the brakes on all of them. That could not happen with the Cobra. I'm believing the problem lyes with the rotors. They feel too smooth and after 50 or so miles they should show some kind of skuff or circular wear pattern.I'm thinking the new shoes are not being broken in properly. I've done everything else that I could think of. One thing is for sure I will not drive this car until I get good brakes.
Thanks

Yeah - I've owned 427 manual brake Corvettes for most of the last 39 years and done more brake work and caliper rebuilds/replacements on them than I can remember. They take a lot of pedal pressure but they will stop you.

[Whodeeny]

I have been reading this post with much interest. I took 821 out for the first time yesterday. I was concerned with the effort required to use the brakes and thoughts that this just wouldn't do. I was going to do the brake pad bedding sequence but there was more traffic on the country roads than I was comfortable with. I drove the car again today and went through the bedding of the pads, a half dozen hard use of the brakes from 50 mph to about 5 mph. This definitely helped, on the last hard use of the brakes I started to hear the front tires squealing in protest.

This is off topic but every time a used the brakes hard the engine rpm dropped to about 100 rpm. One time the engine even died and was difficult to restart. So I am wondering if the floats are set too high in the carburetor? The engine/carburetor were tuned on a dyno in Connecticut and I am in Colorado so it is definitely running a little rich. Any advice?

BD

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Whodeeny

interest. I took 821 out for the first time yesterday. ... Any advice?

Was this the very first time you took 821 out? I wouldn't do any tuning, tweaking, monkeying, etc. until you've put 500 gentle miles on it first. Just get to know the car for now and let it break itself in for a bit.

[Whodeeny]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Was this the very first time you took 821 out? I wouldn't do any tuning, tweaking, monkeying, etc. until you've put 500 gentle miles on it first. Just get to know the car for now and let it break itself in for a bit.

Yes, the first time out. Ok, I will run it for a while. It seems to run pretty well even if it may be running a little rich.

I am going to start jumping through the state registration hoops with it next week.

Thanks, BD

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Whodeeny

Yes, the first time out. Ok, I will run it for a while. It seems to run pretty well even if it may be running a little rich.

I am going to start jumping through the state registration hoops with it next week.

Thanks, BD

And don't fall for that "drive it like you stole it" crap. Your clutch, transmission, differential and almost everything else will appreciate a gentle break-in period as you learn what the car can do.

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by Whodeeny

I have been reading this post with much interest. I took 821 out for the first time yesterday. I was concerned with the effort required to use the brakes and thoughts that this just wouldn't do. I was going to do the brake pad bedding sequence but there was more traffic on the country roads than I was comfortable with. I drove the car again today and went through the bedding of the pads, a half dozen hard use of the brakes from 50 mph to about 5 mph. This definitely helped, on the last hard use of the brakes I started to hear the front tires squealing in protest.

This is off topic but every time a used the brakes hard the engine rpm dropped to about 100 rpm. One time the engine even died and was difficult to restart. So I am wondering if the floats are set too high in the carburetor? The engine/carburetor were tuned on a dyno in Connecticut and I am in Colorado so it is definitely running a little rich. Any advice?

BD

As Patrick as said, I would be gentle for the first 500 miles or so, so you get to know the car, and you can trust it. Running the brakes in from 50 to 5 is good, but don't lean on them hard enough to lock wheels.

If they kept records on your carb, your tuner should be able to recommend jetting for your altitude.

Try dropping the main jets primary then secondary by 2 jet sizes at a time.

On the primary side, you might end up at 73 in place of 77 as example.

Gary

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Whodeeny

This is off topic but every time a used the brakes hard the engine rpm dropped to about 100 rpm. One time the engine even died and was difficult to restart. So I am wondering if the floats are set too high in the carburetor? The engine/carburetor were tuned on a dyno in Connecticut and I am in Colorado so it is definitely running a little rich. Any advice?

BD

I would check the rear bowl float levels (not sure if you have a single 4bbl or dual 4bbl) and depending on what you find, lower them a little.

Especially if you have reverse mounted dual quads the primary bowls are on the rear and typically have a higher float setting (fuel port on bowl will be set higher on the side) and when you hit the brakes hard it tends to flood the engine through the fuel bowl vent in top of the metering plate. Just the opposite of what Holley originally designed for. So you may need to lower the rear bowl fuel level to well below the viewing port.

[classical glass]

Well we finally figured it out, purely by accident.It seems the Russell ss braided front brake lines were somehow damaged at one point and the .086 dia hole in the end fitting was crimped almost shut on both sides. In a desperate move I took off the two hoses and had new ones made up at a local hose shop. They caught the problem when they pressure tested the two lines. We think that maybe who ever worked on the front brakes in the past did not support the calipers when they were removed for whatever reason causing the ends to collapsed. I installed the two lines bled both sides and now I have brakes. Who would ever thought????? Now it's fun to drive the Snake again. Thanks to everyone who contributed to help solve this problem.

[strictlypersonl]

Originally Posted by classical glass

Well we finally figured it out, purely by accident.It seems the Russell ss braided front brake lines were somehow damaged at one point and the .086 dia hole in the end fitting was crimped almost shut on both sides.

Short of damage off the car, the only way I can imagine that happening is incorrect routing or they are too short, making them kink at full droop.

[classical glass]

Originally Posted by strictlypersonl

Short of damage off the car, the only way I can imagine that happening is incorrect routing or they are too short, making them kink at full droop.

Hi Bob, I'm not really sure how the ends got crimped. I'm thinking that somewhere along the line the caliper was taken off the car and maybe dropped and the jolt bent the fitting where it screws into the hard brake line and got crimped. You can actually see where there is a crease in the cable where someone did something to it. The hose shop cut off the fitting at the end and it was plan to see that something wasn't right. It just seems odd that it was on both right and left side. At any rate I've got a good working braking system that I never had and it's fun to drive it again. Thanks for the input.

[CHANMADD]

It seems nobody has experienced pads that do not fit and slide right. The pads have to be able to move in the caliper to facilitate the in and out of the Pistons . Many times the metal backing off the pad will stick on the body of the caliper . Blue print the caliper and pad fitments.