E0 Brakes on, Caliper bracket hits rotor...

[99Mystique ATX]

Ok, so I got the spring issue sorted out, for the most part, went to put on the E0 Calipers and it all went on well. Everything bolted up nicely and whatnot.

When I went to drive it, I heard a grinding noise, I stopped and turned back around to see if everything was ok. Upon pulling the passengers side wheel, which is where the noise was coming from, I found that when the wheel was on and cranked down, the rotor rubs against the caliper bracket... The other side is perfectly fine, no problems there. At first I thought it was just the caliper wedged crooked or something like that.

I beleive the caliper bracket is bent and seeing as it came off a car that was rolled I guess that's a possibility... But, they were also on another car after that and worked fine on that car...

Any ideas??

 

[Big Jim]

It would be very difficult to bend that bracket. I would start by pulling the bracket back off and looking over everything very carefully.

There isn't a lot of clearance there in the first place. I assume that the "bridge" part of the bracket is hitting the radial end of the rotor, leaving a witness mark on the inside of the bridge. If that is the case, you may be able to gain the clearance you need by grinding off a bit of the "bridge" to open up the radius just a little bit.

If you have been following the postings on the Warmonger big brake kit, you may have noticed that this same operation was needed on the rear brakes to allow for the larger rotor radius. They also had to widen the opening in the bridge slightly to compensate for the thicker rotors as well.

It shoould not take much grinding to open it up a little, but it may be a trial and error fit.

 

[99Mystique ATX]

It is grinding near that part, but not on the bridge, it is grinding near where the bolt goes through the bracket, near the outside of the caliper... I will probably get back to work on it tomorrow and hopefully get it all sorted out.

 

[Big Jim]

Besides pulling it apart for a good inspection, it may be worth trying to swap sides. The two brackets are identical. It might not cause a clearance issue on the other side.

 

[99Mystique ATX]

I think thats what im gonna try... I was thinking that as well.

I'll be doing it tomorrow night... I'll make a post then and let you know how I made out...

Thanks for the advice!

 

[99Mystique ATX]

Ok, turns out the caliper brackets weren't bent, it was the knuckle... I swapped rotors from side to side and caliper brackets from side to side, same problem with both rotors and brackets on that side... Other side clearance was perfect. The only thing I could figure out is that maybe something got bent when I took the knuckle in to have the bearing pressed in/out. It was a year ago but I remember them saying that they had a lot of trouble getting it swapped out. Thats the best I can figure.

So, I ended up taking a die grinder and grinding a little bit off of the knuckle and test fitting after the cutting till it fit right. I know this isn't the best solution, but everything bolted up and all is now well... I will likely replace the knuckle in the spring, but for now I think it will be fine.