Just completed my first trip over to eastern Washington with the new brakes.
The trip over was thru Snoqualmie pass and the trip back thru White pass.
Now I want to tell you I think Disc brakes are fantastic. It has changed my
GMC into a sports car compared to what I had before. I machined the backing
plates out of 3/8" mild steel plate and used Camero front calipers. For the
disc I used rear discs from a Lincoln Continental. New off the shelf they
were $26. The biggest problem was bleeding the rears. I was careful to mount
the calipers with the bleeder port up. Come to find out that with the
internal porting I was still having problems getting all the air out. Ended
up with dismounting the caliper and placing a C-clamp on the piston to keep
it from expanding, then bleeding the caliper while rotating to get the last
of the air out. I also went to a larger master cylinder. Still am getting a
lot of travel. I will bleed one more time next week to see if it helps. At
low speed (less than 5 MPH) the brakes do not lock up like drums. But, at
speed, they start getting hot, and the hotter they get the better they stop.
I am not an engineer so don't ask me why, just works that way.
Things I would do differently.
I would design the backing plate around calipers that would interchange with
the front. and I would be a lot more careful of the bleeder placement. Most
of all I would have done it a lot sooner........................Terry
Terry & Diane Skinner
Webfooted in Washington
The trip over was thru Snoqualmie pass and the trip back thru White pass.
Now I want to tell you I think Disc brakes are fantastic. It has changed my
GMC into a sports car compared to what I had before. I machined the backing
plates out of 3/8" mild steel plate and used Camero front calipers. For the
disc I used rear discs from a Lincoln Continental. New off the shelf they
were $26. The biggest problem was bleeding the rears. I was careful to mount
the calipers with the bleeder port up. Come to find out that with the
internal porting I was still having problems getting all the air out. Ended
up with dismounting the caliper and placing a C-clamp on the piston to keep
it from expanding, then bleeding the caliper while rotating to get the last
of the air out. I also went to a larger master cylinder. Still am getting a
lot of travel. I will bleed one more time next week to see if it helps. At
low speed (less than 5 MPH) the brakes do not lock up like drums. But, at
speed, they start getting hot, and the hotter they get the better they stop.
I am not an engineer so don't ask me why, just works that way.
Things I would do differently.
I would design the backing plate around calipers that would interchange with
the front. and I would be a lot more careful of the bleeder placement. Most
of all I would have done it a lot sooner........................Terry
Terry & Diane Skinner
Webfooted in Washington
