Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Repair or Replace the caliper mounting bracket?

I have been having difficulty with my brakes not lasting like they should. In December I put new rotors and pads on the car and not a month later the right front was warped. I turned it twice and gave up disgusted until two weeks ago when I grew really tired of the shake in the wheel that formed over the last month. I ordered two brand new ford rotors and installed them with new pads.
What I found on the right front was that the mount for the caliper and pads had depressions in the metal where the pads sit. There bracket is supposed to be a mount and a guide for the pads to sit in and slide when the brakes are applied and released. These 'pits' I will call them are deep enought that I suspect that they are keeping the pads applied to the rotor even thought the foot is off the brake, and causing it to overheat while driving. Hence the constant right front warping. After one week of driving around here on base, I can hear a constant squeek-squeek as if the rotors are in contact with the pads and are not completely true.
So, how can I repair the brackets? I have considered two options: one is to weld the little depressions and grind them smooth again.
Two is to make a metal shim for the pads to sit/ride on like some manufacturers have done with their brakes. I believe this would be the best long-term solution, but I would have to file down the surface for clearance of the shim so that the pads still move freely, and then they would always require shims.

Anyone face/solve this problem?
Comments? (productive comments)

warmonger

Ok, thanks for all the advice. :rolleyes: I will attempt to effect a repair today.

warmonger

CEG was down and the people who know what they are doing (ie. not me) are busy people.

An intermittent squeek suggests a rotor runnout problem...is the runout within spec?

Warmonger: I believe the welding solution to be the easiest. Either that, or locate some brackets at a scrapyard. Your SVT is an E1? It should be relatively easy to find brackets for the brakes, either from a scrapped E1, or from a V6 Cougar.

If you are so inclined to do the welding however, as long the guides are ground down smoothly and are parallel to allow for proper pad travel, I don't see a problem with it. (BTW, this is the route I would take, if it were my car)

Not to belittle your knowledge, but you did remove all rust/corrosion/debris from the hub prior to mounting the new rotors? If not, the rotor will seat incorrectly and it won't be true.

Sometimes a small oversight such as this can cause the biggest problems. Just trying cover all the angles...

Terry, I put on Brand new Ford rotors (again) so there was no runout problem at first.
I wire brushed the hubs before installing the rotors to ensure there was no dirt.

Ford wants $90 for the bracket so I told them where to put it. I took the sheet metal approach for now to see if it would improve the condition while reserving the welding approach for the future if it doesn't work.
I did it on wednesday and so far the squeeking noise is gone. The pads move in the groove, but all the clearance is gone now. I am monitoring the temperature of the rotor with and infrared temp meter to see if there is a variation with the right and left side. So far so good. I am thinking about upgrading the brakes so I didn't want to drop a bunch of money on hardware just yet, only to have to replace it.

Terry, How freely should the pad slide when it is in the bracket? It slides now with gentle pressure, and it may loosen up more as time goes on. Perhaps I should file the shim down a bit more.

warmonger

So far so good on this repair. I have heard absolutely no noise from the brakes, and the brakes feel even, i.e. no pulling to the right when I stop with light or heavy pedal pressure.

warmonger