Dave's 1969 Plymouth

[Dave-R]

Can anyone tell me what is going on here?
Apart from the shim thing hanging half out I am concerned about that curved steel edge on the pad lightly scraping the hub.

Are the pads on the wrong side of the disc?

[Blue]

I don't recognise those calipers as being Mopar items, is this by any chance one of those aftermarket kits that use GM components?

[Dave-R]

Aftermarket for sure.

[Matt]

Blimey that shim's not very well is it ?

Got any more photos Dave , especially of the adaptor bracket, and the rear of the caliper ?
Do you know what brand the conversion kit was ?

Doesn't look like the Scarebird conversion using 94-99 Ram single piston calipers,

Nor like the Dr Diff 11.75 , although the pad design looks very similar

1175-front.jpg (19.1 KiB) Viewed 3240 times

Is your pad actually scraping on the disc bell ?

Is that a wheel spacer I see on the hub ? Is it necessary for clearance ?

cheers

Matt

[Matt]

Should that shim be in there at all ??

[Dave-R]

Well the starter motor bench tests perfectly. I just gave it a clean through to make sure. Intermittent problem has to be electrical so I will check the wiring from the battery +ve as it seems to splice out.

It could actually be a poor ground connection. I realised when taking the header off that the battery -ve is connected directly to the front header bolt. The only chassis connection I an see is a thin braided steel lead from the frame to the passenger side front header bolt. So far from ideal as to be way way over the horizon from ideal.

The header had to come down for a bit of clearance work anyway to clear the torsion bar so nothing lost.

[Dave-R]

Blimey that shim's not very well is it ?


Is your pad actually scraping on the disc bell ?

Is that a wheel spacer I see on the hub ? Is it necessary for clearance ?

cheers

Matt

Pad is just very very slightly scraping the disc bell. But from your photo it looks correctly placed so maybe just a bit of dressing needed.

Spacer is for the wheel. It's quite thin so will check the need for it.

I will deal with the brake system once I get the engine running and tuned. The system seems to be chucking fluid out the top of the master cylinder for some reason.

[Dave-R]

Got any more photos Dave , especially of the adaptor bracket, and the rear of the caliper ?


Is your pad actually scraping on the disc bell ?

Is that a wheel spacer I see on the hub ? Is it necessary for clearance ?

cheers

Matt

Photo showing the mark where the pad is scraping and why it has a wheel spacer. The spacer is to clear the wheel from the caliper.

It is a drum to disc conversion kit. Photo of the back best I can at the moment.

[Matt]

Just an initial impression, and it may be the camera angle, but that lower balljoint to knuckle bolt doesn't look fat enough. Something to check when you look at the brakes ! Maybe it's OK though.

[Blue]

To solve my curiosity I tried to find the calipers, It looks to me like they are what is commonly referred to as "GM Metric calipers", seem to be popular for conversion kits.

[Dave999]

bolt is probably metric ....

[SAV@RPM]

I have spent a lot of my working life fitting and sorting out aftermarket brake conversions. A lot of room for mistakes and some of the kits simply don’t fit properly. Worth checking that the master cylinder is plumbed the right way round. Large chamber at the rear should feed the front brakes. Last car I did (Charger) was plumbed the wrong way round amongst other problems. Also a lot of the kits use cheap generic pads, I generally bin them and fit decent pads such as EBC, it can make a big difference to the braking once bedded in properly.

[Dave-R]

Just an initial impression, and it may be the camera angle, but that lower balljoint to knuckle bolt doesn't look fat enough. Something to check when you look at the brakes ! Maybe it's OK though.

I agree it does not look big in the photo but yes it's good and fat as the original E/B-body bolts I happen to have in stock. No concern.

Not getting enough time on the car at the moment due to personal matters keeping me busy but progress is being made.

I have moved the battery to engine ground cable connection away from a header bolt and fixed it to the block.
I am replacing the thin ground wire from the another header bolt to the body and a very thin wire from the battery to body with a 85 amp earth strap which should arrive this week.

Starter motor proved working and cleaned internally.

I am replacing the amber coloured main beam headlights with normal lights today as I feel the amber ones visually spoil the lines of the grille.

I have welded a shaped steel plate to the drivers side engine mount in such a way as it still looks stock. It was a bugger to get off as it looks like it has been knocked out of shape at some point. Took a lot of hammering and swearing to make all the bolt holes line up correctly to go back on easy.

I went to work with the hammer on the drivers side header primary pipe that was rubbing against the suspension torsion bar to clearance it and smooth out the existing attempt.

Another job today is replacing all the odd size header bolts (mixture of studs and different length bolts) on the engine and making sure they are sealed.

Inspected the flex plate bolts last night and, without even turning the engine, straight away saw one bolt at least was backing out and missing the back of the block by the smallest margin so they are coming out one at a time and thread locked back in.

What i worried might be an oil leak from the rear main crank seal might just be oil pooled from historic valve cover oil leaks. The car has been hardly driven for a long time so i am going to clean it up and keep an eye on it.

After that i had better start on these brakes. I admit I have been putting it off.
I think those front discs are OK actually. Just need taking apart and fitted back more carefully. I currently suspect the metering block to be the source of the problem but we will see.
Better bench bleed the master cylinder first and just work through the system from there.

[Dave-R]

Worth checking that the master cylinder is plumbed the right way round. Large chamber at the rear should feed the front brakes.

Yes it was something i looked at and to be honest from memory I am not sure if it is right at the metering block or not. So i will be consulting a workshop manual diagram of the part when I start on it. If an in/out were mixed up that would explain why the fluid is forcing out of the master cylinder for sure. LOL

[Dave-R]

Right.

Nothing wrong with the brake plumbing it has been done correctly.

So I will bleed the lot when I'm ready and just see what's occurring. Lots of fluid around the proportioning valve so possible leak there. It might not be centred or something. Plenty of time to sort it out.