I'm leaving room for it. Has good exposure. It's not rocket science that it will be cost justified at some point. Florida must not be big on incentives, they have very little use of solar panels. So maybe that speaks to the free market demand. Californians on the other hand seem to worship tax rebates.

My general plan is to just use less. Most things requiring electricity involve sitting on your ass doing nothing. Including posting on here. That just doesn't fulfill me. I unplugged my casita fridge but then they started charging me a minimum $6 fee so I plugged it back in. (We have two electric meters, two addresses.) Even the water bill, the meter fee is more than my usage fee, we use about 2 hcf/month. So I'm sorta paying a 200% markup. If I used 10x more, my price would be cheaper per gallon.

They bitch about the drought here, but the state constitution bars them from charging any more than cost of supplying the water. Hence the $30 meter fee, which I guess pays for Jerry Brown's forehead wax.

Why doesn't he drive his own car? Not sure he'll be able to keep up. ;)

I was thinking of just getting ceramic for the 99% of the time I'm driving on the street. I can save the noisy, rotor eating, dusty, fast wearing, expensive track pads for the track.

The ceramics are only about $10 more per pair for what I'm looking at. Probably EBC red. How bad can it be really... I'm never doing threshold braking on the street, so its not as if it's going to make the car any more unfamiliar when I hit the track. Will swapping pad materials cause issues with bedding in pads? With the wheels off, I only have to remove one bolt per caliper to change pads.

They are a pain in the ass to bleed, almost drove me to buy a Phoenix tool. Andy probably remembers me getting towed to his house because I stopped at a brake shop in his neck of the woods to get my clutch bled because it was starting to grind on my way back from a trip. (I had a small leak that I put off and accidently pulled some air in.) I should have just nursed it home 2 more hours. They left me with 10X more air in there and undrivable.

Let the slave dangle from the car and pump the pedal up gently to fully extend the slave, then use a little force (not too much or you'll push the retainer clip out.) If it feels solid, the bleed is ok. It's impossible to feel if the bleed is good while installed on the clutch fork.

Pins are new and lubed, brackets is reman on one side, original on the other. The pin slop feels fine. Hydraulics all checked out.


Here's what was happening:

I added those H clips when I installed the calipers. Plus the caliper on the driver side is powdercoated. I guess they powdercoat their loaded calipers as an upgrade. I spray painted the bare caliper I bought to match it. The H clip goes in the middle of the caliper where the pad springs push against. Those springs are to keep the pad pushed against the bracket. Problem is, when you powdercoat the caliper there, then add the thickness of the H clip, it compresses those pad springs even more, jamming them hard into the bracket. This force tries to pull the caliper away from the axle, taking up whatever slop the pins offer. All this proceeds to misalign and bind up the caliper. On top of that, the bracket wears where the pad backing plate pushes on it. This wears divots, further hindering free movement. AND, the H clip is very smooth, so the back end of the pad slips around quite freely. All this means the ID of the outer pad never gets pulled into the rotor face. Both pads were wearing at an angle. You can see this effect when you loosen the caliper bolts, and the pads try to push it all away from the rotor.

I removed the H clip to relieve some of the spring force, and also filed the bracket contact surface smooth. This side I used an original bracket, and had painted it, so the paint piled on probably made that surface even worse.

Now if you're thinking the hydraulic pressure will overcome all that and square it up, well it did somewhat, but the full pad still never touched the rotor until I fixed this.

And, when you release the pedal, the caliper floats and tweaks back away from the rotor, and that outer edge of the pad then starts dragging on the rotor. The race pad compounds are probably really aggressive and just with that light drag were able to wear the outer edge of the the rotor surface.

Quote:

That's pretty f'd up, but hey maybe they honestly didn't decide until after. Last I checked the dealers have mechanics, so I'd probably install it in their trunk. A good reason to not help your neighbors, or at least to be able to say no. I don't think I'd volunteer to install a blend door for the pope. unless I'm missing something and he/she did your taxes for you with their useful accounting skills. I've found many people don't have any useful skills, so there is no barter of services, only charity. You should ask them to let you borrow the new ride, just to keep the earth in balance. Maybe try some offroading in construction zones like they show in the new car commercials.

Birds are chirping here in Ocean Beach, if you could call it that. They harmonize like bottlecaps in the garbage disposal. Funny as I played this I couldn't differentiate between the video and the noise outside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LbPWik_Jmg


Speaking of kids and drugs, I just saw the new TV commercial with the little kids playing with tobacco products with colorful labeling, accusing tobacco companies of targeting kids. Yup I'm sure those 7 year olds can't wait to chew on some Copenhagen candy. I'm pretty sure the products do a good job deterring on their own. I remember my uncle surprising me with my first rum & coke. It probably delayed my drinking age by a few more years.

If I keep my vette, I think I'll just do sanding and prep and disassembly and body work and then trailer it to maaco and let them shoot it.

Btdt. Changed bearing and it still squeaked, tried douching the spring, then finally replaced the whole thing. I found wet lubes would make it worse? Maybe due to attracting dust? Honestly brake cleaner or gasoline would be a better temporary fix.

But the smog pump is also a good suspect for belt noise. I just pulled that apart too. I'll post a thread soon on how easy it is to screw it up.

Well I'm pretty sure I fixed it. Ill drive it more tomorrow and keep an ir gun handy to be sure before I count my chickens.

A combination of things, but something that could affect anyone with floating calipers potentially.

I have no spring clips. Where would these go? The pads have a spring attached to the outer edge that helps keep it floating away from the caliper, actually kinda jamming it into the bracket. There's also an H shaped piece that goes into the caliper middle, that this spring can slide on easily.

I've used various rear pads a few times before without issue. This is the first time I've used the H shaped pieces.

I'm frustrated here after doing a brake job on my 85, maybe you guys have an idea I haven't thought of yet.

New rear rotors (EBC)
New rear pads (Hawk blue, track compound)
New rear hoses (Russell SS)
Reman rear calipers (Centric) with new pins and pistons.
Adjusted parking brake
Also new front pads, cleaned pistons, new bleeders, fluid flush of course.


The pads were not dragging before this. I did all this simply because the rear rotors were worn past the minimum thickness, and the calipers were corroded and about frozen on one side, I think causing the pedal to feel sticky when really pushing on it.


The rotors came fully painted, but I figured I'd let the pads burn it off.

I'm getting a ton of dust on the left rear wheel, audible noise while driving from that corner at least, and the rotor is wearing, yet the inner part of the swept area hasn't even burned the paint off! That was my first sign.

I pulled the pads off that side and they're already tapered as if it's a spread caliper out of the box. I measured though, and it seems flat. The taper is very visible but only measures a few hundredths. The previous pads had taper also, even on the front wilwoods, but I figured it was just from hard braking at the track. Also the Hawk inner pad is thinner than the outer, although they weren't even out of the box, which I think is bizzare. Seems to be a lot of wear considering I've only driven it about 6 times since doing the work, albeit trying to do hard braking where I can. I didn't even attempt to bed the pads yet because of the odd initial wear.

Engaging the parking brake slightly more doesn't change the noise, so I doubt that's it.

There were no issues during install with anything fitting. That particular caliper was an 84 application btw, but it's the exact same caliper as 85 according to GM's parts book, it just came with a different bracket. (They didn't have the bare LR 85 caliper in stock)

I guess I can keep driving it until it finally starts contacting the inner surface of the rotor and see how bad the taper is.

Even if nothing lined up, it shouldn't drag. The pads are also very aggressive, but they didn't drag before. What prevents the from dragging normally? Do the pistons retract a little when you release the pedal?

During bleeding I had to be careful not to get squirts from the reservoir, but that tells me the port is open fine.


I honestly don't remember if both reservoirs squirted though. (85 has separate front/rear reservoirs) I suppose it's possible for the front port to open, but not the rear? I did not adjust anything there, maybe something moved during bleeding, I could feel in the pedal the valve being exercised when bleeding the brakes, Such as when you bleed the rear while the front is done. I don't remember how that's supposed to feel, but it was a little sticky at the end of travel.

Or does spring steel corrode in brake fluid? I used a different bias spring years ago and haven't checked it since, maybe the whole combination valve is corroded to hell. Are the DRM springs different material or something? I figured all the springs had to be pretty similar in metallurgy, I believe stainless for example is too weak to use for springs. I didn't use the DRM because it was too weak to correct my bias with the large front brakes.

Maybe I overfilled the reservoir during refill and the cap is exerting some tiny pressure on the fluid?



I have more time to ponder stuff than I do to wrench apparently. I just figured it'd be an easy job. I know there are 93 things that can go wrong, but damn it worked pretty good before I touched it. WWCGD?

Or rip apart an old toy antenna, multiple sizes to choose from.

Quote:

I started buying the premix in a can as well. Has preservatives in it, high octane, worth the high price IMO. Mixing small amounts of gas is such a pain. If you prepare too much, it just sits and starts going bad. I'd run high octane in all that stuff regardless, siphon it from the motorcycle.


I just picked up a set of these... been needing them for awhile and the home depot stuff has crappy holders (trying to conserve plastic? wtf?), probably crappy metal too. So tired of fishing through my scrap pile of loose hex wrenches.

I guess Bondhus, Wiha, and Wera are the desirable brands. You can spend $75+ on a set of these if you're serious. I've used this brand for small sizes for RC stuff, and it's held up very well even for ball ends.

There's also a set that's color coded. They seemed a little too long though.

Skinny arms help. I think I removed my seat to make it more comfortable to get to.

There's a cotter type pin way up in there that holds the pedal arm onto an eyelet on the end of the pushrod. The rest is easy.

How can you tell it has air in it? It's never going to be stiff, the pressure plate moves. Or is that with the slave dangling? Obviously don't push too hard on the pedal with it dangling though.

I would never feel comfortable with it so I'd always check the engagement with the rear on jackstands. You can even put the parking brake on just a hair to simulate a slight load on the drivetrain.

I'd stick one of those Earl's solo bleeders on there.

Quote:

I believe the change to alum heads was a mid 86 thing. I don't think late 86 coupes still had cast iron.



So the question is, what else changed mid 86, vs waiting until 87? And of course, the corvette is usually the first to get a change, the other models may lag behind.


1 pc rear seal debut:__86__?
alum head debut __mid 86__
roller cam debut __87___?

But, but, but... that lawn is already mowed!

I'm not sure the same logic applies.

If its gear noise then maybe a thicker viscosity gives better film strength... but if it's the roller bearings making noise maybe thicker fluid would actually put more stress on them or not lubricate as well.

I'd be looking at some of the magic-in-a-bottle type products to buy some time before just thicker fluid.

It's a tight area where the fill is, I wonder if it would even fall down. You'd almost need a dental vaccuum to really get ahold of it. I'm not sure how to see in there let alone retrieve something. I bet it will make its way to the bottom after spinning the drivetrain a bit in different gears. Of course they swim in the oil, so driving it could scoop it up into somewhere you don't want it.

Honestly I don't like that trans jack of yours. It goes nice and low, but isn't as maneuverable as the small HF one that goes directly underneath the trans with 4 caster wheels.


Here you go, the fill plug is next to the clustergear, or whatever it's called on this 6 speed. It rotates opposite the engine rotation. So get it in reverse gear with Tamiza on the clutch and rotate your tires forward. Or put it in forward gears and spin the tires backward.

Yup, cheaper I've heard also. I bet the bean counters have to decide whether the impression to the consumer is worth the extra expense.... when in reality 99% of drivers wouldn't know unless you told them. My tacoma has drum rears. The problem with a truck is you can get gravel in there easier than a disc setup. Hell, I had an old suzuki bike with drum brakes front and rear. It looks actually harder to do on a motorcycle than disc.

Quote:

Lol. First world problems. Call CNN! I was driving my 85 this weekend and one of the wooden wheel spokes cracked, left me stranded for a bit.

My friend's Sentra had electronic gauges that would cut out on occasion, sometimes for hours at a time. During this, it would not record miles on the car. We decided it best not to fix it. ;)

Quote:

We have a tree on the street corner, huge, nasty, drops fruit all over the street and sidewalk, blocks the view. The neighbor said it's on city property and she inquired and their fees were something like $80K to remove it. I'm skeptical, so I'll have to check on that, but I believe long 1/2" drill bits and poison are cheaper. Or maybe a chainsaw in the night? I bet they'll get right on it when it's laying in the intersection.

There's some on eBay.

Only 73 here. I flew to Phoenix and drove back yesterday, high was 98F.

Planned out some backyard projects. We have a small 450 sf casita in the back of our 7000 sf lot that I'm making self sufficient and will need some fencing and concrete demo done. One thing I don't mind hiring out. And find somewhere to cram a small washer/dryer combo in it. At some point in the next year or so we will be living there while doing major remodel and 2nd floor addition to the main house. Looking through coastal commission fees and water meter rules for the added fixtures. Upping to a 1" meter may be required and at $10k in fees, I'm sure looking for a way around it. powder room may be a "closet" until after the inspector leaves, for example. I have a 1" main and don't use any damn water, and the codes are so antiquated, not accounting for low flow fixtures. Hell, the code tables for sizing pipes and meters weren't accurate in 1950 when they were published for that matter. Urinal will be added later too.

I don't like lug centric only. I guess I don't trust it. There are hub centric adapters btw. Hell I don't even like adapters. Btdt. Get a wheel that fits. Most of the new vette wheels look ridiculous on a C4 anyways.

But I ran both 1.25" and 1" lug centric adapters for a few years including a few track days or auto-x with c5 wheels, without issue. Get a helper to stab on the brakes when putting the fronts on. And snug all the lugs by hand to be sure it's perfectly centered. And make sure your studs and adapter nuts don't interfere with the wheel. Oem castings should be fine. My c5 reproductions required a little grinding! But a dumber person might have just bolted them on and not known unless they had a vibration or a wheel fall off. Have you seen the YouTube vid of the rx7?

Old credit cards are great for all sorts of things. I just used one to help clean brake dust fromy wheels. Good gentle scraping tool. Gotta be careful not to leave them out though!

I put in the earls bleeders. Haven't used them before but I like the design of it prevents sucking air in through the threads.

Attach file:

---

  image.jpg (562.11 KB)

I like shiny parts. One of these is from an 84 caliper setup, they come powder coated which is strange. I painted the other gloss black to match and cleaned up one of my brackets to reuse. New pistons, seals, pins, hardware. Centric provides nice clean brackets. Probably not many left on their shelves. The 84 unloaded caliper was no longer available on that side, and no more 85-87s. The anti rattle clips are stainless H shaped pieces that go in the pocket of the caliper where the pad springs press against. I guess it lets them slide easier if nothing else. The caliper pin holes are round, the pins have 3 flats which I assume are only there to hold lube in there.

I was at the local indoor kart place last week and someone drove under the barrier and was pinned. I guess drivers can get hurt at any speed, the dumb ones just at slower speeds.

Too late, remans are in the mail. Honestly can't expect much from dissimilar metals 30 years old in hydroscopic fluid trying to stay free moving and also maintain a seal to hold in 1000+ psi of pressure.

The Ford pump comes with a warning label on it saying "whining noise from the pump is normal". Lol, I kid you not.

It's interesting how GM didn't use all the surface area of the 88+ rear rotor.

My stock anti rattle clips in back are long gone, I never noticed honestly. My speedbleeders were also getting a little corroded and worn so I installed Earl's bleeders this time. These are the one with the external spring and check valve. I haven't done a bleed yet so who knows. The russell type ones always bugged me because they'd always find a way to pull air in through the threads no matter despite trying to seal them. The Earl's in theory prevent that.

I'm surprised they let those ancient C5s on the track.

Any elevation changes there or is it flat?

I don't have cable. Watching the wild parrots fly around and squak. You should see the turds they leave behind.

Quote:

I bet wheel diameter would be just as important if not more, regarding potholes.

Quote:

Even if they were on the car, I don't understand the reason for the question.

Quote:

Is that a multi-zone unit? I'm thinking about some multizone mini splits for my house remodel.. not cheap but nice to not have to run the entire floor or entire house. I checked out a fujitsu the other day and the outdoor coils are so quiet, impressive.

I'm sure glad you people from the future (eastern time zones) are here to warm up the forum every morning.

I've never heard of aids, what are those? I think we had them in elementary school.


My dad called me last night all shook up, apparently he borrowed my bro's Duramax and took it to the car wash before returning it... the car wash guy apparently hit the gas instead of the brake and plowed a few cars, damaged the carwash, and sent a worker to the hospital, and totalled the truck. Oh boy I'd love to have seen that happen.

Another reason to avoid valet or anything resembling it. If it's not slowing down, maybe think before pushing harder on the pedal. I made that brain fart once actually a few months after I first got my license, and figured it out right when it happened, just before driving through a fence. But it made it clear to me how it can happen. It's like how you write your name down a million times, you're bound to get it wrong at least once. Or when you put the milk in the cabinet and the cereal in the fridge.

Quote:

I have an offensive answer though, what does the MC cap have to do with anything?

This was with caliper removed from the car, and without hose. Bleeder was probably shut but that shouldn't matter. I didn't remove the pistons yet. I bet they look like hell after 30 years though. The wilwoods I could compress by hand.

I'm just gonna order reman ones from Centric. Its not clear but it looks like they put in new pistons, they mfr them at least, so that's a good sign vs reconditioned ones I think, and the calipers should have SS sleeves vs OEM that doesn't.

They are out of stock on the left rear, but they have one still for the 84 with pads and bracket. The only difference between 84 and 85 there is the bracket. The new pads will probably go right in the trash.

I just remembered I have a pair of 88 rear calipers I could test in comparison.

What brand is that Brian? Looks like timken, national, etc. not oem.

Do C5s have bearing issues? I recall they use the same design other than having a separate upper camber link.

I think that's true as well. It's well documented that a bearing will run cooler after break in. I had two of the cheaper bearings develop slop after only an auto-x, they had no street miles on them.
I just pulled out a oem that has 25k on it, and was on there for two years before it saw a track day, it's not bad, but has barely noticeable slop.

Keep in mind these bearings first application were for a front wheel drive Cadillac. Probably other fwd applications as well with different flanges. It's not as if they were designed for the corvette. GM just figured they were good enough. And figured wrong.

I'll be into this about $500 before all is said and done, not counting hoses. $1500 for wilwood rears doesn't sound quite as bad now.

AC Delco seems to be a fan of Raybestos for their Professional line. The photos are identical. $65 ea and $8 core.

I've heard of a Premium line, which is supposedly oem manufacturer, such as a GM part number, but I've never seen of it.

GM parts direct only sells the left rear caliper.

I've only squeezed a few pistons in my day, but ones on the back of my vette seem beyond reasonable.

The brakes do creak during slow application, and I remember the pressure guage getting jumpy when testing line pressure awhile back, all which leads me to sticking pistons.

I have on other cars been able to compress the pistons with a little prying, or just the right thickness of a wood block and some strong hands.

These ones I got my piston tool out and even that seemed to struggle and want to spread the caliper. And worse yet, it wasn't symmetrical, one side is worse than the other. The tool seems designed to spin the piston while compressing it, but that didn't happen. It has two spanner type pegs in the various attachments.. as if the piston is supposed to have somewhere for those to go. Maybe on an import?

I'm shopping for some rebuilt calipers now. Hold on to your wallets! I heard those factory children with small hands are good at these sorts of things.

Hope your birthday is rocking.

And your 85.... I find most of it is a matter of adjusting your standards to the car. It's a reason BMW and Cadillac fail their owner surveys after the first year, vs Hyundai where every owner is just beeming that the engine hasn't blown up yet.

I knock chinese parts all the time, but I honestly haven't realized the benefit yet to spending lots of money on wheels. I have chinese wheels on my vette and tacoma. I know the OEM castings usually save weight, but otherwise I've been satisfied with the various sets I've used.

Although last time I was at the track a porsche broke his wheel and nailed the concrete wall, I wonder what wheels he had on there. But I've also seen a Fikse wheel that failed in a similar circumstance and those are close to $800 each.

My coworker is getting fed up with his 09(?) Apparently he has an extended warranty and takes it in often for b.s. stuff but feels lost on what to do once it's on his dime. I'll stay tuned.

Ive had some NDH shit out light, clearish grease (synthetic?) and other shit out black grease. I'm lost.