Rotor edge rubbing on caliper. Installing anti-rattle spring
 

My front wheels make noise once they warm up (under 5 miles). I have replaced the pads, calipers, and rotors. I tried the brake-quiet gunk that glues the pads to the calipers.

I went for a drive today long enough for the noise to start. Then I drove home and took the tires off. I couldn't see anything binding or rubbing.

My brother says "hey, the edge of the rotor is rubbing on the caliper". Sure enough. the inside of the caplier has marks from where the outer edge of the rotor is rubbing.

When the caliper is on he could turn the rotor. Then I pushed the caliper inward and he felt the friction slowing the rotor.

I have not been driving with anti-rattle springs but I have bought a couple (Raybestos but I don't recall the part number).

We put an anti-rattle spring on the pads and tried the same experiment. He doesn't feel the friction when I push the caliper in. Great!

I can't get the caliper back on with the anti rattle spring. The first shim goes in easy but I can't get the second shim in. I think the spring is too wide. There just isn't room to get the second shim in. (I have a '79 with the shims that hold the caliper in place.)

Is there a trick to getting the shims in? I tried the bottom first and the top first.

So I'm looking at options.

- try bending up a thinner wire like a paper clip to use as a spring.
- grind the spring down a tiny bit.
- grind the caliper down a bit.
- find a metal shop to take a bit of metal off the edge of the rotor.

I'm thinking it's not the best idea to take a grinder to the caliper. The same about taking the rotor edge in. :)

Any ideas?

The mount for the caliper bracket (screwed to the strut) does bend and may need to be straightened out.

The brake pad spring (looks like a 'z') plugs into the hole in the outer pad and the other end of the spring rests inside the caliper.

So that the caliper is floating perpendicular to the rotor.

How's your wheel bearing?

I think the bearings are okay. I couldn't feel any side-to-side or in-and-out movement in the rotor.

To be sure we took the rotor off today and re-packed the bearings. I put a lot of grease on around the bearings. We went for a test drive and things seemed good. Then when I was taking a big U-turn around in a parking lot I heard the noise.

I was just parking so a few minutes later I got back in and did some tight circles both left and right. I did not hear the noise. I drove home (about the distance it would normally make noise after) and didn't hear anything.

I'm going to try driving to work tomorrow to see if it acts up.

I can't see any problem with the caliper bracket. It might not be obvious though. :\

i was having the same problems ordered the brake hardware kit form vitoria british and got the springs installed from using the info from http://oregonstate.edu/~abelk/Manuals/ and the info from DOM thanks man no noise at the 1-10 mph range .

Thanks for the info!

The wheel rim gets HOT after driving about 5-7 miles. (The left wheel more than the right.) After driving and letting the wheel heat up the rotor is very hard to turn. I loosened the lock nut out and the rotor is still hard to turn.

It seems the calliper is not releasing when the brake pedal is released. It has been doing this since I replaced the calliper. (I bought a rebuilt one so I wouldn't have to do it myself.)

A friend suggested the master cylinder may have a broken valve that is keeping too much brake fluid in the lines. He said to drive around the block a few times and use the brakes. Then try turning the rotor. Then open the bleeder and if a lot of fluid rushes out the problem is the master cylinder. Otherwise the problem is the caliper. I haven't had time to try it.