[robbm]

I just thought I would share an update with PDQ, MarkM and others that have helped me with my Cheap Big Brakes. Spring is coming early this year so I should be able to road test in the next few days.

I went with 13 inch rotors on the front (95 vette) with a single piston truck caliper.






The rears are 12 rotors from the same vette with a single piston caliper from an 89 camaro. I went this route since finding donor stuff in junkyards is impossible in this area and because I bought one of the calipers (new) off ebay for 10 bucks. I think they are small enough that my balance should be reasonable. We'll see! They have built in e-brake (I made the arms). The only down side is that the bleeder is pointing down, so I had to unbolt them and tirn them over to bleed the brakes. No biggie...







Thanks again to PDQ for sending me the templates and everyone else for my questions. Let me know if anyone has any questions and I will do my best. If interested, I will let you all know if this things actually stops in a few days!

Robb

[sixtsevnssrs]

robbm,
That looks pretty sweet! Couple-a-questions, if the bleeders were on the bottom could you have swapped sides with the calipers? Right side on the left and left on the right to put the bleeder up top? Are you using two right side calipers? Or possibley mounted the brackets/calipers towards the front? I just upgraded to 4 wheel power discs but in the future I might go pro-tour with a hotchkis setup and the big brakes and cross drilled rotors.

[DjD]

I was thinking the same thing, swapping the calipers side for side should place the bleeders up.

[PairOf69's]

What master cylinder...?

[pdq67]

I'm glad I could help out here...

Your's are prettier than mine b/c I didn't paint anything except the brackets are black

pdq67

[Everett#2390]

If he swapped calipers side for side, the hose connection would be opposite. However, this could be a good thing as it would fill the cylinder/caliper up from the bottom.

If he rotated the bracket 180*, then the shock would be in the way of the caliper, either side.

[robbm]

Well, what I found was this... the rear calipers are the 'non performance' 4wdb option on an 89 Camaro. There is only 1 part number for both sides. Not having actually seen them on an 89 Camaro, I would say that they are staggered exactly opposite what's needed on a 68. As someone stated, to orient them the same as they were intended they would interfere with the shocks.

I don't think this is going to be a big issue. To bleed the brakes I removed the calipers and hung them from the bumpstop above the axle. Got a block of wood that just fit into the caliper and let them squeeze that!

The master is from a 72 vette. My car has the short push rod but luckily when we swapped all of my stock disc brake stuff on to my fathers 68, he had the long push rod so we just swapped. Also running an adjustable prob valve right under the dist block (which came from dads 4 wheel drum car)

They're now saying rain on the weekend after an amazing week of sunny days so I'm not sure if I'll get to road test soon or not.... I'll let everyone know if it works.

Thanks
Robb

[pdq67]

robbm,

Have you got the "pdqCBB" sorted out?

And if so, how do they work?

pdq67

[robbm]

Well it's been a little aggravating for the last few weeks for a variety of reasons. Initially as I had mentioned here in another post, I had a lot of trouble getting a good pedal. It wasn’t really noticeable until the car was running and assisted. I bled, re-bled, cried, swore, and bled some more…. with little improvement. I finally removed the MC and started to bench bleed again but got no bubbles. Then on a hunch, I put a pry bar between the vice jaws and the MC to cause the front to be tipped down a few degrees. Got lots o bubbles this time. Back in the car, it fixed the spongy feeling but the pedal is still a little low (but acceptable). I had my local speed shop guy drive it last week and he feels that the pedal height/feel is what should be expected from a 70s vette master. He thought the car stopped better that any other muscle car he’d been in!

The front brakes flat stop! It’s only been the rears that I’ve been working on. The 88 Camaro calipers with built in e-brake seem very difficult to get adjusted. It seems that I always have one side or the other that is not applying the e-brake fully. I think this could be related to the pedal height problem, still playing with it. At this point, I have the prop valve dialed all the way in to max the rear brakes, but I cannot lock up the rears. I may remove the adjustable prop valve to see if it’s still cutting the pressure some.

All in all, I think it is going to work out just fine! I may look at using a wildwood mechanical spot caliper as an e-brake and run a metric front caliper on the rear for my pdqCBB4WDB V2.0. The biggest problem hindering my testing is a new carb that has been a dog’s breakfast so far. It was supposed to go back to the speed shop today but it’s been raining all week. I will let you know in another week or two how things are progressing.

I'll post some pics soon of the e-brake setup, etc...

Thanks
Robb

[pdq67]

I'm attempting to use a 1.25" piston Van M/C for volume!

I will know onna these days if it works out and if it doesn't, I will try smaller ones until I find the biggest smaller pistoned M/C that works!

pdq67

[BC]

Rob,
Those rear calipers are a big PITA IMO/E!

One thing you could try is the front caliper off a mid 80's camaro or similair as I believe those would be the same caliper, only without the ebrake part. They are much cheaper and easier to use. That's probably the route I'm going to use.

What did you use for brackets for fronts and rears? I'm just finishing up a prototype bracket for my version of the PDQ CBB version 1x! I'm going to be using a 12" rotor, the drum hub and single piston suburban calipers. I plan to keep mine manual brakes... sounds like you went power assist? I'm not doing the rear swap until I get a new rearend to replace the peg-leg 8.2".

So far my costs have been $70 for both front 12" rotors (Powerslot rotors even!), about $50 for both front calipers loaded, and about $20 for the piece of steel to make the brackets. Thanks again to pdq for the templates....

Anyway, I'm real interested in your trials... maybe it will make mine easier!

It will still be a while tho till I can really test it as the car's front end is still out and no motor or tranny yet! (Actually just picked up a 700r4 cheap today!)

Good luck,
Bill C.

Edit: PS. I also wanted to know what application the front caliper is from... you said single piston truck, but it doesn't really look like one! Do you know the diameter of the piston?

Thanks.

[pdq67]

My front calipers are 2-15/16" big single piston like the '69 and newer cars, but they are a 1/4" wider at the pads for use on the Vans due to their 1.25" thick rotors.

Not the great big jobbers, they are HUGE calipers!! Off the bigger trucks!

pdq67

PS., fwiw, stock rotors are like 1.00" thick;

'88, 'Vette, 13" fronts are 1.10" thick; and

the Van's and some h-d 'Vette and the old JL-8s are 1.25" thick IF I have the JL-8's right?

I have to concur to David Pozzi here..

[robbm]

Originally Posted by pdq67

I'm attempting to use a 1.25" piston Van M/C for volume!

I will know onna these days if it works out and if it doesn't, I will try smaller ones until I find the biggest smaller pistoned M/C that works!

pdq67

What year/model van is it from? Do you have a part number? I've been wondering if I have a volumne issue. The rear caliper piston is about 1.75", so I though that I would be OK with the vette MC. It's an 1 1/8 bore master (I believe).

I had the car out again on Sunday. Pulled back in the shop and smelled that hot brake smell!! I seem to still be fighting with the rear caliper sticking!!! I gonna burn this F*&%#N car

Robb

[robbm]

Originally Posted by BC

Rob,
Those rear calipers are a big PITA IMO/E!

So I'm learning

Originally Posted by BC

One thing you could try is the front caliper off a mid 80's camaro or similair as I believe those would be the same caliper, only without the ebrake part.

I had planned to go that route, but an e-brake in required by law here. They've (police) even started to check for them in working condition at road stops! I have since found a solely mechanical caliper from Wilwood that works as an e-brake. This would allow me to run a front caliper in the rear. I may have a pair of these spot calipers ordered before the end of the week!

Originally Posted by BC

What did you use for brackets for fronts and rears?

I cut the front brackets from 3/8 plate steel using templates provided by PDQ. The rears are cut from 1/4 plate with spacers welded where the calipers bolt on.

Originally Posted by BC

Edit: PS. I also wanted to know what application the front caliper is from... you said single piston truck, but it doesn't really look like one! Do you know the diameter of the piston?

The calipers are from a 72 half-ton. They look different because I ground some of the bumps, etc from the front side of the caliper and made a sheet metal face plate to weld on. I did this on the rears as well.

If there are any questions, let me know... at this point I'm considering redoing the rear brakes using front metric calipers and spot calipers as an e-brake. We'll see.....

Robb

[vr1967]

pdq67,
The van calipers are the same as the ones used on trucks with the JB5 & JB7 brake option. I believe up to 80 all 1/2T Chevy trucks had the 1.25 rotors, and after 80 they had the JB3 (1.00 rotor) and JB5 & 7.(1.25 rotor)
You may already know this, but just putting it out for people when they are trying to source parts.

Virgil