Grinding brakes Options

[Mattattack]

So I've been hearing some metal on metal grinding while braking AND while in motion, I figured it was brake pads grinding into the rotors so I put some new rotors and pads on. While the old rotors were warped, even after i put the new ones on the sound is still there if not worse after spinning the wheel while the car was on jacks. could a wheel bearing or caliper be the culprit? Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

[Tigawoods]

He has a GT so he has discs.


Removing the rear rotors can be a pain and sometimes the ebrake shoes will grip onto the inside of the rotor hat (even when the ebrake is disengaged). You have to rotate the adjustment screw through a hole on the rotor hat. When trying to pull my rotors off (and them refusing to come off) I more than likely stretched the retaining springs that hold the shoe to the face of the dust shield, which in turn made them stick out a bit and rub up against the rotor.

that was the first time I had touched brakes. It was a learning experience.

[Langing]

He has a GT so he has discs.


Removing the rear rotors can be a pain and sometimes the ebrake shoes will grip onto the inside of the rotor hat (even when the ebrake is disengaged). You have to rotate the adjustment screw through a hole on the rotor hat. When trying to pull my rotors off (and them refusing to come off) I more than likely stretched the retaining springs that hold the shoe to the face of the dust shield, which in turn made them stick out a bit and rub up against the rotor.

that was the first time I had touched brakes. It was a learning experience.

Now I understand. Can be a pain. . . slight understatement.

My drum brakes have the same stupid (black) hole in back into which you insert two screwdrivers and pretend to manipulate the adjuster to loosen the pressure of the shoes against the inside of the rotor hat (drum). My first time experiencing that got me so mad (or gun-shy) that the next time I did it, I was prepared with mirrors, super LED flashlights, extra help, etc. to make sure I could get the drums off.

Later on, I learned that I could also use the two bolt holes that penetrate the drum from the front, and now my drums seem to yield easily to carefully ratcheting bolts into them (sometimes with some hammering). But. . . not that long in the future, when rust has accumulated. . . back to the little back door.

I would be surprised if you didn't have similar bolt holes in your rotor hats.

Finally, someone said that initially adjusting your drum brakes after a complete rebuild (with all new hardware) was a tricky competition between where you initially set your adjuster (not all the way in as the BGB says; about a quarter inch out from that point) and how tight you set your ebrake. At one point, I crawled under and traced the ebrake cables from the cabin all the way to the parking brake lever inside the drum, to make sure there was no possible problem in it, because ebrake actions were slightly different between left and right wheels. Turns out, sometimes aftermarket parts are not exactly perfect fits, so that initial adjustment advice came in handy.

Now that I have Betsy back on the road with all new stuff at the wheels, including bearings, ball joints, and tie rod ends, she runs ever so smoothly. Oh, that's also because I worked hard to get the front rotor run-out down to 0.0004" and 0.0007" (R/L), which is well below maximum (0.0020").