How to Fix Your Dragging Brakes

The factory proportioning valve joined the lines that run to the two corners of the front brake system, so we needed a union at this point on top of the driver-side frame rail and plumbed to the front-brake outlet line of the master cylinder.

Wilwood solid rear rotors and pads are used on many street and racing applications with great stopping and durability-as long as you don't drag the pads!

Disc-brake caliper pistons should be spread before removal of the caliper from the rotor as this will make it much easier to reinstall the calipers with the new pads. An open-end wrench is being used as a spacer with a caliper spreader tool to get the pistons to completely back out.

The rotors are held on brake hats with small bolts that need to be carefully removed before the rotor can be swapped with the new rotor (make sure the hat is clocked the same way as the rotor you removed). Add two drops of red Loctite to each bolt, hand start all the bolts into the rotor, then torque in a radial pattern to Wilwood specs.

Slide the hat/rotor back onto the wheel studs, clip the pads into the caliper, and put the caliper on the mounts. Bolt the caliper in place. This is a good time to check that the caliper is centered on the rotor by measuring the opening on each side of the rotor face (the measurements should be within 0.05 inch of each other). If the caliper is not centered, use shims to properly position the caliper around the rotor.

Two oversized holes were drilled in the framerail so that nutserts (which are similar to rivets) could be installed to allow two bolts to be threaded into them. Installing nutserts requires a special tool, but they are really great for blind installations such as this where you can't reach the backside of the fasteners being used for mounting a component.