Rubbing sound?

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mattmatthew

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Recently did a front end rebuild and a disc brake conversion to the single piston floating style calipers/rotors. Used a pair of remanufactured calipers, and the rotors are returned with plenty of meat on them. Bled them a few months ago, but never drove it. The other day took it on a road test a few times around the block and there was this really loud rubbing sound coming from the front passenger wheel — drivers side wheel was ok, braking was good, overall.

Today I removed the front wheel to investigate sources of the noise, and found that the pads were very slightly rubbing against the rotors, even with the piston fully retracted.

Is this normal? I'd guess that aftermarket pads combined with reman calipers and used junkyard rotors might have slight incompatibilities. Is it safe to sand down the pads slightly to remove the rubbing sound? The rotors turn by hand, but I can still hear the rubbing noise. Or is it something that will go away eventually by driving the car?

Also, what is the proper bedding technique for the pads?
 
What brand pads did you use?
Proper bleeding technique is to start with the RR then do the LR then RF and last is LF. Also make sure your bleeders are on the top of your calipers not on the bottom or else you will have bleeding issues
 
I started with the brake farthest from the master, so i think RR, LR, RF, LF. and i bled the master first.

the pads were the ones that came with the reman calipers. rotors are from a donor 76 a-body car. i haven't put a ton of miles on this car yet, so maybe they'll wear down to the point where they're not rubbing. i hope.
 
An light rust on the rotors will do this too. A very soft applications of the brakes for the first mile or so and slow driving will rub this off without embedding the rust particles in the pads to badly. (Rust particles in the pads wil socre the rotors.....)

Bedding can vary with pad material. But I generally just avoid hard braking for a while and work the car up to it for stock pads.
 
The pads are supposed to be fitted. Here's the relevant pages from the 74 shop manual:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970159077&postcount=7

Look at the 3rd photo from the bottom. The pads can rattle and move around otherwise.

Also check carefully that a wheel / wheel weight is not rubbing on something, the tops of the calipers, the A arms, the grease fitting or even the brake hose.
 
I pulled off the wheel in question today. Inspected the calipers to see if it looked like anything was rubbing. Also just rotated the rotors by hand, the pads seem to be rubbing against the rotors. When I installed the pads I hammered down the tab on the outboard pad and pressed it into the caliper. It's pretty flush in there. I'm hoping putting some miles on the car will eliminate the sound. There's a touch of light surface rust on the rotors. Hopefully that's the culprit.
 
If the rotors have rust on them that will make them raise hell till it wears off.
 
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