I just got my 69 Camaro out of storage for the year. On my way home, my brakes started sticking. The car died on the side of the road. I felt all the rims, and they were all warm, none HOT. The brake pedal would barely depress at all. I got the car started and running again. Further down the road, the brakes were fine. Right when I got to my house (30 mins later) the brakes did the same thing and would barely compress.

I rebuilt my calipers 3 years ago. They are the 4 piston calipers in front and drum rears. I took off the front rim and the rotors are rubbing. I was thinking of flushing my brake fluid and compressing the pistons on the front calipers. Any other suggestions? If I had a leaky Master Cylinder cover gasket would that cause the pistons from not releasing?

Thanks

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me with a previous 69. It wound up being air in the brake lines, and I couldn't find it for the life of me. I finally took it in and had the system power bled.
Air in the line, I must be nuts right?
Here's what was happening. After doing some brake work, I bled the brakes to get the air out, or so I thought it was. The brake pedal went down too far to the floor, so naturally I adjusted the rod at the pedal to give the master cylinder more travel. Problem solved....until driving the car for a prolonged period of time. The heat was enough to expand the fluid, and since I had the master cylinder preloaded (I didn't realize) the brake pedal got stiff, and the brakes bound up on me. After cooling off, it was ok again, for a while. A good power bleed found the air and solved the problem.

 

Alright I bleed the brakes quite a bit and it seemed to get a little bit better. I think I need to bleed them again.

New question: The car is a plain Camaro and no where near stock, but from what I have read, the 4 piston caliper brakes were not installed in the standard Camaro. It was an option for Z/28s and 68's but not 69s.

The issue that I have is my brake caliper sticks out further than brake rotor so I need to put a spacer plate in to pull the rim away from the caliper. I know the standard 69 Camaro only had single piston brakes, so I am wondering if something is different on the Z28s to accommodate the 4 piston calipers?

 

I was able to take some pictures of my brake rotor and caliper to see if this helps with any questions.



You can see that the brake rotor sticks out from the wheel hub.



Even after adding a spacer plate, it's still not enough to clear the caliper.

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I looked up the casting number and it appear to be from a 68 Camaro as I mentioned above.

From what I could find, the brake rotors are the same from 68 to 69, so I'm not sure why the caliper sticks out so far. The guy I bought it from was not very mechanical, but drag raced it, so anything could have been done to it. I am getting the feeling that they put brakes on it from a 68 to get better stopping power. Is there anything else that should be from a 68?

Thanks,

 

What diameter wheels do you have, 14" or 15"? Stock or aftermarket wheels? 14's could cause some clearance issues, but generally at the outer edge of the caliper. I've never needed to compare between the 14's and 15's, so I can't say if there might be a difference in how they step down on the back side at the hub area.

 

I have 14" aftermarket rims. They have no offset from the mounting. They are a Cragar look-a-like.

Do you have the single piston calipers on you 69? Does the caliper stick out from the wheel hub like mine?

 

I still have drums in the front, conversion somewhere on the horizon. I do have disc in the back, from when the Ford 9" was built up. They work surprisingly well that way, but probably wouldn't if the back tires were stock skinny's.

 

Alright thanks. Does someone out there have the single piston calipers up front? Do they stick out from the wheel hub like mine with the 4 piston calipers? Thanks.