Disc Conversion problem...help

[devwil68]

I am in the process of converting my manual drum brakes to power discs from a MCB in my garage. I finally completed the rear, still need to do all plumbing, install booster, and made my way to the front. I have my drivers side rotor and clipper on but when finally assembled, the rotor does not spin freely, but did before caliper went on...it takes some muscle in orde for it to turn! These are non-directional rotors.

Is this normal?

DW

[Classic Nova & Performance]

Disc brakes will have an inherent amount of drag. Normally on initial assembly they might not as the pads are not contacting the rotor. Once the system is bled they would have some drag. When you say it takes "muscle" to rotate the rotor it sounds like more than what would be normal. Can you tell if one or both of the pads seem to be dragging? Its possible that the caliper is not centered and one pad is contacting the rotor harder than normal. Assuming that the caliper is oriented parallel to the rotor, this take care of itself once you bleed the system and the caliper centers itself. The other possibility is that the caliper bracket is not positioning the caliper parallel to the rotor. This would/could cause added drag on the rotor. You can pull the caliper and remove the pads then reinstall the caliper. Then you can measure the distance from fixed points on the caliper to the rotor to verify it is square to the rotor. Hope this helps.

[sebtarta]

Check to see if the rotor is touching the caliper at the top. It seems that the caliper is binding somewhere.
The other thing you might want to check is to make sure the rotor is centered between the caliper bracket.