CPP Rear Big Brake Kit - 2nd Gen F-body

[73 Brewster Green Bird]

Has anyone used the 70-81 rear big brake kit from CPP? If so, has anyone ever had an issue with the outboard pads only contacting about 40% of the rotor (both wheels)? I have talked to Mario at CPP and he blames everything but the mass produced, re-purposed ford calipers. I have turned the brand new rotors and replaced the brand new pads, per Mario's suggestion and at my cost with no improvement. Now he says its the rear end flanges (Moser 12 bolt less than 1 year old) which I have checked and the are exactly 90 degrees to the axle tube. Brackets and attaching bolts are also not distorted or bent. I finally got Mario to say "maybe it is the caliper" and if I pay to send it to them and wait 4 weeks they will "check the caliper and send it back to me" which really means that I get to pay for a round trip vacation for my calipers to California. Any information would be greatly appreciated.



P.S. I speak of Mario specifically because my dealings with other people at CPP have been fruitful and the problem may be personnel and not policy. Unfortunately, it appears that this loser is the only brake tech "expert" that you can talk to so I have to pursue other avenues or just eat the $800+ that I have already spent.

[bryant]

i dont use cpp any more because of that lousy customer service.
the 3 things that could cause your problem are the housing end not being square, and youve checked that.
the caliper brackets not being square. i looked at their site and it looks like the brackets have a step built into them. that would be very suspect as to being the cause. the step needs to be perfect to keep the caliper square.
the calipers. i find i hard to believe they would be bad. it could be possible that the cheap over seas reproduction stuff cpp uses could not be made perfectly square, but i would be most suspect of the housing to caliper brackets.

i would take the wheel and caliper off. i would put 2 nuts on wheel studs to hold the rotor firmly and squarely on the axle. then i would figure some way to measure the angle of the caliper bracket to the rotor. if they are perfectly parallel then your down to it just being the caliper. if they aren't parallel you have found the problem.

[TheJDMan]

Do you have a picture of the wear pattern on the rotors you can post? It might help indicate what is out of square.