[Damo]

I've had this problem for a while now, in fact ever since I did the conversion. The conversion consists of a custom bracket holding R31 Syline calipers which clamp onto stock Sierra front rotors. Everything seems to work fine, but I have a sqeak, squeak, squeak coming from the passenger side.

First I thought it was excessive runout of the rotor, but I have checked this with a dial gauge and it seems to be fine. The rotors where new incidentally. When I next pulled it apart I found one of the springs that locate the pads had come off, so I figured this caused the problem. Interestingly when I put it back together with the same springless pads the noise was almost gone, but over the course of a day or so came back to what it was like before.

So I replaced the pads, and the same thing happened. The noise went away initially but came back pretty much straight away.

I believe these calipers adjust themselves, so I don't think there is anything I can do in that regard. I have read something about some sort of paste you apply to the pads to get it to stick to the piston, but i'm not sure if this is just a bandaid. I've read about shims too but it doesnt makes sense to me that shimming the pad closer to the rotor is going to make it less noisy.

The frucking noise is driving me (more) insane!!!

[christover1]

In a 1.0 litre theres a fluid retention spring,
in the master cylinder, that needs removing when disc conversion is done,
not sure if 1.3 is the same.
Mine chewded rear pads and screeched a lot, till I removed mine.

Kinked lines can have a screeching effect.
There arfe anti squeal pads on most disc set ups,
but these can go missing,
or can be bent to actually cause squeal them selves

[Damo]

christover1 wrote:

In a 1.0 litre theres a fluid retention spring,
in the master cylinder, that needs removing when disc conversion is done

Interesting. I probably should have mentioned that the master cylinder in my thing is from a Vitara, a SWB soft top model.

[royce]

the squeal is the pad vibrating against the caliper, the shims serve to dampen this, the pads don't sit any closer, the piston just sits further back

the goo works in the same way as well, doesnt let it move so it wont make noise

also chamfer the leading and trailing edges of the pad and give smashing the handbrake (if hooked to the calipers) now and then, seems to help

[Damo]

royce wrote:

the squeal is the pad vibrating against the caliper, the shims serve to dampen this, the pads don't sit any closer, the piston just sits further back

the goo works in the same way as well, doesnt let it move so it wont make noise

also chamfer the leading and trailing edges of the pad and give smashing the handbrake (if hooked to the calipers) now and then, seems to help

Is squeal the same as squeak?

When I brake, there is no noise. When i'm driving with no brakes on it wil go squeak, squeak, squeak with the frequency increasing proportional to speed. From what I read the shims and goo seem to be fore noise the pads make while braking. Same with chamfering the leading edge of pads. I'm not being a dick, I just have NFI about this stuff

It seems to be like the pad needs to back off from the rotor a bit, which is why I looked at adjustment originally.

[JrZook]

royce wrote:

also chamfer the leading and trailing edges of the pad and give smashing the handbrake (if hooked to the calipers) now and then, seems to help

Try this. It will knock off the sharp edges to stop the chatter which tends to cause brake squeal/squeak.

[Damo]

That's easy enough to try.

Just hit it with a grinding wheel you reckon?

[JrZook]

Cause I'm cheap and easy I just scrape it on the C-ment. Wouldn't breathe that shit in tho.

[want33s]

JrZook wrote:

Cause I'm cheap and easy I just scrape it on the C-ment. Wouldn't breathe that shit in tho.

Why not? There's been no asbestos in pads for years.

I'd be checking for a dud wheel bearing or bent axle or even possibly a rear uni joint.

[Damo]

want33s wrote:

JrZook wrote:

Cause I'm cheap and easy I just scrape it on the C-ment. Wouldn't breathe that shit in tho.

Why not? There's been no asbestos in pads for years.

I'd be checking for a dud wheel bearing or bent axle or even possibly a rear uni joint.

I thought the same Jas, but wheel bearings were brand new and axle shaft measured ok. It'll be kinda funny if grinding a chamfer on the leading edge fixes it

[JrZook]

want33s wrote:

JrZook wrote:

Cause I'm cheap and easy I just scrape it on the C-ment. Wouldn't breathe that shit in tho.

Why not? There's been no asbestos in pads for years.

I'd be checking for a dud wheel bearing or bent axle or even possibly a rear uni joint.

This is true tho i still wouldn't breathe the dust

[steak_knife]

Also look at the caliper retaining bolt's, I had to "machine" mine down as they were a we bit to long...

[Zook_Fan]

Damo have you got any pics of how your handbrake cable is modified to fit the R31 calipers?

[Damo]

Zook_Fan wrote:

Damo have you got any pics of how your handbrake cable is modified to fit the R31 calipers?

I've just been trawling through some pics but I can't really find much of the cable itself.

The front half of the cable is basically stock Sierra. That part of the cables comes to a rectangular "block", that distributes the pull to 2 cables, one going left and one going right (to each drum). Those are replaced by cables that have different ends to suit the calipers. They also need to be a little longer because of the location of the calipers. It's a little difficult to explain but if you have the calipers and the cable in front of you it's pretty easy to see what needs to be done.

Here are the pics I have, if you need something specific let me know. Joeblow may also be of some assistance.


















Oh and since you brought up this thread though I should probably put in an update to the OP I have done a fiar bit of fiddling with this setup and despite that I am still having a little squeaking. I remember that a few times I have been tempted to rip the whole lot out and put drums back on it!!! Having a fair bit of time and $ in it has made me persist though and currently it's still not 100%, but certainly a lot better than it was. One thing I found was that the location of the caliper was not quite right, as when the pad was installed it would sit over the edge of the rotor. Consequently I welded up the holes in the bracket...


...and redrilled them a couple of mm further in.


Interestingly I also had some problem seating the bearing properly into the end of the diff housing. I'm not sure what caused this but i'm sure this was a factor in the initial installation. Even after having the shaft in properly now and fixing the bracket hole location issue, there is still a slight noise so i'm still convinced I have some excessive runout in the axle shaft/adapter/rotor assembly somewhere but to this point I haven't been bothered pulling it all apart to find out where.

As for performance i'm not convinced that the proportioning is 100% correct as I can lock the rears under heavy braking, most noticably in the wet. On the upside it sure is nice to be able to pull the brake on and know it's going to hold regardless of the brakes being wet, muddy etc etc. Not flogging out the brakes every 2nd time you go wheeling is great too!

[Zook_Fan]

So the cable is half sierra and the other half is R31/Pintara? I've got the calipers installed, just trying to figure out the handbrake but I didn't grab the cable at the time.

[Damo]

Zook_Fan wrote:

So the cable is half sierra and the other half is R31/Pintara? I've got the calipers installed, just trying to figure out the handbrake but I didn't grab the cable at the time.

I didn't have the cable either, the calipers I bought came on their own. My cable is part Sierra, part custom. If you had the cables from the caliper donor you may well be able to make something out of the two. I imagine it would be the cheapest way to go so worth a crack fo sho.

[Munster]

I used the Skyline calipers similar to yours Damo and I adapted handbrake cables from a swift Gti including the lever. I haven't had any problems with my brakes in almost 2 years of running them, no lockups or slipping, just superb braking.