Wilwood brakes squealing.

[donsrods]

I have always run drum brakes on my cars but my Son Don is running Wilwood discs on the front of his T bucket. Since day one they have been noisy, they squeal. You can rock the car back and forth in neutral and you can hear them making contact and squealing.

Speedway sent him a free set of new rotors , pads, and a residual valve and still it is noisy. Wilwood has been not very much help and said the pads he has on there now (purple set) are for drag cars. But the first set we had not only squealed but they dusted like mad. These stay cleaner, but he hates to drive the car because it sounds like a junker.

I know a lot of you are running these brakes, what is your experience and are yours quiet ?


Don

 

[2old2fast]

Don , to the best of my knowledge , brake squeal is caused by the pads vibrating in there mounts . The cure that has worked ,in my experience, is a "polymer" [use to be blue stuff] that appears alot like a caulking material. You should be able to find it at an auto parts store . I'd ask for an anti-squeal compound. You apply it to the backs of the pads.

dave

 

[donsrods]

Dave, thanks for the tip. We did that on the second set, and they still squeal. Wilwood told me the pads needed aligned with the shims they provide, and even that didn't help. He is ready to scrap them and go with different ones if we can't get this cured.

Don

 

[2old2fast]

Align the pads huh, never heard of such ! Align how, top to bottom ,end to end??

dave

 

[409T]

I had Wilwood front discs that squealed also, and I tried anti-squeal compound and shims and nothing worked. I finally called Wilwood and they sent me some pads with slightly softer lining and everything has been fine since.

 

[Duke]

On one of my cars I had the same problem. What I did was bevel the leading and tailing edge on the pads. Seems to work for me.

 

[donsrods]

Align the pads huh, never heard of such ! Align how, top to bottom ,end to end??

dave

I never quite understood what Wilwood was telling me about aligning them either, but I took the measurements like they told me on the phone and the pads seemed to be straight.

I like Dukes suggestion about beveling the pads and will do that tonight when we are at the shop.

Don

 

[wsdad2]

...I like Dukes suggestion about beveling the pads and will do that tonight when we are at the shop.

Don

Did beveling the pads work?

 

[fordsbyjay]

I assume they are the 3/8 solid rotors that you see on most light cars. They are drag breaks rated for very light cars hence the reason people use them on buckets. Only problen is they squeal which is annoying as heck. The other problem I find with mine is they don't work for crap sometimes like they get glazed over. Then after a couple stops they work great. I want to change mine out (it's on the list of things to do). A friend of mine had the same setup on his Pinto and Wilwood said the same thing about the squealing because they are drag race pads. He replaced his with the regular wilwood vented rotor/dynalite setup and that is the route I am hoping to go.

 

[PzT]

Don
I have the same type of brake and they would squeal to no end.
This is what that was sent to me by Total some years back. I tried it and it works, no squeaky brakes.
Use a faucet bibb washer. Remove the two bolts which hold the caliper to the mounting bracket. Purchase a package of 4 black neoprene faucet washers and open the hole in the center to 3/8" for bolt. Remove the lock washer from the hardware and place the washer infront of the flat washer so that it is against the caliper. Install the bolt, flat washer, rubber washer and loctit #271 (RED) onto the bolt and tighten just until the rubber washer begins to expand.
Thats it the squeak is Gone.
Hope this helps with your Problem.

Gary

 

[fordsbyjay]

Thanks for the reply Gary. I am going straight to Ace when I get up in the morning.

 

[donsrods]

Did beveling the pads work?

We never got around to doing them. My Son has his T inside one of those plastic blow up bubbles and doesn't want to take it out of there while he is grinding and making dust working on his Capri. We will try it some day though and also the washer thing that Gary suggested. He just has to get the Capri done a litte more first before we tear into the T.

Don