Brake upgrade recommendation

The only thing that comes to mind is this:

I tried that and this is what happened.  Squeal went to yelling

I'm also planning a brake upgrade & conversion to wide 5 thus winter.

Current plan is Airkewld, but trying to make vented Cool Ryde work.

It may end up being Cool Ryde up front and Airkewld in the rear (likely).

http://www.airkewld.com/BAD-Se...mbly-4821-p/4821.htm

http://www.coolrydescustoms.com/coolstop-brakes.html

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Bobby---I started with the CB disc brake kit for my rear wheels.  I was warned that the hubs were two- piece with an aluminum outer hum and steel inner parts fused together---that they would separate---and they sure as hell did in Richmond, VA which made the trip home to Hot Springs, AR problematic.  The aluminum part would spin on the steel part and there was always a "thump" starting forward or backward as the ever increasing slack was taken up. 

C.B. is aware of this failure.   I was told by someone on the SOC site that they wouldn't separate if they were torqued corrrectly when installed---this proved to not be true, at least in my case.

I found solid steel hubs at SoCal Import Parts in Southern CA and used them to replace my original two-part hubs.  They were "plug and play" to install and have been trouble free.  I know they are heavier but with 130 hp at the wheels I don't notice that a bit.

I can give you my p/n for the C.B. kit I got and the p/n for the new steel hubs  from SnCal if you want---just p/m me--as I'm not in the office where the info is now.

My 4 wheel discs are wonderful---we need all the safety we can possibly have in these little cars!  

 

If I just wanted to replace the calipers and brake pads, is there anything out there that would work?  

Airkewld Disc brakes (all four wheels) was the worst money I ever spent.

Why so Craig? Please elaborate.
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Tom, sent you a PM

Tom Blankinship posted:

Why so Craig? Please elaborate.
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Because Pete is Pete. 

craig posted:

Tom, sent you a PM

Why keep it a secret? I'm planning my dream build of the future and brakes are part of the equation. If there's a problem with a product, we all would like to know...

crhemi (Bill) poboiinhawaii posted:

craig posted:

Tom, sent you a PM

Why keep it a secret? I'm planning my dream build of the future and brakes are part of the equation. If there's a problem with a product, we all would like to know...

What Bill said. If Airkeweld discs are not what they advertise them to be (for any reason) let us know.

In my humble opinion, the product was not quality manufactured and customer service did not exist.  They seemed too busy to deal with me.  Sent one hub back, finally got a new one, same issue.  All four hubs needed adjustment.  A local machine shop fixed the front hubs on their lathe, but could not fix the rears.  One got close, but the other is too far out.  Parts should have been bolt-on ready but were not.  At install all were 5X the runout on the rotor edge above automotive acceptable.  I have pages of data showing bad dims and several videos of the runout using a mounted Dial Gage.  Also have pics of the dimensional problems on the shop lathe.  Yes, Airkewld was willing to take everything back AFTER I had it all installed.  What should have been a three day install took several months and one wheel is still not right.  I'll get to it someday.  Feels like a warped rotor when you apply brakes, but it's not the rotor.  Changed that at my expense because I got tired of waiting for a replacement.  Right now, I want to limp along using the car as transportation, not a dust rack.   They were the only product I could find where I could get five bolt, Ford pattern lugs for the wheels I bought to go with the brakes/hubs.  My bad.  Hard to believe no one else has had this problem when it was so obvious on all four of mine.  Or maybe they have...

Thanks for the info, Craig. I've heard of their stuff having issues before, but never knew how things were resolved (or weren't). Don't believe you're the only one; there's no way you could have had so many problems and everyone else's stuff fit properly. There's no way parts could have the problems yours did and be the only one out of how many pieces (50? 100 or more?) in a machining run. Unfortunately these things do happen occasionally (especially when farming out machining); it's how you handle it when it's not right that's important, and they've dropped the ball big time. It will cost them in sales from this crowd (which, when you think of it, is one of the markets they should be working really hard at cultivating). This was a big opportunity, and they've screwed it up.

Did we touch on this before in another thread? I think you need to send them one last email telling them of your lack of satisfaction, complete with links to these conversations. You spent good money, your expectations weren't met, they handled it poorly, and there's nothing wrong with telling them you're letting your friends know.

Yeah, I know we're a pretty small niche in the grand scheme of things, but some of us are Samba members (as well as members on other VW forums) and we will spread the word.... 

It would interesting to see the responses on a Samba thread titled "Anyone else not happy with Airkeweld's poor fitting brake components and lack of service after the fact?"

PS- Are you a Samba member? It would be worth it just for the opportunity to post your experience on the feedback forum.

Couple of notes:  1. Yes we have dealt with this issue before in another thread.  That is what got me thinking about my one stub axle maybe was bad so I bought another to install to see if that fixes the last hub issue.  2.  No I am not a Samba member.  Yes it would be interesting to see if that  site has issues.  3.  There were two ways to quantify my findings but I never persued them:  A. I should have sent everything back before I started to have the parts modified.  Their Quality Assurance group(?) could have checked them to see if what I found was true.  The time it took to deal with this issue says I would still be waiting for that to happen.  That's now a mute point.  At this juncture if everything was replaced (Hubs, Rotors and bearings) AND the rotors were mounted and the bearings installed per their specifications, and the new equipment worked, it still would not determine my error or their quality.  By this time they may have found a manufacturing problem and fixed it.  The local machine shop told me the mounting faces were not square to the bore in the hubs.  Once they turned them, we got most of this square.  I'm not going to spend another $1800 to try another new set.   Airkewld's comment was I may not have installed the bearings correctly.  On the second front hub I received, I installed the bearings a second time and got exactly the same results.  Once bearings bottom out in the hub and cannot be tapped any further, it would seem that a layman could conclude they are IN.  I just gave up in frustration.  The e-mails went un-answered and it seemed like Pete was the whole group doing everything himself and while trying to grow the business just did not have the time  to fully respond.  It's a shame, I really wanted good smooth disc brakes.  The car does stop. but the one last annoying grab on rotor rotation has got to go.

 

Final note:  Time has transpired and things could now be different.  That was almost two years ago.  Today you may get a better product.  I'd do some more investigating on customer feedback before buying.  Who knows.

Thanks for sharing that info!

Bobby posted - They are squealing to the point something needs to be done.  If I just wanted to replace the calipers and brake pads, is there anything out there that would work?

Unless damaged, I don't think you need new calipers. You want to get rid of the squeal, right?  

I'd look at rotors to see if they are glazed (black/blue tinge), have surface rust (reddish brown) or have scoring grooves (you can feel with your finger nail).   Surface rust will wear off with few miles of driving and applying the brakes hard - other will need to be turned by machine shop to clean up.  Glazing might wear off with vigorous brake application too. Are caliper piston(s) moving in and or or rusted and frozen? - requires replacement.  Are pads glazed or down to metal (might be wear indicator that screeches)?  Glazed can be sanded off (if pads are like new) but pads aren't expensive so replace (there are pad compounds that reduce screeching and the edges can be radiused (rounded off) too. When replacing ensure wheels bearing are greased and adjusted correctly then apply the orange anti-squeal compound to rear of pads.  If wife's car - drive it more and really use the brakes hard to see if that helps.

I'm with Wolfgang - Pull the pads and either replace them or sand off the surface to remove any glazing (wear gloves) and then chamfer the leading edge at 45 degrees for 3/16 inch or so.  More often than not, that will cure any squealing.  I'm running nothing-special CB Calipers (pretty much identical to '71 Karmann Ghia calipers) as a lot of others are and we're not getting the squealing so I would go for the pads first (they're cheap).

When I got my IM back from Henry the only thing that needed to be fixed was the constant squealing from the front disc brakes.  I told him I'd try and fix them myself and save a few bucks.

I did three things:

1.  light sanded the brake pads (wear a mask)

2.  light sanded the rotors (both sides)

3.  applied liberal mount of anti-squeal paste to the back of the pads

That did the trick.  No more squeal.

 

 

 

Ok Guys

Thanks I am going to sand the pads since they still appear to have a lot life left in them.  I will also sand the disk.  What grade sandpaper do you recommend?  What is the best anti-squeal gunk?

 

120-150 grit should be fine.

Go to NAPA or Autozone and ask for brake pad anti-squeal gel.  They should know what you need.   Apply it to the back of the pads (note where they contact the piston or caliper casting and apply as a isolation layer between the two), wait about 15-20 minutes and then install the pads.

Permatex or Loctite are popular brands