[rohrt]

With every trip I take with my bird, my Rally II get covered with brake dust. The car has around 2K miles on the brakes so It shouldn't be the ware indicator.

Anyway are there other front Pads available that are not as dusty that you would recommend?

[johnsma22]

Brake dust is 92% Fe, which simply put, is in part iron caused by abrasion of the cast iron brake rotor by the pad, and secondly, fibers from the semi metallic elements of the brake pad. The remainder of the dust residue is carbon content within the brake pad.

99% of automotive brake pads made these days are made as a semi metallic, meaning a bundle of steel fibers compressed and fused together with other additives. The steel fiber content can be up to 30% of the pad and this abrasive material is what scratches your brake rotor and causes the dust.

Non metallic pads such as those made with Twaron or kevlar fiber are only available as an upgrade in the aftermarket and very few manufacturers opt to use these more expensive materials simply for build cost purposes. These pads are known an organics and often outperform and outlast their semi metallic counterparts as well as reducing rotor abrasion and dust caused in the braking action.

I use EBC Greenstuff organic pads on my 76 Trans Am and they perform far better than any semi-metallic pads I've ever used and with far less brake dust.

[steve25]

Did you just install new pads on used but uncut rotors ? If so the new pads will not bed in right, in fact even with new pads and rotors and or freshly cut rotors if you do not do several hard long stops the pads may not bed in right.
Pads that do not bed in right will not have the stopping power they should and will eat up rotors and make for tons of dust!

[rohrt]

The pad and rotors were both new when installed. However I have only put 2K miles over 7 years.

The EBC Green stuff looks pretty good.

[Steve C.]

Many don't want to pay the extra cost but aftermarket slotted rotors help in promoting flat and smooth pad wear. EBC and others sell them.


.

[78w72]

i used HAWK on my 72 with slotted rotors, they are excellent pads, nite & day stopping difference from oem semi-metallic or ceramic "upgrades". hawk stresses the importance of proper bedding in, you should smell the pads after a few hard stop cycles. got about 1500 miles on them & never any noise & little to no dust on the street... however after a day of 8-10 runs at the drag strip i will see some light greyish/brown dust that wipes right off, nothing like the black crap from oem pads.

unfortunately i think the hawk pads for our cars were discontined a couple years ago, i bought 5 sets on closeout from pepboys for less than $20 a set, might be worth a call or searching the internet. part# is or was hb130f.590

[rohrt]

Looks like HAWK is still around. Lots of choices on Summit.

EBC has a several choices and so does Hawk. I guess I need to read up on what would be the best for mostly street driving.

[78w72]

hawk is still around but im not finding much on the part# for our cars unless they changed it. not sure if they completely discontinued that part # or if it was just pepboys stopping carrying the hawk brand but summit & ebay dont show any of that part#.

if you find a set at a bargain or even full price, they are excellent pads for street use, no warm up time either, they bite when cold just about as well as warmed up.

main improvement in stopping power i noticed was at the drag strip, my 78 with all oem disc/drum brakes would not slow down enough for the first turn off, had to step on them hard to make the 2nd & usually just went to the last turn off & that was at 103mph. the 72 with disc/drum doing 118+mph could make the first turn off with relative ease, i was really impressed with them. they stop as good or better than my 81 t/a with disc/disc & performance friction brand front pads on stock rotors.

[rohrt]

I used calipers for 69 bird/70-74 Nova. I think the 68 disc brake setup was an odd ball dual piston caliper. There wasn't much there for Hawk. When I looked for 69 firebird there was many selections to choose from.

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by rohrt

I think the 68 disc brake setup was an odd ball dual piston caliper.

4-piston caliper, not dual-piston.

[rohrt]

I found this comparison pretty interesting

http://www.autoanything.com/brakes/e...-the-best.aspx

[rohrt]

I'm really leaning toward the EBC. The comparisons really seem to lean more to them being the better break pad.

Then there are the Green Yellow and Red friction material.

Some say the Red is the best even for a street car.

[rohrt]

Well I bought the EBC pads. This is what I found when I took the old pads out. My car only has 2300 miles. I swore these pads were new when I put the car together. I'm going to get the rotors turned tomorrow. One is pretty bad. May need to be replaced. I notice the old and the new pad neither have a ware indicator. I guess that is what the rivets are for.

[David Jones]

IF you actually wore out new pads in 2300 miles you have a system problem of some stripe.

[NeighborsComplaint]

Looks like you have a stuck caliper. All your wear is on one pad.

[70pontiaction]

And David Jones, too. I've had pads that looked like this and it was NEVER a well-functioning system.

You definitely have something wrong in the caliper/piston assembly. Or a brake hose that has collapsed inside and is not letting the caliper piston release. Something is keeping that inner pad against the rotor when it shouldn't be. Did you make sure that the caliper was free to slide on the retaining bolts by greasing the bushings/pins?

DON'T just put new pads on or it will do EXACTLY this again.......in another 2300 miles or less.......

One thing to remember about turning down your rotors is that, not only are they a specific thickness for the assembly to fit together and work right, they are good and thick because the more MASS they have the better heat sinks they are. And that is important, too.

In my experience, every time I turned rotors either to the minimum or close to the minimum thickness, they didn't last anywhere near as long as newer, thicker rotors. I usually picked up a brake shudder after the first hard stop.

Nowadays, I buy new drilled and slotted rotors for everything and the calipers get well-inspected and usually rebuilt. It's a night-and-day difference.

Good luck!

[steve25]

That outer pad is gone due to that side caliper hanging up on its two sleeve slides which, or the caliper support guides.
You need to look closely at the caliper guide faces on both the caliper and on the spindle portion for nicks and dips that will hang up the caliper and not let it back up the needed .008" or so to get back to the rest position.

[rohrt]

The ware is more even then they look. The driver side outside pad was within a mm of the rivets. The passenger side was pretty thin too but had maybe 3mm to the rivets.

I have new lines and even steel braided flex lines. The calipers are cheap rebuilt units. The MC I think I got off ebay but don't remember anymore. I question it more then any of the other parts.

You really have me question just getting new rotors. What is the thickness suppose to be new? What is the minimum that is acceptable?

[Blued and Painted]

Isn't the a 4 wheel drum Master cylinder with pressure check valves

[1969GTO]

Could you at any time smell the brake pads burning? did you ever notice if both wheels were very hard to spin after a short drive?
I found that mine did this after a booster/master cyl change and found that the pin between the master and booster was just a little to long and while bolting up the master to the booster, the pin was pushing in on the master and applying pressure with out moving the pedal.
I had the cover off the master with fluid, then while bolting up the master, I could see the fluid pop up some, this has nothing to do with pedal adjustment.