Hey Guys:
Last weekend, I was doing my brake rotor, line and pad installation. Was able to do the front rotors and pads. Worked well. A friggin' dirty job guys. Here is it 5 day later and the brake dust is still imbeded in my hands after MUCH washing and scrubbing. Word of advice?.. Wear rubber surgical gloves.

OK, lets get to the problem and perhaps your ideas on how to skin this cat....

I got the real nice front and rear stainless woven brake lines from www.Cyberauto.com They are to replace the OEM rubber lines and should provide a nice firmer feel to the brake pedal (not that it is soft).

So, I took the upper part of the OEM rubber line off of the firm metal line that comes out of the wheel well. The new line has a 10mm threaded female coupler. The firm line has the male 10mm connector on the line BEHIND the belled out line end junction.

The deal or problem is this.

The male 10mm coupler nut has taken on a "set" or bell to match the flair at the end of the firm line. This set or bell is just large enough to stop the nut from entering the new female end of the new stainless line.

What the frig should I do??

I guess here are some options....

A) Cut the bell off the frim line. Get a new female coupler from Lexus. Put it on and rebell the end of the firm line. Problem with this is that there is not alot of "slack" in the firm line and the result could very will be that the sucker will be too short. ALso what is the best way to cut this bell off without collapsing the line and fubaring it up. A tube cutter would work but it would require at least the loss of 1/2" or more of firm line... not good.

B) Install new firm lines from the master cylinder to the front wheel wells with new female nuts. Also possibly do this on the rear lines. I suspect this will be costly.


For now, I buttoned up the job on last Sunday with the old lines and bled them out. The front brakes are nice but the new green stuff carbon kevlar pads are still bedding in.

I have not yet taken on the rear brake job. In looking them over, the one issue with the rear rotors appears to be the integral internal parking brakes are in each rotor. I suppose these are going to be alot like Corvette or Explorer rears and become a real pain in the butt to remove. You gotta use the parking brake adjuster to back off the brake shoes to pull the rears off on those cars. Is that the case with the SC400 as well??

I eagerly await any and all informed responses from those who have done rotor and brake line work on the SC400.

 

Dude, I have your answer.

I had the very same problem when I did my brakes. I broke down and read the instructions that came with the lines.
They say to just use a file and carefully file down the flare until it fits. So what did I do??? I filed them down and they fit just right. Funny thing about those instructions

Hope this helps

gadgetSC

 

Hey GadgetSC!
thanks for that idea! I do have some small jewlers files and some diamond abrasion stones that I suppose would do the trick! My set of lines did not come with instructions sadly. Just the 4 lines, the 4 Banjo bolts and 8 small brass washers. I am assuming that each of the banjo bolts gets one of the brass washers right? Did you use the washers on the junction with the firm line?

It is going to be so much fun filing those nuts in 40 degree weather on a cold garage floor. Gosh i wish I had a lift.
A lift, A lift... my kingdom for a lift....

or maybe and anti-gravity device....

or tele-kenetic powers .....

or better yet, non-flared 10mm brake junction nuts.

 

Hey Red93,
You should use two of the washers per bolt. One on each side of the firm line(the line is sandwiched between two washers and then bolted to the caliper.
The job isnt too difficult. No need for special files. just take off a little around the flare, enough to fit the two lines together. Good luck.


gadgetSC

 

Thanks Gadget:

Now, does anyone know how to get the rear rotors off? They start to come off perhaps oh, 1/2" then bind up and stop. I think the parking brake shoes and mechanism is inside them on an inner drum from what it looks like. THere is a large hole, maybe less than 1 inch. What position does this hole need to be in to perhaps get access to the adjuster for the parking brakes? I cannot see inside well enough as the car is real low on the scissor jack stand.

I assume that I have to tighten up the adjuster to compress the parking brakes so the rear rotors can slip off??

Once I can get to it, does anyone know what direction to twiddle the adjuster to compress it? IE: towards me or down or away from me or up?

 

Red93,

there is a brake shoe adjuster near the bottom of the disk rotor that adjusts the parking/emergency brake that would have to be loosened some to remove the rotor. Look near the bottom arc of the disk, there is an access hole that you can stick your screwdriver in and turn the adjuster to tighten or loosen the (adjust) the brakes. This should work for you. Good luck


gadgetSC

 

Yup, that's what I figured. Seems alot like the rears on the Explorer. I'll get to the rears when the weather gets warmer. Right now we have 28 degree weather, no way I am crawling around on the garage floor in cold like that. Thanks again.

 

hey man....so describe to us all the difference you feel with the new pads and rotors....

 

Hi Adam:
So far I have only done the two fronts. These have the EBC Green Stuff pads on them which are carbon kevlar. Since putting the rotors and new pads on I have less than 200 miles on the brakes, most of it highway. This weekend I did drive around town applying the brakes every once in a while to "bed" them in to the new rotors.

When they were really new, they sounded very bad. Kind of a noisy grinding. Also an "Urpgch" when you came to a final stop. That lasted for about 10 stops then went away. With hands off the wheel and applying the brakes the car pulled to the right.

Now, the noise has gone away and the brakes no longer pull either right or left. With hands off the wheel at 70 and gently applying the brakes, the car stops straight as an arrow.

The feel is firm. The pedal is firm. I have not yet jammed on the brakes hard. The flyer that comes with the pads warns to not jam or panic stop the car until the pads are fully bedded.

The rotors are slotted and drilled. They look very nice and will look better when the SSR GT3 wheels go on. They are a 5 spoke design which should really show off the rotors. The rotors are also nickle plated a brite silver or nickle finish. So far the pads have just polished the nickle and there is some uneveness as they have not bedded fully.

The old rotors with 74K miles on them were with the old pads. These rotors and pads were OEM and according to the detailed maintenance records were original and never had been replaced. The pads were pretty worn down and there was only .17" of friction material left on each pad. They would also squeak when applied, especially the first few times of use in the morning and evening. Once they warmed up they did not squeak any longer. The new pads do not squeak.

All in all, I am very happy with the new rotors. If the weather breaks I will do the rears but it is too darned cold outside to work on the car.

 

Red,

What kind of rotors did you get? I need to upgrade my brakes pretty soon.

Peter~

 

Hi Peter:
I got these rotors, front and back from a guy out in California. They are both drilled and slotted. Additionally, they are nickle plated so they are very shiney and brite. How long the plating will last on the friction surface is anyones guess but they sure look good for now.

The box they came in was a Bradi box, each rotor was hand wrapped in packing paper. The guy's name is Woody and his email address is raceconcepts@mindspring.com. Woody is out in California so you may be able to just drive over to him and pick them up. He ships really fast and the rotors are double boxed and packed well. I have done two transactions with him and am pleased with his service. He can hook you up with pads as well if you ask him. He suggests the carbon-kevlar type as they do not leave brake dust as much as semi-mets.

 

I have a 94' GS300 with Rod Millen front brakes and I have a leak in one of my stainless steel lines, can you help me out, will they fit my car, cost? I only need one for the front left, I really don't want to have to buy an entire kit. Do I have to replace the line with the same as what the kit came with, or can I use any stainless lines?