I just upgraded to grand am brakes, SS lines, and S10 master. They feel great and this car has never stopped harder. Love it. I do find that when stomping on the brakes, the pedal hits a wall and then loosens and grabs the rest of the way. I cannot remember if I greased the sliders on the front calipers as I drank a bunch of beer with my dad and we went to town on the brakes. Not smart admittedly. I'm going to take the fronts off and grease everything, what needs greased? There's the bolts, the sleeve that fits into the rubber bit of the caliper, and I think that's it as far as moving stuff? I tried reading Ogres brake page but I couldn't really figure out what I was looking at.

"went to town" being figurative. We didn't drive.

quote Originally posted by Additivewalnut: ... the pedal hits a wall and then loosens and grabs the rest of the way. ... what needs greased?

I don't know if I really understand that first sentence there. When you say the pedal hits a wall... are you saying that it travels freely and then the braking effort (resistance) is suddenly harder? My first thought is you have air in the system, but I may be mis-interpreting what you're saying here. If you're saying though that it feels like something is "catching" then that could be something with one of the components not properly greased, or only partially greased.

I'll add one comment (similar to what I did in the other braking thread)... make sure you use break grease. You can't really use the same grease that you use for packing bearings... that kind of grease will eventually dry up and cake... and then you'll have to rebuild your brakes again. Use specifically designed brake grease.

I know you went with the Grand Am brake upgrade. I did too... but my car is 300 miles away and in storage, so I can't look at it, but typically you grease the bolts (not the threaded part) and sliders, and then depending on what kind of pads you use... sometimes the pads also slide back and forth... so you need to grease the area which the pads slide on. For the life of me, I can't remember if the pads slide in with clamps and stay attached to the two ends of the calipers (one on the piston, and the other on the caliper end)... or if they just "rest" in the slot such as in Ford Explorer brakes. It should be pretty obvious though.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I don't know if I really understand that first sentence there. When you say the pedal hits a wall... are you saying that it travels freely and then the braking effort (resistance) is suddenly harder? My first thought is you have air in the system, but I may be mis-interpreting what you're saying here. If you're saying though that it feels like something is "catching" then that could be something with one of the components not properly greased, or only partially greased. I'll add one comment (similar to what I did in the other braking thread)... make sure you use break grease. You can't really use the same grease that you use for packing bearings... that kind of grease will eventually dry up and cake... and then you'll have to rebuild your brakes again. Use specifically designed brake grease. I know you went with the Grand Am brake upgrade. I did too... but my car is 300 miles away and in storage, so I can't look at it, but typically you grease the bolts (not the threaded part) and sliders, and then depending on what kind of pads you use... sometimes the pads also slide back and forth... so you need to grease the area which the pads slide on. For the life of me, I can't remember if the pads slide in with clamps and stay attached to the two ends of the calipers (one on the piston, and the other on the caliper end)... or if they just "rest" in the slot such as in Ford Explorer brakes. It should be pretty obvious though.

I took apart the front brakes, the bolts were bone dry. I blame that on the peach bellini Seagrams, which I highly recommend... Fixed that, got some high temp brake goop on the bolts. I won't be able to drive it until tomorrow but the pedal feels like the rears engage at the top of the pedal, then about halfway through the travel it just stops until you press way harder and it lets go and the front grabs. The pads have little tangs on them that fit inside the piston and in two holes in the caliper. I don't think there's anything to really grease there, other than the back of the piston pad maybe.

I remember in my youth (4 years ago) I used anti seize on the slides of my Nissan Maxima and 6 months later was really confused when my rear caliper seized up. Learning experiences are great, aren't they?

quote Originally posted by Additivewalnut: I took apart the front brakes, the bolts were bone dry. I blame that on the peach bellini Seagrams, which I highly recommend... Fixed that, got some high temp brake goop on the bolts. I won't be able to drive it until tomorrow but the pedal feels like the rears engage at the top of the pedal, then about halfway through the travel it just stops until you press way harder and it lets go and the front grabs. The pads have little tangs on them that fit inside the piston and in two holes in the caliper. I don't think there's anything to really grease there, other than the back of the piston pad maybe. I remember in my youth (4 years ago) I used anti seize on the slides of my Nissan Maxima and 6 months later was really confused when my rear caliper seized up. Learning experiences are great, aren't they?

Shoot, don't feel bad. I just discovered the very thing on my Ford Explorer a few months ago. My calipers didn't seize, but I'd used ball joint grease... it all caked up and yeah... I had to re-do all of it.

As for the rear brakes engaging before the fronts... that definitely shouldn't be happening, and FOR SURE... you do not want that. It's a sure fire way to cause your rear-end to break loose on even the slightest turn. I have the same brake upgrade package as you, but I can't remember if I've ever actually driven the car with them on. I assume yours is basically this same set-up?




The date there is correct... I put it in storage just a couple of months after this... where it still sits, lol.


My thought is that maybe you have air in the brake lines going to the front. I would make sure you properly bleed the brakes all the way from the master cyl to the caliper to get ALL of the air out. That's honestly my first thought as to what could be causing this.


All of that said, the Fiero has a factory (non-adjustable) proportioning valve... somewhere. It might even be right there in the front. If after bleeding the brakes completely... you still have the rears catching before the front... then you may want to install an adjustable proportioning valve. It's been a really long time since I've done any kind of SCCA stuff (the Solo / parking lot events when I was much much younger)... but I always preferred significantly more front brake bias, with reduced understeer from an aftermarket rear sway bar. I just can't imagine how rear brake bias would ever be a good thing... especially in a car with increased rear-weight.


This is more or less something you'd want to look into getting... but honestly, check to make sure you don't have air in the system first:

https://www.amazon.com/Wilw...oning/dp/B003LT619Q/

quote Originally posted by Additivewalnut: when stomping on the brakes, the pedal hits a wall and then loosens and grabs the rest of the way.

Can be MC is "bad."
Quick take-up valve for rear brakes limit fluid flow in the MC for several reasons even when work 100% correct.

Can be sliders or other problems in the calipers or even the combi valve next to the MC.

Many put way too much torque to tighten line nuts to MC &/or Combi valve that crimps the hole partly to completely shut. Worse, If the system has crap in the lines, this can block the narrow holes in those parts.

Go in the cave, but click the Map in upper right of any page for direct links for pages only link from other pages in the main menu.
Then read Every brake pages
Example: in combi valve page look @ cut away view how the line crushes the valve body.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave