Brake Calipers Rubbing Wheels (Advice Needed)

Clocktower07

Clocktower07

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Bangor, ME
Greetings from Maine,

Today the weather was finally nice enough for the LJ to come out of hibernation. I’ve been working on the rig all winter, and among other things, I changed out the wheels, tires, and brakes.

Everything was fine until I started the Black Magic break-in procedure. I've completed this procedure successfully on other jeeps, but this time was different. I started hearing a rhythmic grinding noise from the rear of the jeep after the second braking iteration. I aborted and limped about 500 yds back to my house. When I took the rear driver-side wheel off, this is what I saw:

20230404_135751.jpg


20230404_123437.jpg


20230404_123457.jpg


It looks like the caliper is rubbing the wheel. There is a scored ring on the inside of the wheel and there is bare metal on two areas of the caliper. Damage is mostly to the powdercoat, as I can barely catch a fingernail on the edge of the scored ring.

Peeking through the holes in the rear passenger wheel, I see a similar scored ring and no daylight between the wheel and caliper:

20230404_123522.jpg


20230404_123549.jpg


  • Wheels are Quadratec Baja Extreme II, 15X8 w/ 4.0 backspacing
  • Rotors are Centric 67063
  • Brake Calipers are Power Stop S4754
  • Brake pads are Black Magic 964
The front brakes and wheels seem to be fine. Are the rear wheels or calipers out of spec? Did I bodger the installation somehow?

Any/all help and insight on this matter would be appreciated!
 
Last edited:
Clocktower07 said:
Greetings from Maine,

Today the weather was finally nice enough for the LJ to come out of hibernation. I’ve been working on the rig all winter, and among other things, I changed out the wheels, tires, and brakes.

Everything was fine until I started the Black Magic break-in procedure. I've completed this procedure successfully on other jeeps, but this time was different. I started hearing a rhythmic grinding noise from the rear of the jeep after the second braking iteration. I aborted and limped about 500 yds back to my house. When I took the rear driver-side wheel off, this is what I saw:

View attachment 413172

View attachment 413164

View attachment 413165

It looks like the caliper is rubbing the wheel. There is a scored ring on the inside of the wheel and there is bare metal on two areas of the caliper. Damage is mostly to the powdercoat, as I can barely catch a fingernail on the edge of the scored ring.

Peeking through the holes in the rear passenger wheel, I see a similar scored ring and no daylight between the wheel and caliper:

View attachment 413167

View attachment 413168

  • Wheels are Quadratec Baja Extreme II, 15X8 w/ 4.0 backspacing
  • Rotors are Centric 67063
  • Brake Calipers are Power Stop S4754
  • Brake pads are Black Magic 964
The front brakes and wheels seem to be fine. Are the rear wheels or calipers out of spec? Did I bodger the installation somehow?

Any/all help and insight on this matter would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Calipers are out of spec. Pretty common since there are about 12 different versions that all look very similar. Powerstop just grabbed something that looks like the the OEM castings and isn't. They have a problem they need to solve for you.
 
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mrblaine said:
Calipers are out of spec. Pretty common since there are about 12 different versions that all look very similar. Powerstop just grabbed something that looks like the the OEM castings and isn't. They have a problem they need to solve for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks Blaine - I had no idea there were so many look-alikes!

I reached out to both Amazon and Powerstop. Amazon refunded immediately and Powerstop is considering their options. I'll post an update with a final resolution, if any.
 
Clocktower07 said:
Thanks Blaine - I had no idea there were so many look-alikes!

I reached out to both Amazon and Powerstop. Amazon refunded immediately and Powerstop is considering their options. I'll post an update with a final resolution, if any.
Click to expand...

Here is a picture of the problem. The OE caliper is tapered down just past where the bridge starts to go over the rotor.
There are 3 different rear caliper castings in the picture.

1680699887103.png


I went through my different versions and I don't have any good ones with the low profile casting. The problem is due to it not being a big enough issue to keep the core bank discrete. That and most of the suppliers of new parts have picked the one with ribs to be the one they make and sell. Every other aspect is the same, pistons, seals, guide sleeves, dust boots, and bleed screws.

I went and dug around on Rock Auto and I only found a couple of non coated versions that would fit without rubbing.
 
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mrblaine said:
Here is a picture of the problem. The OE caliper is tapered down just past where the bridge starts to go over the rotor.
There are 3 different rear caliper castings in the picture.

View attachment 413406

I went through my different versions and I don't have any good ones with the low profile casting. The problem is due to it not being a big enough issue to keep the core bank discrete. That and most of the suppliers of new parts have picked the one with ribs to be the one they make and sell. Every other aspect is the same, pistons, seals, guide sleeves, dust boots, and bleed screws.

I went and dug around on Rock Auto and I only found a couple of non coated versions that would fit without rubbing.
Click to expand...

I just heard back from Powerstop; they refuse to do anything about the issue.

If low-profile replacements were easier to source, I'd be 100% willing to bite the bullet for the right parts. However, if most replacements will produce similar issues due to ribbed castings, can I safely grind the the ribs down on the Powerstop calipers as suggested by Gilaguy? If so, how much clearance should I shoot for?
 
Hey all, I wanted to close out this thread in case someone stumbles upon it in the future. I broke out the angle grinder and started removing metal from the calipers and periodically test-fitting. I kept going until I had about 3mm of clearance where the calipers were previously rubbing. The result isn't the prettiest, but it gets the job done - no more rubbing, grinding, etc.! Thanks for the help everyone!
 
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