Cadillac Rear Brakes / Bleed screw location / Pinion angle

[ksagis]

Still poking around on my brakes to try and get happier with my pedal. I have Cadillac brakes on rear and have never gotten what I’d call a decent bleed on the system overall. (GM disk conversion on front, updated to a 1.25” MC a while back, yes my parking brake is adjusted right)

I was crawling under truck this AM and noticed with how my rear pinion is rotated up for driveshaft angles, that it’s possible the caliper bleeder screw isn’t totally on top. From looking at the Cadillac service manual it looks like the banjo points straight down and mine is maybe 10 degrees off bottom.

Looking at an extra caliper I have, its hard to tell for sure where the bleeder hole intersects the piston bore but it with how mine is installed with pinion angle, it does look it might not be totally on top.

Not gonna have time to mess with bleeding until back from work travel but thought I post up the observation.

Will update thread when back to CONUS.

Here’s a crappy pic from Caddy manual.

 

[SteveL]

It's a problem with most of the caddy rear disc swaps. Bcbroncos makes caddy rear caliper brackets that place the bleeder screw on top where it should the be. Otherwise with the other brackets you need to remove the caliper from the bracket and hold it on the rotor to properly bleed it. It's a royal pita.

 

[ksagis]

It's a problem with most of the caddy rear disc swaps. Bcbroncos makes caddy rear caliper brackets that place the bleeder screw on top where it should the be. Otherwise with the other brackets you need to remove the caliper from the bracket and hold it on the rotor to properly bleed it. It's a royal pita.

Appreciate the feedback.

Yeah, I have the BC Broncos setup but given my suspension lift and also the rotated pinion, I might be slightly out of how they designed it.

Very possible it’s not an issue for my setup, but I’m gonna poke around at bit by jacking up back wheels to see if I get anymore air out.

 

[DirtDonk]

How much lift? And is the pinion angle correct, or incorrect?
Obviously, if it’s correct, then you can’t change it to help the brakes. Because then you’d have all sorts of other problems!
But if it’s incorrect, then make it right now, before you mess with other stuff.

 

[ksagis]

About 5” of suspension lift, the pinion angle is correct, maybe a degree below driveshaft angle (I have triangulated linked suspension with coilovers)

 

[ba123]

Could always jack up the rear to help.

And I'm gonna say it over and over and over every chance I get... get a pressure bleeder. Works better than anything I've ever used.

I had to bleed my Hydroboost setup one.single.time.

 

[ksagis]

Has anybody used the Motive pressure bleeders? Seems to be a decent price point for more consumer type use.

 

[ba123]

Yes, I swear by them. Might have to figure something out based on your master but do it right and you won’t regret it. I have a Wilwood master and I bought an extra cap and set it up just for bleeding and wrote about it in my thread.

 

[76Broncofromhell]

Caddy calipers are prone to having a spongy pedal when the ratcheting mechanism is not perfectly adjusted. To date, I have never seen a Caddy rear caliper work as designed. In short I would wager that air is not the problem with your brakes. The 10° of angle are likely not preventing you from bleeding the calipers.

I adapted a Tesla caliper to my rock crawler a few months ago - working on a 9" rear kit using 2015-2018 F-150 rear calipers specifically because of how bad the Cadillac calipers are.

 

[ksagis]

Caddy calipers are prone to having a spongy pedal when the ratcheting mechanism is not perfectly adjusted. To date, I have never seen a Caddy rear caliper work as designed. In short I would wager that air is not the problem with your brakes. The 10° of angle are likely not preventing you from bleeding the calipers.

I adapted a Tesla caliper to my rock crawler a few months ago - working on a 9" rear kit using 2015-2018 F-150 rear calipers specifically because of how bad the Cadillac calipers are.

I hear that a lot but based on everything I read, I feel like my parking brake adjustment is okay (Less than 1/16” of gap when parking brake lever is pressed forward)

Feels like if the Caddy calipers were such garbage, Caddy mechanics would be yelling left and right.

Seems like folks on this forum are pretty united in their hate of Caddy calipers and how they perform I’m just trying to sort out why me and others have so much of an issue.

Appreciate all the feedback from folks, if I ever figure it out, I’ll def post up.

 

[76Broncofromhell]

I hear that a lot but based on everything I read, I feel like my parking brake adjustment is okay (Less than 1/16” of gap when parking brake lever is pressed forward)

Feels like...

Seems like ....

Appreciate all the feedback from folks, if I ever figure it out, I’ll def post up.

I don't seem or feel. Those calipers were garbage. I tell you this from experience. There are a set somewhere in my parents garage with red VHT paint mocking me to this day because of how much they sucked.
The large bore calipers (7" spacing) were only available for 2 years (1976-1978) and weren't very good but were more suited to something heavy than the more common 1" thick variety (5.5" pin spacing) that most brake kits come with. The 5.5" spaced calipers (1979-1985) are barely adequate to hold the cars they came on, which were compact cars, when they ratchet mechanism actually worked. Both are poor choices.

The mechanism is fragile and the design of the caliper relies on said mechanism in order to keep the tolerance of the pads to the rotor (much like a self-adjusting drum brake). Newer caliper designs separate the e-brake mechanism and the hydraulics so that the caliper functions like a standard hydraulic caliper when the e-brake is not in use.

To go even further - I wouldn't even bother on a mechanical brake today given all the advances in electric brakes and all the issues brake cables cause in EBs but that's just me.

 

[DirtDonk]

Have you looked at enough electric versions to know what you like yet?

 

[76Broncofromhell]

Have you looked at enough electric versions to know what you like yet?

2015-2018 F-150 rear calipers are the closest match to GM or Ford D44 front calipers. Mounting looks pretty straight forward - but I have yet to design / build the brackets since my EB is in pieces.

Here's a thread from Irate with a lot of detail on all the different iterations of rotors.

OE Electric Parking Brake bible: We're looking at different rotors, add on parking brakes and also integrated electric parking brakes.

This thread is to discuss adding OEM electric parking brakes onto our axles. We've found 8 on 6.5" rotors, 5 on 5.5" rotors and most other bolt patterns. We've looked at Tesla, Ford and GM as sources.

irate4x4.com