So, this weekend I started to do this on my 72 Chevelle. I ran into a couple of snags I thought I'd get your guys's advice on.

First, the hard lines that run along the axel in back are too long. I plan to just cut and re flare them and connect the flex line that came with the kit. However, I thought the idea behind this kit was not having to do any cutting on the lines?

Also, the emergency brake cables are too short to reach to the back section of the caliper where they need to connect. Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.

Has anyone else ran into these issues?

After pondering it more today, I'm beginning to wonder if I don't have the calipers on there upside down. Does the spring and arm for the parking brake apparatus go towards the top or bottom side of the caliper? I've got it on the bottom side right now.

If they're on upside down then you have the bleeders at the bottom. If the bleeders are at the bottom of the caliper when mounted then yes, they are upside down. I'd call CPP and ask before you start hacking at the lines and the ebrake deal.

Yea you got them on uppside down the emergency brake cable connect on top and the caliper goes on the rear side of the car. I have a 69 my fit was fine.

Bleeders at the top, e brake cable at the top and the kit should have an e brake cable extension to use if the cable is still too short. Everything fit fine on my 68, without the extension.

Cool, I'll flip them over tonight after work. Maybe that will make my hard lines fit better too.....hopefully!! :D

I just cruised the CPP website for a minute, and found out that they do offer new rear hard brake lines and emergency brake cable extenders.

Not sure why these didn't come with my "complete" kit.............

I think I'll be cutting and re flairing my own lines since they want an extra 90 bucks for theirs.

I installed on a '65 and actually had to have longer lines made from the caliper to the hard line. I had to change the hard line from the block because I was using stainless steel lines. So as far as being a 'drop in' installation.... I found it to NOT be so. The emergency lines fit fine, though.

Yeah, I just eyeballed the fit of the ebrake lines in the back last night by lifting the cable up where it would be if the calipers were on right, and it seems they will be at least pretty close.

As for the hard lines, I've always wanted to learn how to flare tubing, so there is no better time than the present! :D

Here some pictures of mine on a 69

I bent the new lines up and over the top of the diff. tube to the front, welded the supplied brackets to the side of the bracket that holds the bump stops, and connected the hard line to the flex line.

No cutting or re-flaring required, just a little bending and welding. The flex line actually fits better IMO when done this way and it's easier to get tube nut wrenches on them to tighten the connection. Doesn't look hokey, either in case you're wondering.

Mike, did you mean to say that you bent the existing hard lines to the front of the diff tube, rather than the new lines?

I'm just trying to get this done with the existing lines is all. I may see if there is a way to bend the existing lines to get them to fit on there decent and take a bit of length out of the line to make it shorter.......

I did flip the calipers around last night, and the E brake cable will be long enough now. But, another problem exists. There is nothing to hold it steady against the caliper on the other end of things. The piece that held it on the outside of the drums is still there, but not close enough on the line and doesn't seem to slide around much.

Also, there seems to be an issue with the calipers alignment too. Almost like it needs to move towards the outside of the wheel well about 1/8" or so.There is a decent gap between the pads and rotor on the back side, but on the front it's very tight and rubs just a bit. I'm not exactly sure how I'd get the entire caliper to move towards the outside like that, without having to take just a touch of material off of the spacer that is between the mounting flange and bracket.

Looks like if you want the piece that holds the E-brake cable at the caliper side, you have to buy their E-brake cables.

Also decided not to take any material off of the spacer or bracket. Hopefully shims between the flange where the backing plate mounted and the bracket itself at the right spots will help.

Mike, did you mean to say that you bent the existing hard lines to the front of the diff tube, rather than the new lines?

But, another problem exists. There is nothing to hold it steady against the caliper on the other end of things. The piece that held it on the outside of the drums is still there, but not close enough on the line and doesn't seem to slide around much.

Also, there seems to be an issue with the calipers alignment too. Almost like it needs to move towards the outside of the wheel well about 1/8" or so.There is a decent gap between the pads and rotor on the back side, but on the front it's very tight and rubs just a bit. I'm not exactly sure how I'd get the entire caliper to move towards the outside like that, without having to take just a touch of material off of the spacer that is between the mounting flange and bracket.

Yes, I bent the existing lines towards the front of the car. Since they're stainless lines that I bought, I didn't want the trouble trying to flare them as well as the factory did.

I also bought repro e-brake cables that fit/were designed for these calipers. They do not have that fingered spring deal that holes them into a drum brake backing plate. Rather, you just feed them through the e-brake coil spring, then bend the crimped end around and past the slot the cable goes in. Nothing else holds them in, they will stay all by themselves.

My brake kit came with different thickness shims to adjust the alignment, did yours? If not, I'd call CPP and ask them about it. I actually bought mine from The Right Stuff, so it may be packaged differently but it should be exactly the same kit.

Yeah, mine came with some shims that I failed miserably at using tonight........I dunno what is going wrong with these things. Here are some pics to take a look at if they will help at all.......this is with no shims

http://www.matt-carey.com/images/p1.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/p3.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/p4.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/p5.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/d1.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/d2.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/d3.jpg
http://www.matt-carey.com/images/d4.jpg

It's almost like the entire caliper needs to come out (towards the outside of the fender) and no matter where I put shims in at, it always binds up when I tighten the bolts down that hold the bracket to the flange on the axel.

I am beginning to think these rear brakes were a mistake.............

If I remember right, I may have had sort of the same issue for a bit....then bled my brakes and the calipers slid over in thier bushings and all was well.

Oh.......alright. Maybe I'll try that. They are quite a PITA to even get the caliper in the right position over the bracket right now without having the bolts loose to begin with.

I'll loosen the bolts up, get them on there, get those bolts back tight, adjust the parking brake and bleed the brakes. Maybe that will get me where I need to be.........(hopefully at least!).

If you don't have speed bleeders, a power bleeder, etc. I would recommend you do. The design of those calipers with the bleeder in the position it's in makes it harder to get all the air out. I bought the speed bleeders and can bleed them myself in a few minutes with just a little catch can with 90* bleeder rubber adapter from the auto parts store....works really slick.

They're a metric thread, 10mm x 1.5, I believe these are the ones I bought sold in pairs:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=RUS%2D639580&N=700+115&autoview=sku

If you don't have speed bleeders, a power bleeder, etc. I would recommend you do. The design of those calipers with the bleeder in the position it's in makes it harder to get all the air out. I bought the speed bleeders and can bleed them myself in a few minutes with just a little catch can with 90* bleeder rubber adapter from the auto parts store....works really slick.

They're a metric thread, 10mm x 1.5, I believe these are the ones I bought sold in pairs:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=RUS%2D639580&N=700+115&autoview=sku

Cool, thanks for the heads up. I'll get a set of those before I try bleeding them. :yes:

I installed the same kit on mine and made my own lines. The bolts they send me with the rear brakes where 1/4" too long and I had to cut them. Bleeding the brakes with all 4 new disc front and back was PIA. To me it was not a easy bolt on without some snags.
Also the banjo fittings leaked because the calipers where it mated to where not deburred.
I had to grind them with a dremel very carefully!!That is the copper washer would not seat due to the surface being rough!! I spend a few xtra hours making it work.A true bolt
to me is when everything bolts on without grinding,cutting and deburring!!
It works real well though once I got it all installed!

Yes, I had to cut one lower bolt on each side as well....it hit the shock bracket. I did not have banjo fitting issues though, as long as I tightened them enough....which I forgot to do the first time.

Yes, I had to cut one lower bolt on each side as well....it hit the shock bracket. I did not have banjo fitting issues though, as long as I tightened them enough....which I forgot to do the first time.

LOL I tightened it as hard as I could on 2 and they leaked like crazy.
I also had to buy new washers,now that I think about it!! Since I crushed the
washers I was ticked!! Now it all comes back.:mad:
Seriously though I had my share of problems with this Kit
They should also include the emergency cable extensions for each side.
On drum brakes they are shorter, so it set me back a few days until they send me the $90 ones.Did not know this at the time. I made my own power bleeder with a plastic bleeder cup you get from the hand vaccum pump and used a vaccum pump from Harbour freight The A/C kind for $12 which sucks the air fairly well with my Air compressor hooked up.
Hope your problems are less than what were mine!

Yeah, that does sound like you had problems.....I guess I forgot to mention for the front kit, I had to cut and re-weld the caliper brackets since they were made wrong. I did buy the kits separately from CPP and The right stuff as well as years apart though.

The front kit was for retaining the drum spindles, and when I got it, it said Nova on it. I made a template to keep the measurements right before I cut the brackets apart and it ended up OK. I looked recently to see if they still make the kit I have, I'm not so sure they do since I didn't see it anywhere with the rotos that bolt onto the hubs.

As for the e-brake cables, I had done the research so I knew about them. I agree though, they should come in the kit, even if as an added cost.

Ordered the speed bleeders today, and a tubing bender. When these get here I'll let you all know how it comes out.

I may just forego the E-brake thing all together. I never use it with an automatic trans anyways......of course if I ever did need it I'd regret not having it, but (at least for now) I think 90 bucks is overkill for these cables. If I can find them cheaper somewhere else I'll pick'em up.

the emergency brakes are essential for caliper feed as the pads wear. on my '64 ChevyII with rear CPP discs i had a few issues, one was regarding pad to rotor alignment. i found out that the caliper piston has reliefs in it for the pad "nub" to fit into. on one side of the car the caliper piston relief was proper depth, the other side of the car it wasn't. the pad "nub" wouldn't fit into the caliper properly and it hung out causing misalignment. also, with a rear disc brake tool, prior to installing the system confirm the piston is rotated fully into the caliper bore of the pads may hang up due to insufficient clearance. (another issue i had)

i too had a brake line length issue and had to cut off bolts that were too long to install. i also agree that a "Bolt-On" kit should be JUST that ;)

a Bolt-On kit ;)

I was considering the CPP rear kit but I was wondering how well the e brake would hold the car. I have a manual trans and use the e brake (parking brake) all the time.

I am also having a hard time adjusting the emergency brake for the rear calipers? Seems that no matter how many times I adjust it I still have a soft low pedal and hardly any rear brakes? If I clamp of the rear main line then my pedal is nice and firm so I now the problem is in the rear calipers. I have already power bled them several times and no air has came out for a while. Any tips for adjusting the rear calipers, the CPP instructions are terrible and their tech guys are even worse!

one thing about the rear brackets are they rotate the calipers slightly to give access to the caliper mounting bolts. if the Trans-Am plates are used (unsure if Caddy's are exactly the same) the one caliper bolt is behind the leaf spring, so to remove the caliper to do a brake job meant removing the shock/leaf plate and raising the differential, i found this out on a '55 Chevy that i installed the T/A discs on years back. so with the plate rotated slightly there's an air pocket above the bleeder screw. i used a 2x4 that i cut down so it was the same thickness as the brake rotor and i used it to block the caliper. with the calipers off the car, bleeder screws up i was finally able to get my system bled.

it was a pain for me to get a pedal on my set up too. took a lot of bleeding, more than i ever thought would be necessary. by isolating the front & rear you've confirmed it's in the rear brakes... try bleeding some more. which i'm sure you didn't want to hear ;)

as far as the emergency brake, you can either connect it all up and constantly actuate/release until the pads are properly fed up to the rotor or you can remove the caliper e brake spring, remove the e brake lever and with a wrench turn the e brake actuator stud/nut to feed the piston... i'm lazy, i just actuated/released until the piston was fed.

right now my e brake needs a little more adjusting to make it what it should be... i have a manny tranny in my car so i too think of the e brake constantly. i think if it was properly adjusted (which like i said, i need to put the final tweaking on mine) i think it'd hold just fine.


hope i helped,


JR