I posted something simmilar in the brake section but didnt get much action so I am posting it here.

First off this is about my 78 mercury. When I got the car the caliper was stuck and wore one side of the pad down quite a bit and warped the rotor. It was bad every time you applied the brakes it was a pulsing (brake - let up - brake - let up) type thing. So I took the caliper off and replaced it with a new one and put on new pads. It worked wonderful aside from the pulsing brakes which when applied above 40 mph would cause a front end shimmy (I assume it was caused by the warped rotor causing vibrations to be transmitted to the gearbox which has slack in it). So I went to napa and got a brand new rotor for $80 at the time. Put it on and reused the same pads (didnt look bad they were worn smooth and had alot of meat still on them) and the pulsing and shimmy above 40 mph when applying the brakes went away. Then slowly it came back to where I am now about if not over a year later. Its back like it was and jacking the car up and spinning the tire you can clearly hear the pads contact and lose contact with the rotor as you spin it. I also noticed some times the pulsing isnt as bad when cold but after some driving and heating up the pulsing comes back like usual.

Now I am looking at some performance upgrade rotors for the car since I am thinking the rotors might not be transfering heat away and thus causing the warped rotor. Pads are wearing evenly on both sides and I wirebrushed the sliding caliper slots as well as coated them with a high temp antiseize lubircant that is still working.

Only question I have is could reusing those pads from a warped rotor on a new rotor cause the rotor to warp?

Honestly I dont see it but it was a question that was put forth that I am wondering.

The other question would be does anyone know of a place that sells performance upgrade rotors that are of a fair price that can handle heat from stopping a heavy vehicle?

I found one site online that listed heavy duty Police cruiser brake rotors for my vehicle but I think those are the larger 11 13/16" diameter rotor where as the rotor the car orignally had when I replaced it measured 10 3/4" which is what I put on with the napa rotor. So I honestly dont think the 11 13/16" rotor would be interchangeable with my vehicle.

But if any help could be provided I would greatly appreciate it. I am in need of two new front rotors and I also need to replace the AC clutch but I put that off till later since its $140 - $160 for a new one and I figured I could get the brake rotors for less than that.

 

Two things, always replace the pads along with the rotors, they're cheap. If you do the work yourself, make sure you tighten the lugs in a star pattern equally and torque to spec.

 

Ok I wasnt sure because the pads were still with alot of meat on them and they werent that cheap they were about $20. The rotor I also tightened the bearings as tight as I could get them then loosened it up and snuged it up after seating the bearings. The lugs were tightened in a star pattern to 80 ft lbs (calls for 110 ft lbs but I personally think thats over kill)

Only thing that I am not sure is if the warped rotor could have been caused by the pads being used on a warped rotor or if its just typical napa garbage that I paid $80 for and the metal wasnt heat treated as well and it warped from normal street use.

I am looking at performance upgrade rotors like the crossdrilled or slotted rotors but I keep hearing the crossdrilled are cheesegraters on the pads and that they dont help with cooling but I also heard that they help with cooling. But it looks like I will have to stick with OEM rotors since no place offers a performance upgrade rotor for the vehicle.

As far as the pad goes I was going to replace them this time around reguardless.

 

In my younger days, I replaced/turned a lot of warped rotors and threw the old pads back on, never experienced any problems from it.........Watch "new" rotors, I have seen them come out of the box warped!

 

See thats what upsets me. They recomend machining new rotors to make sure their not warped. Now why would I want to spend $60 - $90 for a brand new rotor just to fork over another $10 - $30 for them to machine them true.

These rotors I dont think were warped to begin with out of the box. The car stopped wonderfully without pulsing or I also didnt notice the front steering assembly shaking was there applying brakes above 40 but I want to replace the gear box later on. Just dont want to end up with $1000 or more worth of parts all at once when I could take the car and have the dents and body damage repaired and repaint it myself for the same cost. A new steering box is a good $116 - $150 excluding the core charge. Then if I got the new a/c clutch as well at the same time thats yet another $150 added on then the rotors would be yet another $130 added on (oem replacement ones). I still havent even figured in the cost of the pads either. I just dont get where rotors on a 82 F150 can only cost $30 - $40 per rotor but yet for my Mercury from 78 they want close to $100 per rotor. If I knew the heavy duty police rotors being a good 1" bigger in diameter will work without problem I would spend a couple dollars more for the HD ones with the hopes that they dont warp under normal street use.

 

shoot me now but i just scrapped a perfect set of 11 inch rotors from an old squad i parted , and the corresponding big drums on it's 8.8 ......................... sat around here forever , never found a use for 'em and just tossed 'em in with some scrap and away they went in my buddy's truck ........................... i'm having the same issue with my 95 bird though a shimmy and pulse in the left front from a caliper / new rotor thats gone away after a few months of use { albeit hard use as my wife , lil miss wait to the last minute too stop , and two oldest daughters have been using it more than i have } . fortuneately the bird's parts aren't as expensive as the older big car stuff . by the way the granda and many other fords used the same 10 inch front rotor as the big boxy vic's monarchs etc. if you investigate it . so maybe look and see if the parts are cheaper on one of them 's listings . i know from investigating the use of them and searching / researching the bearings etc . i needed to possibly use the ones i had on my 53 effie .

 

I have never had a name brand, not Chinese store brand, rotor come out of the box warped. Also, there is nothing wrong with mixing used pads with new rotors or vise versa. I never turn rotors, only replace when too thin or warped. A car that warps rotors, like '90s T-birds, will only warp turned ones quicker because they are now thinner and can hold less heat. Mixing is actually better because both do not have to break in at the same time. Most people know nothing about bedding in new pads and/or rotors anyway.

 

In my younger days, I would do about anything to just keep a vehicle moving. Now, I hate doing things twice. When I go into fixing something, I replace everything to give myself the best chance of not having to fool with it again in six months. Used to get rotors turned, but price of new ones has come down too low on most vehicles to fool with it.

 

For a few dollars more I can get larger 11 13/16" rotors which from my understanding are Heavy duty police interceptor rotors and the 10 3/4" rotors are for non police interceptor. I never heard of a 78 Cougar being a police interceptor. But I have been wondering if I might would have better luck with the larger 11 13/16" rotors if they will even fit without no modifications.

For me I am not one of the ones that brake at the last min. I like to apply the brakes long before and use them slowly. I did the same thing with these and only did an emergency stop hitting the brakes hard maybe two or three times since I replaced the rotors and their warped now. But if two or three one time emergency stops in 6 months to a year can warp a new rotor something isnt right with the rotor.

I will check to see if the Tbird rotors are cheaper. I know my Cougar is the same as the 77-79 Tbird/Lincoln Mk IV/LTD II all share the same platform as the Cougar so I might be able to get brakes for one of them for less.

Correct, I know about them and I tried to avoid using the brakes hard till after a few hundred miles worth of driving to heat up and cool the rotor slowly to prevent rapid heating and warpage. Didnt help in the end and I am thinking it might be the rotor is made cheaply. I do know I was thinking about buying another rotor from napa waiting a month or so then take the old warped one in and say it warped and get another replacement to put on the otherside. But I am reluctant to buy another napa rotor just to do that. I put some pads on my 82 F150 from napa and you hit the brakes hard it sounds like metal on metal grinding but yet when I had the old chewed up rotor on the truck it stopped find and made zero noise. It was only after I replaced the rotor and the pads. That is also why I dont want to have these machined cause if they warped in 6 months to 1 year of normal driving without hitting the brakes hard to stop quick I fear machining them will make them warp again and now I am out of money. Plus the thickness is 1.19" and the min thickness of the rotors is 1.16" so I doubt 0.04" of material removal would take the warpness out of the rotor.

Just wished I could get some performance rotors for the car that are made better than the cheap overpriced OEM replacement junk.

Same with me I hate doing things twice. I didnt replace the pads because they were new didnt have but 500 miles on them when I replaced the rotor. But now I am thinking I need to replace the rotors because this pulsing braking is getting annoying plus it gets annoying to be on the freeway or any time over 40 mph and you lightly apply the brakes and then your steering wheel wants to shake like hell because the gearbox has slack and is allowing the front warped rotors to shake the steering linkages.

Even if I did replace the gearbox for $116 - $150 I dont think it would stop the front end shimmy above 40 mph when applying the brakes. I just think it would transmit the vibrations more to the steering wheel than it is.

Order of part replacement that I am wanting to use is

1. Rotors and pads
2. A/C clutch
3. power steering gearbox

 

rusty the bird in question is my 95 and the rotors on it will not fit your car , but the ones off the big square birds are supposedley the same according to my friend bud and ran a cross reference and they came up as a donor so ............................ maybe !!!!! i do know they're the same on the granada , and monarch , and many other fords of that era .

 

ok went to oreilly's site and ran another cross reference and , 1987 vic , 1988 vic use a brake best rotor , 11 inch # 6066rgs , granada , monarch and versaille with 351 used it , but the full size marquis and thunderbirds used a different one . so if you got a mid size your cool , but full size you may be in trouble ..................... got another site to look at i shall return .

 

welp i went and done some deeper research and nope if you got a full size you havent got much choice . in typical ford fashion you got most of the full size cars using a weird 5x5 bolt pattern and a rotor onto themselves .theres a size difference in height , and diameter 'tween the the full size and mid size . both use an a12 outer but the fulkl size uses an a18 mid uses a13 inner bearings or you might have been able to pull off a swap . go to your local bearing shop and i wouldnt be suprised they could find you a bearing to accomodate it . i dont have the info but i was able to use the a12 outer on my 53's spindles but had to buy a bearing then bore the back of my rotor to accept it the mid size rotor from the vic , granada , to accomodate the width , bore etc, required to make it fit the inner side on my oe spindle so if you are willing to dig a little and pick some minds you might be able to do it ............

 

Went to three stores today to get a rotor, no place had them in stock so I came home to find on the other forum I had a reply.

Guy said it doesnt sound like a warped rotor but actually like the pad bedding got screwed up some how and theres now a thicker layer of pad material in one area than the others which causes the pulsing brakes as well as the shake. He directed me to the follow site which I read and now I think this might be my problem.

StopTech : Balanced Brake Upgrades

So I asked should I take the rotor in have it surfaced and get some higher quality pads or what. he said to never machine rotors that the grooves put in them is what you dont want. He said different pads might help but he recomend using brake cleaner spraying the rotor down and then using a red 3M pad on a 90* grinder and hit the rotors with that to remove the pad layers. I am thinking to myself **** that would put scratches in the rotor which I would say is worse than the fine grooves put on the rotor from resurfacing. after all the rotors were surfaced when they were made to the correct thickness.

So this post here is to check with others to see what they think about the above on the resurfacing.

I have been thinking about doing that but going with some higher quality pads that wont get so hot when used with a 4,000 lb car in street driving that stopped at a red light it would leave a imprint of the pad in the form of a thin layer of pad material which will keep collecting more and more pad material till it gets real noticeable. Honestly that is whats happening to mine it seems like its getting worse and worse since it first started up again 6 months after replacing the rotor.

So if I resurface the rotors or replace both of them and get new pads what pads should I look at.

Summit has alot of different priced one as well as three different compositions. The ones I have was the normal priced semi metalic ones from Advance. Think they were listed as "good" not the "better" or "best" but they were still priced close to $20.

But anyways from summit these are the following compositions they have and not sure what I should be looking at as far as composition goes and as far as heat range or roughness of the pads for street use.

Ceramic
Ferro-Carbon
Semi-Metallic