1965 Corvette: Service News: Servicing Corvette Disc Brakes

Source: Chevrolet Service News
Subject: Servicing Corvette Disc Brakes
Model and Year: 1965
Page: 12
Date:  January, 1965

Servicing of the Corvette disc brakes is extremely critical due to tolerances required in machining of the brake disc to insure proper brake operation.  In manufacturing the brake disc tolerance for flatness and parallelism of the friction surface is maintained within .001 while the lateral runout of the faces must not exceed .002 total indicator reading on the front or .003 on the rear.  In addition, the surface finish must be maintained at 30-50 micro-inches.

In view of these tolerances, it is not recommended that the front discs be machined in the field or that they be serviced separately.  The rear discs, however, may be machined and may be serviced separately.

In cases of brake application complaints and whenever the brakes are serviced, the following checking procedure should be followed.

Front

Tighten the adjusting nut of the wheel bearing until all play has been removed.  It should be just loose enough to allow the wheel to turn.  Clamp a dial indicator to the caliper so that its button contacts the disc at a point about 1 inch from the outer edge.  When the disc is turned, the indicator reading should not exceed .002 inches.  If runout exceeds this amount, the hub and disc assembly should be replaced.

After checking the runout, readjust wheel bearings as outlined in the Corvette Shop Manual.

Rear

Rear wheels bearing end play adjustment specification is .001 - .008 controlled by selective shim and bearing spacer.  Therefore, if rear disc is to be serviced, the bearing end play must be checked first as outlined in the Corvette Shop Manual.  Dial indicated the disc face if lateral runout exceeds the endplay reading by .003", it may be refaced (not to exceed .040") or replaced.