SmsDetroit
Goblin Guru
Correct. The new supplied outlets go up front. The new inner tie rods go out back with the donor outers
Snirtman's Extended Track Frame #466 - 06 SS/SC
- Thread starter snirtman
- Start date
Desert Sasqwatch
Bigfoot Goblin
Looking good! Not too much left to do, you'll be driving soon! 
So more progress, but it's a slog. Spent about 6 hours yesterday just getting the rear brakes to fit. Not sure if DF sent me the wrong units or what, but the initial fitup was terrible. First had to file off a significant amount of the bracket ears:
and shave the knuckles ears a little just to get them to play together:
It was like that on both sides. And then the pads DF supplied didn't fit the calipers. The little buttons on the back of both inner and outer pad interfered. I completely removed the the buttons on the outboard pad, but the inboard buttons were needed to fit into the anti-rotation holes in the caliper piston. I had to file about 50% of the buttons away before the pad would fit into the caliper:
These springs were included in the brake kit from DF:
No idea where these go.
Next issue to tackle is why I can't get a firm pedal after bleeding the brakes. This is probably a carryover from the Cobalt, as it had a soft pedal too. I assumed it was a leaky rear caliper, but it wasn't leaking much, and since the Cobalt was donating only the MC, vac chamber and reservoir, I hoped the problem would stay with the Cobalt. No such luck. The Goblin brakes are acting pretty much the same way. I don't see any leaks anywhere - could the MC be leaking into the vac assist housing?
And on a similar, but unrelated note, I installed the DF Dominator headlights and got stuck at the wiring. The headlights have four wires coming out (high beam/low beam/turn/ground), but the wire harness has only three wires. I went back and re-watched the wire harness videos and it appears that Lonny's harness has only three wires too. Is it just a ground wire that needs to be added? Or did the headlight harness skip the turn feature since the mirrors have the turn signals?
and shave the knuckles ears a little just to get them to play together:
It was like that on both sides. And then the pads DF supplied didn't fit the calipers. The little buttons on the back of both inner and outer pad interfered. I completely removed the the buttons on the outboard pad, but the inboard buttons were needed to fit into the anti-rotation holes in the caliper piston. I had to file about 50% of the buttons away before the pad would fit into the caliper:
These springs were included in the brake kit from DF:
No idea where these go.
Next issue to tackle is why I can't get a firm pedal after bleeding the brakes. This is probably a carryover from the Cobalt, as it had a soft pedal too. I assumed it was a leaky rear caliper, but it wasn't leaking much, and since the Cobalt was donating only the MC, vac chamber and reservoir, I hoped the problem would stay with the Cobalt. No such luck. The Goblin brakes are acting pretty much the same way. I don't see any leaks anywhere - could the MC be leaking into the vac assist housing?
And on a similar, but unrelated note, I installed the DF Dominator headlights and got stuck at the wiring. The headlights have four wires coming out (high beam/low beam/turn/ground), but the wire harness has only three wires. I went back and re-watched the wire harness videos and it appears that Lonny's harness has only three wires too. Is it just a ground wire that needs to be added? Or did the headlight harness skip the turn feature since the mirrors have the turn signals?
Sparvy
Active Member
Be careful grinding those buttons on the backside of the brake pads as I believe those are the rivets that hold the pad material to the metal backing plate. Having those two separate under heavy braking would not be good. If they didn't fit without grinding maybe your pistons weren't compressed into the caliper all the way?
Yep, bleeders on top. you can see it in the first picture of post #26
So just like in my last post, still making progress, but everything is still a slog. Took me an hour to try to get my driver's seat installed. I'm reusing my donor's seats, so I thought they'd be a direct fit into the Goblin. Oh nay nay. First mod is to remove and discard the plastic hinge cover on the inboard side that makes contact with the tunnel. Second mod is to grind off the little nubs on the front of the seat tracks:
Third mod is to grind off the edge of the rear outboard seat track mount:
More fun was had trying to fit the donor's seatbelts, as DF does not supply mounting hardware or instructions for that option.
Another issue that popped up is the function of the taillights. I'm using the DF supplied LED taillights. With the headlights on, the taillights are supposed to have a dim "running light", but they don't - the "running light" is the fully lit brake light. The running lights in the mirrors work correctly. With the headlights on I also have no turn signal or brake lights - the "running light" is on bright, stays bright and doesn't turn off. However, if I turn the headlights off the turn signal and brake lights function correctly (I have the hyper flash, but I can live with that). The turn signals in the mirrors work correctly with the headlights on or off. If someone on the forum has a suggestion to fix the malfuntioning tail lights, that would be most welcome.
Went for my first test drive, which was mostly uneventful. The goal was just to do a short shakedown run to get the car up to temperature and check for any anomalies. For just eyeballing the alignment, the car tracked better than I expected. No major surprises in the shakedown run. However, upon my return I noticed the rear brakes were dragging a little, which didn't really surprise me as I had a terrible time trying to get the parking brake cables fitted. I assumed that after a couple runs the cables/calipers would settle in and loosen up. I assumed wrong.
After my second shakedown run (about a mile) I pulled into the garage and I could smell the brakes dragging. The rotors were taking on a golden-turning-blue shade from the heat. I'm starting to wonder if DF gave me the wrong pads for the rear too (they sent the wrong pads for the front - discussed in the "This can't be right" thread here on the forum). Detailed in post #24 above, I had to grind away most of the anti-rotation buttons for the pads to even fit in the caliper (the buttons on the pads were 6mm dia and the holes in the caliper are 5mm dia). I googled the part number on the pad (15271565) and it shows its for the 06-09 Solstice. Others on the forum say they're using that pad and it fit without issue. Now I wonder if the pads I got are defective, the caliper piston is defective or if the caliper itself is wrong.
And for the cherry on top - now that the build is nearing completion I've started up the mountain that is the registration process. OMG.
A few weeks ago I went to the Secretary of State (the DMV for you non-Michiganders) to start the process. The clerk told me I had to start with an inspection which is done be my local sherriff. I called the sherriff's office, which of course went to voicemail. I left a voicemail, waited 5 days, left another voicemail, waited another 5 days, then called the switchboard and told them I wanted an officer to be dispatched for a non-emergency call. No problem, she said. When an officer was available, they'd call and let me know they were coming. Shockingly, I got a call that afternoon from a sargeant to find out what I wanted so they could dispatch an officer. I felt like we were going in circles - because we were. The call was from the voicemail guy who didn't tell me he was responding to my voicemails. But wait, the fun was just beginning.
Later that day an officer did show up...to tell me that they don't do vehicle inspections any more. They had a guy who did them, but he retired a couple weeks ago. Of course. To the officer's credit, he was a super nice guy. He sat in his cruiser probably 30 minutes surfing the internet and his department's website to try to find me someone who could do the inspection. He finally emerged with a list of 10 names of people that he printed out for me. Yesterday I called the first name on the list and the guy told me...wait for it...no, really, this is going to be good ... that they don't do inspections for assembled vehicles and the SOS has their own people that do those now. Ok, count to ten...
So I called the second guy on the list and he said almost the same as the first guy, but was less sure. He knew he didn't do those inspections anymore, but he thought if the SOS wasn't doing them, I should try the State Police to see if they were doing them. OMG. I'm seriously considering hauling the car to the east side of the state and getting one of the inspectors the Detroiters are using.
Maybe just for fun today I'll start calling around for insurance. Good times.
Third mod is to grind off the edge of the rear outboard seat track mount:
More fun was had trying to fit the donor's seatbelts, as DF does not supply mounting hardware or instructions for that option.
Another issue that popped up is the function of the taillights. I'm using the DF supplied LED taillights. With the headlights on, the taillights are supposed to have a dim "running light", but they don't - the "running light" is the fully lit brake light. The running lights in the mirrors work correctly. With the headlights on I also have no turn signal or brake lights - the "running light" is on bright, stays bright and doesn't turn off. However, if I turn the headlights off the turn signal and brake lights function correctly (I have the hyper flash, but I can live with that). The turn signals in the mirrors work correctly with the headlights on or off. If someone on the forum has a suggestion to fix the malfuntioning tail lights, that would be most welcome.
Went for my first test drive, which was mostly uneventful. The goal was just to do a short shakedown run to get the car up to temperature and check for any anomalies. For just eyeballing the alignment, the car tracked better than I expected. No major surprises in the shakedown run. However, upon my return I noticed the rear brakes were dragging a little, which didn't really surprise me as I had a terrible time trying to get the parking brake cables fitted. I assumed that after a couple runs the cables/calipers would settle in and loosen up. I assumed wrong.
After my second shakedown run (about a mile) I pulled into the garage and I could smell the brakes dragging. The rotors were taking on a golden-turning-blue shade from the heat. I'm starting to wonder if DF gave me the wrong pads for the rear too (they sent the wrong pads for the front - discussed in the "This can't be right" thread here on the forum). Detailed in post #24 above, I had to grind away most of the anti-rotation buttons for the pads to even fit in the caliper (the buttons on the pads were 6mm dia and the holes in the caliper are 5mm dia). I googled the part number on the pad (15271565) and it shows its for the 06-09 Solstice. Others on the forum say they're using that pad and it fit without issue. Now I wonder if the pads I got are defective, the caliper piston is defective or if the caliper itself is wrong.
And for the cherry on top - now that the build is nearing completion I've started up the mountain that is the registration process. OMG.
A few weeks ago I went to the Secretary of State (the DMV for you non-Michiganders) to start the process. The clerk told me I had to start with an inspection which is done be my local sherriff. I called the sherriff's office, which of course went to voicemail. I left a voicemail, waited 5 days, left another voicemail, waited another 5 days, then called the switchboard and told them I wanted an officer to be dispatched for a non-emergency call. No problem, she said. When an officer was available, they'd call and let me know they were coming. Shockingly, I got a call that afternoon from a sargeant to find out what I wanted so they could dispatch an officer. I felt like we were going in circles - because we were. The call was from the voicemail guy who didn't tell me he was responding to my voicemails. But wait, the fun was just beginning.
Later that day an officer did show up...to tell me that they don't do vehicle inspections any more. They had a guy who did them, but he retired a couple weeks ago. Of course. To the officer's credit, he was a super nice guy. He sat in his cruiser probably 30 minutes surfing the internet and his department's website to try to find me someone who could do the inspection. He finally emerged with a list of 10 names of people that he printed out for me. Yesterday I called the first name on the list and the guy told me...wait for it...no, really, this is going to be good ... that they don't do inspections for assembled vehicles and the SOS has their own people that do those now. Ok, count to ten...
So I called the second guy on the list and he said almost the same as the first guy, but was less sure. He knew he didn't do those inspections anymore, but he thought if the SOS wasn't doing them, I should try the State Police to see if they were doing them. OMG. I'm seriously considering hauling the car to the east side of the state and getting one of the inspectors the Detroiters are using.
Maybe just for fun today I'll start calling around for insurance. Good times.
Joebob
Goblin Guru
When you istall the handle, you might need to adjust the threaded rod on the handle to just take up the slack when the handle is down all the way. If the nut is tighted too much, it will engage the brakes when you don't want them to. Also you might have the piston in the caliper indexed out too much so that it won't retract off the rotor when the hydraulic brakes are released. IF you were playing with the parking brake system without the pads or the rotors installed, the piston may index closer to the rotor as a system designed to account for pad wear over time. with the new rotor and new pads, thay clearance might have been taken up before you used the brakes on the Goblin the first time.
First thing is to check that you have a tiny bit of slack in the cabling at the parking handle when fully lowered. If so, then remove a caliper and see if you can push or rotate the piston back into the bore. Reassemble and see if the wheel spins free.
The good news is you have bedded your pads to the rotors which should increase your rear braking force significantly.
Joe
I had to use a brake caliper tool to reset mine to even get the caliper to install on the disc.
Disc Brake Pad and Caliper Service Tool Kit, 11-Piece (harborfreight.com)
Disc Brake Pad and Caliper Service Tool Kit, 11-Piece (harborfreight.com)
Yeah, that's the tool I used to wind the pistons all the way in. Its how I discovered that the buttons on the pad were bigger than the buttons on the caliper tool.
I did not know the parking brake handle was adjustable (per @Joebob). I'll give that a try. And maybe another brake bleeding for good measure.
Thanks for the suggestion - I backed off the cable tension a little and both wheels freed up nicely!
Just wanted to bump this post again to see if anyone has a suggestion for a solution to this problem. Thanks!
Not sure that this can be diagnosed via internet. Going to take a voltmeter and patience plus probably oem wiring diagram. Figure out which wire doesn't have voltage and trace it back. After you confirm you have a good ground for the light.
Robinjo
Goblin Guru
My side markers do not stay on bright, they are dimmer as running lights and then hyper-flash brightly. Since you have an issue at both the side markers and rear lights staying on bright as DRL's I would start with what's common between them. But GTStory is right, we can only give suggestions, the hard work will be with a volt meter. Unfortunately that might involve looking through AllData which is a little funky to find stuff at first.
I just looked at my mirror/side markers. There is two light sections. The outer most section of the turn signal/mirror is the DRL, the inner most section is the signal flasher part of the unit
I just looked at my mirror/side markers. There is two light sections. The outer most section of the turn signal/mirror is the DRL, the inner most section is the signal flasher part of the unit