i need to upgrade ( redue ) the brakes on my 69 coupe , who do you u guys use ? I have leaker on the left rear

 

Lots of answers to this one. Easy and cheap is your local auto parts store and get rebuilt calipers. They're just about all sleeved now so the bores are really good. If you want to keep your originals, you can send them to one of the vendors and get them sleeved and rebuilt, but you need to work with them and tell them you need your originals back, then mark them so you can tell.
Or just get a set from a vendor and ship yours back as cores.
Either way, I'd also replace the flex lines with the SS braided ones.
I'll leave the lip seal vs. o-rings alone. I'm sure someone else will jump on that.

 

thanks for the response , i was going to ask about " O" rings or lip seal , anybody want to touch that one ?

 

I'll bite. There are 2 schools of thought- one, GM designed a perfectly functional and good brake system using the 4 piston calipers. And I agree with that completely.

What GM didn't count on and could not foresee (broken crystal ball?), was the idea that these cars would still be on the road some 40 years later. A very large portion of them don't get driven everyday- or every week- or even every month- (mine hasn't seen 50 miles in the last 2 years).
And the best description I've heard (nothing to back it up, it is/was just an opinion from an older than me Corvette guy) is that with lack of use, the lip seals are soft enough they let the pistons "sag" in the bores and when you step on the brake after a long time setting, the pistons don't move straight. The are cocked in the bore and leak air when the pedal is released. Personally I have no idea if the story is true or not.

I'll go on and say that when I got my 69 in 2006 from the second owner, he had already installed sleeved calipers. I had planned on just a straight rebuild but when I opened them up the pistons were so corroded they were DRT. (Dead Right There) Bores were fine, the aluminum pistons were toast. I had heard the story I repeated above and went back with o-ring pistons. No complaints so far. As I said- probably less than 50 miles in the last 2 years and the pedal is hard as a rock- no fluid leaks, and no sign of air getting into the system. I went back with the SS braided flex lines and new SS lines on the trailing arms, new master cylinder, and flushed the system and refilled with DOT 4 fluid.

 

Might want to read through a post I started last month. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...pers-leak.html

I just ordered new lifetime warranty O-ring calipers from Corvette America.

 

i did the stainless, dot 5 , 15 years ago , that is my first new car ( $5500 ) , 22000 miles , sure as sh--t , they still leaked , i think i got them from Zip years ago , just seeing if the stuff is better than what i have

 

The O-ring seals definitely hold up better to storage than the lip seals do. Most of these cars just don't get driven enough.

Andrew
800-442-0335
http://www.muskegonbrake.com

 

They lasted 15 years and you're complaining?

 

My stainless steel sleeved OEM lip seal calipers with dot-5 silicone brake fluid, are THIRTY-FIVE years old, now. I had to change the seals once before this due to the fact that the interior bore was roughly honed. The company did this on purpose, supposedly, to lubricate the seal. They wore out in about 4 years. I honed the insides smooth, like they should be. I have been running dot-5 for forty years now. Lou.