I hope! Only drive the 82 a about 500 hundred miles a year, and about every 2-3 years I go thru rebuilding the front calipers. Yes they were SS sleeved about 15 years ago.

 

Were your calipers rebuilt using lip seals or o-rings?

 

I've said this before ...bears saying again: many rebuilders blast the caliper halves but *don't* machine the o-ring seat area. That leaves a rough texture for the o-ring to seal against. Not the best sealing conditions. They still make calipers with split halves (like on my H3 Hummer), which don't leak. I machined the o-ring seat area on my calipers when i rebuilt them.

Also, are your rotors warped at all? When you put a dial indicator on the outer edge, what is the run-out? Run-out causes grooves in the SS sleeves, and that doesn't help keep the seals sealed

A guy should go out and push the brake pedal once in a while. The edges of the lip seals can 'adhere' themselves to the ss sleeve ...a little. a gentle 'push' helps exercise them.

Fluid needs to be replaced often enough. Yours probably was if you've been working on your calipers often enough

Finally, there's only so much a guy can do. Generally the lip seals work fine when properly cared for. But these days C3's sit long periods and that's not good. The car companies quickly realized back then, that positioning a square-cut o-ring in a stationary groove in the bore of the caliper (not on the piston) ...and using a chromed/stainless or composite piston was the better way to go. And there's a reason for that.

Looks like you have a nice set-up now.

 

Put a dial indicator on your rotors and check for run-out. What do you see?

 

If the rotors have runout....any caliper will fail......the runout will pump the pistons to death, O-Ring, stainless sleeve....doesn't matter......

Jebby

 

Lip seal, last few years only drove it about 15 miles about 6 times a year just enough to things warmed up to temp. Fixed the left side a month ago than the right started to leak. I'm sure it been just a matter of to much idle time and to many Corvette's to drive.

 

Thanks, I was just curious.
I had my calipers done by SSBC back in the late '70s and they have been fine since then and I rebuilt them with the lip seals.
I do run silicone brake fluid FWIW.
Perhaps as others have said, it may be a rotor runout issue.

 

send me your old ones. then i will have leaky calipers front and back...