So, long story, but I'll apreveate it as much as I can.
about 3 years ago my right rear caliper starts leaking.
I order up a seal kit. When I pull apart my caliper, which was replaced by the original owner of the car. And the only caliper I didn't replace as the original owner had replaced just this one before I bought the car back in the 80's. Anyway, I found one half had stainless sleeves. And one have did not. And yes the none sleeved side had some pitting in the bores. I cleaned them up as good as possible, I honed em and put the kit in fingers crossed. Well, that lasted about 3 years. Then about 6 weeks ago. A puddle of brake fluid on the floor under my R.H. rear tire.
wanting to get my car back on road ASAP. as I had a club run. I ordered a caliper from a Australian seller called "Corvette Corner".
there ad did not state a brand name in all fairness. But the cost of this replacement caliper was 415 dollars including shipping in Australia.
At this price I expected a quality part.
what I received.

A box that had been remarked and a Mexican caliper.
I was very sceptical and even thought about installing it for a couple days. But wanting my car on road. I thought, what the heak, let's try it. Worst case is I am still looking for a decent replacement.
well. Put it on. Quick test drive around the neighbourhood. All good.
Went to my car club event. Approx 50 K's (35 miles) so with test drive and one trip let's say maybe 60 - 65 K's on this caliper. (Less than 50 miles).
Then my long awaited order from Zip came in with my seatbelts and other bits. Well documented on this forum. And while I was in the middle of the seatbelts my order from Summit showed up with a new oil pan, gaskets and rear main seal. Also well documented on this forum. So my car was off road for weeks as these projects were being completed. After I finally got my oil pan- rear main leak sorted, I went to take the car down off jackstands. And found a puddle of brake fluid under my right rear wheel. Bloody oath, I just replaced that a month ago!
many texts with photos back and forth.
Bottom line is the owner of Corvette Corner is adamant that these callipers are of high quality and I am full of ****.


Split the caliper in half. Nothing touched yet. Please Look into the fluid crossover port. Does this look new to you?


the piston bores of the "New" Caliper. The owner of Corvette Corner says this is from a misaligned caliper. I agree. But to have this wear in less than 50 miles I must have one really badly aligned caliper. How did the last one last so long?

After MUCH honing.
So the the decision was made to put a O ring upgrade kit through it to hopefully get me to my club run this coming weekend. He expressed posted a o ring kit up to me.

Please look at the lack of quality of this O ring. Just look at the ridges on it. Absolutely horrible quality if you ask me.
but I guess I am asking you.
Me, that's just **** and I can not put that in my car.
The owner of Corvette Corner, nothing wrong with it and there are thousands like it in cars everywhere.
Clearly, I'm not changing my mind.
this thread is mostly a vent.
But. Does this look like a new Caliper to you?
Oh, and you wouldn't believe how those bores mic'd out. .008 spread and even the smallest was .003 over size.

 

Sorry to hear about the Junk you received at triple the cost of U.S. parts.
The calipers on my 50 y.o. car/55,500 miles look as good as what you bought new
and have not leaked in 10 years with U.S replacement lip seals.
Maybe the original owner "got fleeced" also...him thinking quality new parts were being installed on his car?

 

If you can find someone to ship them for you....Lone Star Caliper makes the best re-man calipers for Vette's at a very low price point.....like $75 US a piece.....
If you search...you can find a vendor or parts outlet that carries them......

Jebby

 

Sorry for that lousy caliper.
looks like the box says remanufactured (in mx too ) not new. If they represented new i would make them eat it.
I think best is ss bore and o ring kit with pistons if needed and rebuild yourself.
that o ring agree looks bad but should work..who knows what raw materials lately.

Jebby, i had 2 lonestar calipers leak under warranty in last 2 years from 2 seperate supporting vendors both warrantied.
anything in last few years is a crap shoot. Especially true now, past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

more than ever..DIY with best parts you can get makes more sense when you can, and calipers for sure fall onto that category IMO.

 

I got tired of all the rebuilt caliper crap a couple of years ago and went with Wilwood all the way around. I'm more interested in the car stopping than if it's all original.

 

That is not a "new" caliper, it's a rebuilt, and it looks pretty typical of what a lot of rebuilts tend to look like anymore.

As far as the O-ring, while it does look pretty raggedy, I don't think I'd be too concerned with it. The fact that the mold seam is on the side of the O-ring, not the matting surface is a good thing. It's just about impossible to make a part like that without a mold seam, and it's far better to have it on the side of the O-ring.

When the O-ring calipers first hit the market several years ago, they were made using, standard off the shelf rubber O-rings, that had the mold seam on the outer edge of the O-ring, on what is the contact surface. With the seam on the contact edge of the O-ring, companies found the seam wore quickly and the calipers started leaking. New O-rings where made specifically for calipers, with the mold seam moved away from the contact surface, like those on the O-rings you received.

Unfortunately, there have been a lot of issues with Lonestar's calipers for a couple years now. I've been a dealer for them for 25+ years, and I'm no longer comfortable selling them, and a number of other dealers and shops I know feel the same way. It really hurts me to say this because they use to offer a great product, and I consider the owner a friend, but when you get in 8 or 12 calipers, and 3 or 4 of them leak right out of the box, it makes it hard to use or recommend their calipers to anyone.

 

By the way I'm not surprised you found a caliper replaced in the 80's (or earlier), that had one half sleeved and the other un-sleeved. When the stainless sleeved calipers came out in the late 70's, you could buy a half caliper. One of my friend's owned a gas station and did a lot of Corvette work. I remember him selling people just a half when they didn't want to spend for a whole caliper. It sounds funny now, but sleeved calipers were expensive back then, costing almost as much then as they do now.

 

I concur. I went all Wilwood from a group sale here 10+ years ago and haven't had a brake problem since. It was annoying difficult to bite the bullet and pay the price (being a cheapskate and whatnot ), but I am glad I did now.
NOT one single brake problem in 10.5 years and I used to have to bleed at least once a year, if not replace at least one corner caliper seals.

I got them from vansteel: https://www.vansteel.com/index.cfm?f...&SubGroup=1962

 

That caliper looks like a re-freshened previously sleeved caliper. Newly sleeved bores should be just about mirror-like: very smooth and no heavy scratching or honing marks. The finish should be very fine with concentric patterning.

I wouldn't put much stock in getting such a caliper from Lone Star as my latest set of 4 was about the same condition as what you show. I spent a few hours polishing the sleeves to get rid of the heavy stoning and some dings. Very disappointed. I'm not sure if anyone is actually pulling old sleeves and replacing them, but that's where I'm going to be heading if I need to replace these.

 

I agree with the above. I have seen freshly sleeved callipers many times. These had a media blasted type surface with these obvious wear rings. The Seller still swears its a new caliper. He has offered me to refund my money. But unfortunately this won't get my car on the road. I spent a great deal of time getting all the bores cleaned up. Mic'd up the bores. A difference of .007 between the smallest and largest. So who ever machined these sleeves did a very, very poor job in the first place. I am going to try to run it now that I have the bores cleaned up. But I am in the market for a better one. Preferably one with new sleeves that mic up in tolerance.
I have looked into willwoods. But this would set me back over 2 grand in Australia. I just can't do that.
Advice on a quality caliper with new Sleaves that doesn't cost a kings ransom?

 

Since I started having trouble with Lonestar's calipers, I've been using the new, no name calipers from Corvette America (Top Flight Automotive). As "no name" calipers, they come without the "Delco" name on them and list for $716 a set. These are brand new castings with stainless steel sleeves and O-ring seals, with plain castings (no Delco markings or casting numbers on the caliper). For slightly less they are also available with plain steel sleeves.

https://www.autoaccessoriesofamerica...eeves-set-4pc/

They also have brand new reproduction Delco casting calipers with stainless sleeves and O-rings for $928 a the set.

https://www.autoaccessoriesofamerica...aine-branding/

Being new calipers these don't require a core, or core charge. I've been very happy with them so far, and haven't had any returns.

 

The import duty is brutal.

Can you find a sleeved core in Australia, and buy a high-heat O-ring kit from CSSB Inc?

I'm sure someone spent the $3K or so it would cost to upgrade to Wilwoods, and is looking to unload their old calipers.

 

I have a friend of mine that owned a brake shop for over 45 yrs ( retired now) he said the main reason ALL calipers leak is because owners don’t drive there cars often enough. They store them away for 6 months and when they do drive them they put 10 miles on them and put back in the garage . Then they wonder why they have all these problems !! I have no name calibers on my car, and they are 8 yrs old never had a problem . There again I drive her often . Spending 2k on brakes to me is insane!! A car in motion stays in motion. Just my opinion

 

This is why the O-ring caliper seals were developed. The lip seals lose their shape (for lack of better explanation) when sitting for any extended period of time. The more rigid structure of an O-ring seal, resists the tendency to lose it's shape or become deformed, so they are far less likely to leak after sitting for longer periods of time.

I'm not sure I agree with the blanket statement that ALL calipers leak, or that the only reason calipers leak, is because of non use. Cars that are driven daily can develop leaks for reasons as simple as piston bore pitting and corrosion, or something like dirt or water getting in the piston bore and damaging the seals. Conversely, modern single piston calipers, modern aluminum calipers, or older stainless steel sleeved calipers with O-ring seals, rarely leak, no matter how often or little they're used.

 

Yes, but in this case we have a car that isn't a daily driver. But is driven regularly. And 3 calipers that were replaced in the 90's still have no leaks. But the supposed "New" Caliper lasted but one month with less than 100 miles on it. If you read this story from the top. You'll realise that this non use claim just isn't the issue here. I live in tropical Queensland. I drive it year round. I'm about to take it for a test drive, I'll post more later.

 

OK , the issue here is that my right rear caliper is the only caliper I didn't replace in the mid 90's. You see when I bought this car the original owner gave me all the receipts for everything ever done. Keeping in mind this was a very low mileage good used car at the time.
I think I still have all those receipts somewhere. Anyway. The right rear caliper had been replaced about a year before I bought the car. A few years after I bought the car one of the other calipers started leaking. I really don't even remember which one. It's that long ago. But at the time I thought, well one gave up shortly before I bought this car. Now another. So I purchased 3 new calipers, stainless sleeved. Not replacing the right rear as it had already been done. And I believed it to be stainless sleeved..
OK. So above you read the rest. After nearly 40 years that right rear caliper starts leaking, putting a kit through it reveals that only one half was actually stainless sleeved. I put the kit in anyway knowing that the bores were less than perfect.
so 6 weeks ago, give or take it starts leaking again.
I didn't bother taking it apart. I ordered a new caliper.
Wanting my car back on road I ordered a New Caliper from an Australian seller.
and after a month it's leaking. I sent photos of the bores to the seller questioning the fact that this doesn't look new to me.

This photo and a couple more were sent to the seller.
below is a screen shot of his reply by text.

I replied that I agree that this type of wear does indeed look like piston **** caused by a badly aligned caliper. How is it the last caliper lasted 40 years if my caliper is so badly aligned that this much wear happened in under 100K's. (60 miles).
his answer.


as you can see. Yes he offers me a refund. But still swears up and down it's a NEW Caliper!
So that's my Vent. No bloody way this is a new caliper. Yes I can get my money back and have no car.
The real issue here is being lied to in the beginning.
Now of course some of you think my Caliper is indeed so badly aligned that this caliper did indeed get this worn by my Horribly maintained vehicle.
So, after cleaning up this caliper. And reassembling without all the debris inside. I mounted it on my car. Bolted it up tight. And took these photos. The brake line is not yet connected in these photos. But I think you can get an idea none the less.

Looking up from bottom/rear.

Looking from the upper front.

Looking down trying to get a look at outboard pistons.

Looking down from top at inboard pistons.
As you can clearly see. This does not look like a severally miss aligned caliper to me. And I will admit. After 46 years perhaps it's not absolutely perfect. But I wonder how perfect they were new. So,
I still say that the last caliper lasted 40 years. One month isn't good enough. And telling me it is New, that he only buys new. And then obviously only sells new.
THIS IS WHAT BUGS ME!
sure, I can get my money back and have no car.
HOW ABOUT HONESTY UPFRONT!

 

Piston Cocking, salesmen being salesmen.
Call it what it is BS!
In your photos I don't see any photos of the piston.
Something is askew...if piston to bore clearance was within spec everything should be OK.
Section 5 Page 29 of the 77 service manual.
There's really nothing magic about it...

 

Yea, I agree you got sold an inferior part. But I’m wondering how one can tell the piston is miss aligned in the cylinder by the two caliper half’s bolted together and installed on the car. And if the cylinder boor is out of spec,,, well, yes it’s going to fail at holding fluid.
No matter what, it sux to be in your position. You’re always spending time or money, and not getting the desired results. I get it,,,, C3s are awesome fun when they’re working. Not so much when they need repairs. Reminds me of Harley-Davidsons,,LOL,,

 

I think this is fairly obvious with the caliper in hand. A misaligned (cocked) piston won't move in and out - other than that there's not much room for any sort of alignment - it's either square in the bore or cocked and jammed. At least this is my experience when rebuilding calipers.

 

The pistons in our corvette calipers have considerably more room to move about than any other caliper I have ever seen. And yes guys, I really am a professional mechanic and have seen a LOT of calipers. So my take on it was if the caliper was mounted on a angle. Weather end to end or top to bottom the pistons would follow the disk and be on a angle. And yes these pistons do fit this losely. So this is why I showed photos of the caliper mounted.
another asked why I didn't show photos of the pistons. The pistons are indeed new and mic up fine. I was trying to show the problem areas with my photos and didn't think to take photos of parts that seemed fine.
after removing all the debris from the caliper, and there was plenty. And honing the bores I reassembled with the pistons and seals it came with. So far it's holding fluid. But one bore is clearly out of spec with .010 clearance.
I thank everyone for there suggestions. The new calipers someone pointed out, after the exchange rate and shipping would be more expensive than the Wilwoods. Which are way out of my budget. At that price I would have to walk.
So my current plan is to take my old caliper to a brake and clutch shop here in Australia and have it sleeved. I know some shops here do this kind of work sleeving master cylinders on old cars. So hopefully I can track down a shop that can sleeve my old caliper and actually get the bores within a thou of one another.