Well, it appears the 73 shark is in need of some new brakes. After pulling the wheels and analyzing the current situation:

Master Cylinder and Vacuum booster seem to be fine.
Rotors and calipers are a mess, front pulls to the right hard. I have decided to do a full rebuild on all four wheels. Question is, should I buy all new components, or just go with rebuilt originals. Penn-Ohio has some rotors in their catalog that are slotted, as well as brand new calipers that they claim are technically superior to the originals, but they don't really say how. The new stuff also requires no core charge, and since I am not tearing em down until I have all the new parts, I like the idea of avoiding the hassle of returning the cores. I also am not sure whether the O-ring seals are actually superior or just more expensive.

So the questions of the day:

Rotors: New or rebuilt? (Leaning towards new, w/ Hawk Pads from Penn-Ohio). Other recommendations?

Calipers: New slotted from Penn Ohio. (O-ring or not)?

Hoses: Braided Stainless

This of course all prices out at ~$1200.00

ZIP's rebuild kit's are roughly half that. Any arguments or opinions? Any particular brands of Rotors or Calipers favored by the group? My end objective is to do the brakes now and move on to other things, so I am looking for Brakes that will stop on a dime (street cruising only) and not need attention for while. I don't mind spending the money if it's worth it, but don't want to **** it away if not needed.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

If the Master Cylinder is more than a few years old, you may end up with problems after you bleed the brakes. There is usually a glob of rust/particle buildup in the Master Cylinder that is at the spot where the piston stops when you lock up the brakes. When you bleed the calipers, the piston will go past that glob, which will tear up the seals on the piston.... and then you're back at square one. Doesn't always happen, but it happens enough so be prepared for it.... JIC.


New/rebuilt Master Cylinders need to be disassembled and examined before you install them... they rust internally while sitting on the shelf waiting to be adopted.

If the car is driven regularly, and the rotors are true, then you can get by without the o-ring seal calipers. If the car sits, the factory lip-style seals "flat-spot" and leak. Mine just did that, but I have SS Brakes Corp SS pistons which are too heavy.... after driving it for a few weeks, the leaks stopped and the brakes returned. After driving it for about 6 weeks with a severe pull to one side, the fluid soaked pads dried up and work fine now. This was a test. I just had to know.

 

Hmm...
Check over the MC, good = keep it
Braded lines = Yes
current calipers SS lined = keep em
O-Ring Kits = Yes
Sloted Calipers = Yes
New Pads of your choice

just my .02

 

:Iagree:
If the MC holds pressure with your foot on it hard, keep it. If it slowly drops, get a new, not rebuild unit.

Calipers,
If you are up to it rebuild the ones you have. New seals and clean them up.
Make sure the bores are nice, no scratches etc

Slotted rotors? No, they will do nothing for you except eat your pads. If you like the look, OK, but it's looks only...
(never heard of rebuilt rotors! )

Pads, get the best pad you can. Good pads make a world of difference. The lifetime pads are the worst, Yea they don't wear, but their coeficient of friction sucks too.

 

For a street car:

SS calipers
organic pads
stock rotors
rubber hose

If there is runout over .003" and you don't want to correctly fix it then use the O rings. If you dial in the rotors to under .002" and have bearing endplay under .002" you should be ok. Pump the brakes once a week if the car sits and bleed the brakes every season with a motive bleeder and you'll be fine.
Save all the higher priced stuck for the road racers and use the money on gas to drive it!

 

gtr1999,

Thats sounds like the plan...

My fingers and my brain got crossed typing the original note I guess..Slotted Calipers and Rebuilt Rotors?, yeah! :o

Thanks everyone for the input.

-patrick

 

Patrick,

In 1990 I traveled to Winchester (from Stafford) to check out a 1973 convertible. I purchased the car and one of the first jobs I did is the one you're describing. I purchased all of the stuff from VB&P and was very pleased with the parts and service.

A few months later I noticed a gasoline drip on one of my mufflers so I dropped the tank to check it out. It was really toast so I bought a new on, but not before removing my original build sheet. It was delivered to XXXX Chevrolet Inc, Purceville VA.... I couldn't make out the name of the dealer, but I did travel to Purceville and remember it was a very small dealer.... small world is it not!!

Good luck... GUSTO

 

Patrick - you really need to know why your Vette is pulling hard, especially when you apply the brakes. Very well could be, as was on my 72, a worn out bushing on my upper right "A" arm. When I applied the brakes the whole upper "A" arm shifted slightly which then caused the car to pull to the right. I closely examined everything that was brake and steering related and couldn't identify anything obviously out-of-whack. It's fairly easy to check for play and unwanted horizontal movement in your "A" arms. Just get the car jacked up to get the weight off the front suspension. Get hold of each arm separately and see if you can move the arms forward or backward. Any movement that is visually detectable indicates a worn out bushing. All that having been said, if you have replaced the bushings within the last couple of years, forget I said anything - it's probably something else. But if it is the bushings, you will want to replace those before you do a lot of brake work that probably wont help you. Larry

 

I just did this job on the weekend. Ive been picking up parts over the winter. Most came from the local parts store (Part Source). They seem to have a suprising amount of Corvette brake parts in stock. All prices are CDN.

Prior to this job my brakes were pulsing and pulling to the left.

New rear caliper to replace a leaking one. $155
The caliper was not sleeved and was pitted beyond honing.
Exchanged the old caliper.

New rotors and pads on the rear, Wagners. Total of about $150.
Make sure you clean off the wheel suface before you put the rotors back on. A bit of dirt on the surface can throw out your runnout.

Rebuild front caliper: The right front calipers was leaking and when I tore it apart I found it was sleeved. I was able to hone this one out and changed all the seals with a rebuild kit. The kit was made by Wagner and used lip seals. It seemed to make a pretty good seal. I had to work around the outer edge of the seal and push the seal inward to get it started in the bore. It was much cheaper than a caliper - about $30. This job went pretty quick. I'd say it only took me about 2 hrs to get the caliper off, rebuild it, put it back on, and bleed it.

Lubricate Parking Brake: The cable actually moved! I was able to work a little grease into the cable to get it to slide a bit better. One of the return springs had broken and I was unable to get this part in town. I wanted to get the job done on the weekend, so I bought a similar spring and bent it to to the right shape. Not perfect, but done. The adjuster screw on the same side was jammed, so I cleaned up the threads with a tap and die


Summary Thoughts:
The local Part Source had most of the parts I needed at a competitive price. I don't know if these parts are different from someone like VP&B, but I could not see any reason to import parts into Canada, paying shipping, tax and duty.

The lip seal kit seems to be working and it was a pretty easy job. The Wagner kit felt like it was making a good tight seal. I will have to drive it for a while to be sure. Based on this, I would highly recommend rebuilding, especially if you have sleeved calipers.

Results: The pulsing is gone and the pull to the left has been significantly reduced. I had cleaned up the right front brake pad, but it was still pretty oily looking. My test drive was short as the streets are still a mess from the melting snow. I'm going to bleed them again and retest when I put the plates on in a week or two.

 

Gusto,

That would have been Kenny Spears Chevrolet. Sadly, they went OOB 10 years ago. It is small world, thanks to great forums like these.

Cheers!