I have a few questions about the Autozone calipers. All I know about them so far is that they are $60 after the core return and that they are SS sleeved. I rebuilt my current calipers (I discovered that they were SS sleeved) about 5 years ago, the car has been sitting for 4 years and the brakes have leaked and are seized up. I will be replacing the master cylinder and redoing the calipers. I purchased a rebuild kit from NAPA last time to get this done and I don't think they sell O ring kits. I've been contemplating buying the Autozone calipers and then just replacing the O rings but don't know where I would get them from. I also read somewhere that the springs in the calipers allow air to leak into the system, is it safe to take them out?

I checked the VB&P site and they have 4 rebuilt calipers with O rings for $380 or just 4 lip seal for $360. Autozone would sell 4 lip seal for $240 plus I would save on the shipping and brokerage as I could just drive across the border and pick them up. This car has been in the family for 24 years now and the only reason the brakes were rebuilt last time was because the car had sat for many years. I'm assuming that the sitting around is what ruins the brakes and also that I didn't replace the master cylinder last time. What do you guys think?

 

sitting is what kills them, DOT 3 aborbs moisture and turns to acid and pits the bores. SS won't pit but the BF turns muddy and will clog up. You need to setup the runout and you won't need o-rings. If the runout is over 005 and you don't want to dial them in then the o-rings will work. Chain stores don't do their own machine work so you need to know who makes them, chances are the counter guy doesn't know. Most SS calipers are now rebuilt by LoneStar. Years ago SSBC was the place to get them but I don't know if they're still doing them since the owner died years ago? Then there are some places that were doing them for the chains and the queston was what would happen first, the caliper failing or the guy moving his shop around FL to a new location.
Good luck, I bought my from Muskegon years ago, they use Lonestar.

 

Oh, and it's not the springs that cause air to leak in. The springs actually keep the pads lightly riding on rotor, which is a good thing.

What causes air to get sucked in is runout. This is also called rotor wobble. The piston is moving in and out very rapidly because the the rotor is not spinning true, and this causes an air pump effect that can suck air in the system.

 

Alright so I'll definately need to check the runout on all my rotors, might as well replace them as they've probably been there 25+ years .

As per the O rings, i did some more digging and VB&P sells the o ring kit for $50 or thereabouts and I found this place that is selling them for $33.49 and they include the pistons(the VB&P site says you need different pistons to use their o rings
http://www.cssbinc.com/1965-1982corv...ersionkit.aspx


Ecklers sells them for $39.99
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...3&dept_id=1035

 

I just realized that the kits from the other vendors I just posted unfortunately only convert 1 Caliper. The cheapest conversion kit or rebuild kit including pistons is $90 from VB&P. So I guess my options are

1) Rebuild my calipers with the VB&P kit for $160
2) Rebuild my calipers with regular kit for $25 and try to fix runout issues
3) Buy new regular calipers for $240 and try to fix runout issues
4) Buy O-ring calipers for $380 or wait until they go on sale.

I guess I have one farther question. Even if I replace the rotors there can there still be wobble from the rotor? I'm assuming the wobble is from the mating surface and not from the rotor itself. Is this correct?

 

Try Van Steel. I rebuilt mine last winter using their O-Ring kits and if I remember correctly it was about $60/wheel. This included everything that you need including pistons.
Just make sure you polish the piston bores of your existing calipers with some scotchbrite going in a circular motion and clean them real good.

 

I have been looking at the same thing, not trying to sell you VB and P but their kit does two calipers and includes all of the bolts and brake pad pins. Just something to think about if yours are rusty or in bad condition.

 

Do a search on my past posts over and over again on the benefits of O ring calipers, and hydroboost....those two things alone with dot 5 silicone fluid will cure your brake problems....

or PM me for details....

 

Rotor wobble is most likely due to the rotor faces not being machined 'true' to the bearing bores. You should be able to set up a dial indicator and check rotor runout easily. If you find them out of limits (depending on what you want that limit to be), a good machine shop should be able to true them up. And...personally...I try to stay away from Dura-junk parts.

 

I installed AutoZone rebuilt calipers (with warranty) on a 76 and have several other friends who did the same with good results. One who is a professional mechanic says this is the most cost effective way to go.

IMHO, it would seem to me that it is directionally correct to fix the runout problem no matter what route you choose.

Anyway this is one opinion for you.

 

anything you can buy and pick up close by will save alot.
anyplace else you have to pay a core charge up front, then pay for shipping of new parts in and old parts out, then hope that they agree that the old parts are rebuildable and that they give you your entire core charge back.. weeks later.....

for example.. one place charged me an extra 10 bucks as my old calipers had already been SS Sleeved.

spending 60 bucks to ship out the cores, plus boxing and hauling to the shipper, in hopes of getting 240 bucks back ( maybe less) is the issue....

autozone won't do that to you...

shipping 4 calipers out will be costly.. those suckers are heavy..

if you are just a cruiser and not a road course junkie, then autozone will be just fine..

 

Exactly, and to add to those shipping costs is that i'm in Canada so they'd increase significantly. I think everyone agrees that the Autozone calipers are a good deal, not only are they much cheaper than any of the online vendors, but you also avoid core issue and get much faster service. I would like to upgrade to the O-ring calipers and the $50 o-ring rebuild kit for all 4 calipers is reasonable. But why can't I use my regular pistons? The last time I inspected them they were fine, they don't need to be replaced. So is there a way to get the o-rings to work with my current pistons?

 

I have to agree 100% with joewill, Autozone is just fine for a cruiser. I got 4 rebuilt calipers in Nov 2000 and had only 1 leak and they replaced it for free and gave me new pads also for free. Some vendors will hold your core deposit for more than 90 days and you have to pay more shipping if you have a warranty claim. PG.

 

When I bought my '77, it had sat unused for several years. All four calipers were leaking within 2 weeks of me driving it. I replaced all four with the sixty dollar ones from Autozone. I've had no problems and its been two years. I agree with the others about having to box things up and ship them, then wait on deposits etc. The quality of some Autozone parts is questionable, but overall, I've had pretty good luck with them. That, and the fact that they're easy to deal with. I know the local Autozone manager, and if I get something that doesn't fit or work right, he's great about replacing it for free.
KC

 

Thought I might give some feedback on my SS calipers that I bought from VBP in 1985 for $240 for 4 calipers and which are still on my 78 vette. In 1985, I had a caliper leaking so I replaced all four at the time with Stainless steel one's from VBP. They worked fine until about 1991 when one of the pistons began to leak. VBP sent me a new seal (for free) for that one caliper which I replaced myself. Since then I have never had a piston leak and have changed the brake fluid about 5 times in 23 years on a car that is driven about 500-700 miles a year. The car has 64,000 miles on it. All I can say is that VBP made a great rebuilt caliper at that time especially considering how much the car sits.

 

While doing the calipers it's also a very good time to replace the rubber brake lines with stainless steel ones. This helps firm the pedal up etc. Also if the car has sat the rubber brake hoses can cause problems even if they look ok on the outside as they can collapse on the inside etc.

I wanted the Wilwood Alum calipers but it was beyond my budget for brakes soI used 4 of the $60 AutoZone ones on my 72 last year. No problems from the calipers so far. It was cost effective and my car tends to sit a lot. Going forward, I'm going to have the Dot 3 brake fluid flushed out every other year. That should help keep the brake fluid from having much water in it.

 

The groove that the seal sets in on your stock pistons will not be big enough for the o-ring. VBP sends out new pistons, new seals, new o-rings to seal the caliper halves and o-rings for the pistons. I rebuilt mine using AZ calipers and the VBP O-ring kit. I also set up my runout to get it down as low as I could and have not had a problem since. That was over 5 years ago now.

 

Eddie did you use the the $160 kit that included all of the bolts etc, or was there a cheaper kit?

 

i used AZ calibers 9 years ago .all good for me .

 

Which in turn causes that old lip seal to collapse letting air in, and then expanding trapping the air in. BTW, no springs with my O-ring design

Make very good air pumps with the rotor runout

Bought "mine way back when" from the guy who developed them. Since sold. Check out the price .complete set!