After all the suspension work on the front of my car the back decided it wanted attention too. There is now a puddle of brake fluid under the passenger side tire. I pulled the wheel off ( hoping to find a loose bleeder or connection ) the fluid is coming from behinds the pads, a pretty steady drip. So my question is......How hard is it to rebuild the brake calipers myself? Do I need any special tools? If it's not too bad a job I can buy a rebuild kit if it's a tough job or special tools are needed I will just buy a new or rebuilt caliper. Any suggestions

 

If one is leaking the others are not far behind. I recommend replacing both rear ones with fresh SS lined calipers. The o-ring sealed ones are better but the lip seal ones will provide good service for a long time as long as the car is driven occasionally. I got mine from Advance Auto Parts but several places have good deals in new and re-manufactured ones. Mine have been on my '80 for four years with no problems.

 

I have all the tools to rebuild the calipers and I DO NOT do them. It is NOT cost effective for my customers. So I buy them.

I would not rebuild a caliper that does NOT have a stainless steel sleeve in it. So...with that....I would buy them.

By the time you buy the kits, hone it... assemble them...it may be less expensive...but that is depending on how much you value your time.

You can get the calipers from where ever you choose that sells them. I get my from Lone Star Caliper in Texas. But if you are watching your $$$$...having to ship your cores back add to the cost...versus you getting them form some place local.

I prefer to use the lip seal calipers...and for me it is the only way to go. BUT it is imperative that the rotor run-out and bearing tolerances are well within specs.

DUB

 

That settles it I will be buying Calipers. Thank you Casey and Dub for your input

 

Just to give you something to look at. mike...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...-calipers.html

 

Advanced auto has then for $68 each, it's not worth the effort. I bought 2 last year and so far so good
Sorry other vendors.

 

Sorry? No love for the little guys? I'm not a big fan of how A1 rebuilds their calipers with the old single lip seals. The double lip seals hold better, and the O-ring style seals are easier to deal with in the long run. Let us know if we can help

Jeff
Muskegon Brake Corvette Parts
800-442-0335
http://www.muskegonbrake.com

 

o-ring seals are much better at forgiving minor runout and loose bearing clearances that all older cars will have. you may or may not get stainless steel sleeved from autozone and you won't get o-ring sealed from autozone for 68$. correctly rebuilt o-ring sealed calipers from the brake vendors are not cheap, but they are very good. as stated, shipping back for core refund bites into your costs.. and beware of mysterious charges from the brake vendors finding little problems with your core and not giving you full core refund. All are little tricks that escalate your costs.

rebuild your own with o-ring seals and never look back.. that is what I did.

the kits are available from most of the corvette vendors.

 

I rebuilt all my Calipers with Oring kit. 2 years later they still work great and I have a very firm pedal and great braking.

I agree buying a rebuilt one will get you the basic 1 lip seal rebuild. In the short they should work but any run out let alone age and you may be in the same boat again.

As a former auto tech I would buy a caliper for most cars vs rebuilding. But the lip seal that came with our car is a old beast that should die IMO. So rebuild with upgraded parts wins on this caliper/car.

 

Well I am attempting to rebuild mine currently. Mainly for the knowledge. The real PITA so far is just getting them off the car. haha

 

Mine were so beat and not sleeved. After much research went with Autozone rebuilt units. If they leak there under warranty. And worse case nicer start to a O-ring conversion

 

I rebuild my rear ones last week... took 30 minutes per caliper after you tubing it. The rebuild kits are only 10 bucks shipped from auto zone.
I used a dull flat blade to install the seal. most don't use the silly tools they make according to the video I saw when searching YouTube. I also found my stock calipers were stainless sleeved already. It really was extremely easy.
My fronts were replaced with auto zone units and likely not sleeved (found dated receipts).... the fool probably swapped the stainless sleeved ones as cores for non sleeved units I'll have to deal with again in a year or two.

 

I have those 'silly tools' that can compress the lip seals when inserting the piston/seal in the bores. But even with having them in my tool box...I still buy calipers already rebuilt.

Honing and polishing the stainless steel sleeves that I have seen badly grooved...is not worth my time that I have to charge to my customers.

I applaud anyone who rebuilds there own calipers.

Funny thing about calipers you buy from place that DOES NOT specialize in rebuilding them SPECIFICALLY....IS......how do you know that you are getting what you ordered....meaning 'O'ring style or lip seal style. Because I have had customer bring in their own calipers (from auto parts stores) only to find that when I popped out the pistons...due to 'issues'...that they were not what the customer ordered. And in some cases...one front caliper would be an 'o'ring and the other one a lip seal.

Think of it this way...and for those who have good success...I am glad for you. BUT...getting calipers from a company that is selling their product to parts houses for easy access. These companies who rebuild these calipers DO NOT realize the difference in the two designs....and IF they do...they are not keeping an eye on quality control/packaging. Fist off they do not work on Corvettes or OWN one. And if they are low in stock in one style or the other...who is to say that they will box them to get them out and make that money...and if something goes wrong.....to them...it is not a big deal. And most people are happy to have a caliper that will install.

DUB

 

This is exactly why I spent the hour to clean and pop my own seals in both my rear calipers. It takes what 5 minutes to pull the seals and pistons to see whether they are worth rebuilding or better used as a core? most with low mileage and stainless sleeves should be a cakewalk to rebuild. a dull edge flat blade screw driver works just as well or better as the tools.

I now know exactly what kind of shape my calipers are in now and I know my rear calipers are stainless sleeved and the sleeves where in great shape... There was gunk from moisture in between the piston and sleeve as well as some light corrosion on the aluminum pistons which cleaned right off.

The issues you are describing are very possible but they could easily pertain to any rebuild autoparts store part...

 

It just does not pertain to calipers. I come across more crap than I care to write about and that lets me know NOT what parts to buy that are rebuilt and being sold by the major consumer auto parts stores.

DUB