I know this subject has been hit on alot but I would like to ask a question or two. I have what I believe are the original calipers all around on my newly aquired 76 and one is leaking. Wheel spacers have been installed to allow clearance of the calipers for the deep dish custom aftermarket wheels. I would like to know what my best options as far as calipers go that will be same dimentions as oem. I have read that the Wilwood calipers are wider than oem so I will rule those out because I love the wheel tire combo on the Vette. I understand that O-ring seals are an upgrade vs the oem lip seals. I also understand that stainless steel sleeves are the only way to go as well. Again, what calipers are you guys using that are same size as stock? Where did you purchase them? Thanks in advance!!!

 

I purchased Rebuilt O-Ring Calipers from Van Steel. Installed them along with a new Master Cylinder last weekend. Haven't driven the car yet, as I haven't installed the new engine.

 

I got mine (O-ring style, Lonestar rebuilt) from Willcox.

 

I just did a complete brake overhaul on my 76.O-ring SS calipers all around/master cyl. from Wilcox.I also replaced rotors w/ drilled-slotted from Summit Racing and rubber brake lines. You only want to do this once.

 

I've heard folks talk about this but I'm no certain it's fact. The D8 series calipers were made as direct replacement copies of the iron parts. Any variation in size should be minimal.

From the face of the HUB to the outer body they are .480" as shown here:





Place a straight edge off the face of the stock caliper and measure down to the hub face. If it's 1/2" then you're looking at direct fit replacements. If the iron is only 3/8" higher than the hub face that will confirm the aluminum body is taller.

Or using the caliper drawing, you'd have 2.290" from the face of the to the outer body. Full body width less inner shell, less rotor width.

Overall tho, for the value you get: NEW calipers, SS pistons, pads, ss flex hoses, and a color option. All for about a grand.

 

The Wilwood D8 calipers are a direct replacement. They will fit under any of the Corvette rally wheels, including the 6" rally's on a '67. The OP should have no problem fitting them on his '76.

Good luck... GUSTO

 

Sometimes they just need to learn to fit



Zorro

 

I have the wilwood c3 direct fit calipers no brackets or nothing like that front and back. They are same size as original just a 100 times lighter. I had no problems with 3 different tire and wheel combos with spacers/adapters and without them. Perfect fit like if stock but way nicer looking its same 4 piston design stops real good compared to my leaky originals.

 

Thanks for the update on the Wilwood's but I cannot afford those at the present time. Any other suggestions on replacement calipers for reputable venders?

 

Here is the deal on C3 brakes:

The stock 4 piston calipers front and rear, vented 12 inch (11.75) rotors, and a fixed racing type caliper versus a floating caliper used on most cars are even today a great system. The only weakness is the cast iron material of the caliper (giant heat sink) and leaking non sleeved cylinder bores. If you do not road race, Stainless Steel sleeved Calipers from a number of vendors will work for you. If you replace the rubber hoses to the caliper with SS braided lines and use a high performance brake pad, there is not much on the road that will out brake your C3. The C3 brakes are superior to the C4 and not until late in the C5 corvettes brakes did GM start to really improve the corvette braking system over the C3-different story on the C6 corvettes.

If you road race, the aluminum calipers are great for heat rejection but going to a 6 piston front caliper will not improve your braking much without going to a bigger rotor-13/14 inches. The tests I saw with the 6 piston front caliper with stock rotors improved braking from 80 MPH by about 5 feet.

Hope that helps!

 

The c3 brakes are not superior to the c4..... GM went with the different brake manufacturer in the c4 because the delco units did not pass the mustard..I actually have a book where this is mentioned in detail. I have had both a c4 and now a c3 and the c4 handling and braking was apples to oranges to the c3... c4 brakes worked amazing.
C3 brakes were one of the first designs and a lot was learned 20+ years later when the c4 was launched..

To the OP I bought a rebuild caliper from auto zone yesterday and am thoroughly impressed with it... it even had stainless upgraded pistons in it.. I did start another thread on the topic with pics.

 

go to your local parts store and buy a lifetime warranty REBUILT caliper. Don't get a NEW casting caliper.

 

It is a known fact that the earlier C4 brakes (84-88) were inferior to the C3 4 piston caliper versus the C4 single piston aluminum caliper, fixed racing caliper versus the C4 floating caliper (inferior), 11.5 inch rotors versus the heavier duty 11.75 inch rotor of the C3, and the C3's much bigger brake pad versus the C4's. There is no way around physics. In fact, GM upgraded the brakes on later C4's to dual piston front calipers versus the earlier single piston calipers and to 13 inch front rotors because the brakes were not very good.The only advantage of the C4 brakes were the aluminum caliper. That is it....

GM went back to the basic C3 setup in the C6 Z06 brakes with 6 piston front fixed racing calipers and FIXED 4 piston racing calipers in the rear with big rotors. Now why would GM do that if floating dual/single piston calipers were so good?

No one said anything about the C4 handling versus the C3. The C4 was much better as you mentioned, not the brakes

 

Agree, I am sure all of the suggestions above are good ones. However, if you want an economical replacement as good as the OEM, just go to Autozone and get rebuilt calipers with a lifetime warranty like I did for my 76. I would splurge and get ss braided brake lines though, which is not that much additional money.

 

Let's be honest...the only thing that makes a single piston slider superior to the fixed four pot is cost reduction.

 

Autozone had mine for $65 each. And so far so good after a year of use. The cast iron can be taken down with a grinder but no more than 1/8 of an inch. Of coarse you can never use them a a core again so scratch off $30 for each one you grind.

 

the parts guys will never know if you grind the calipers down.

I upgraded the rear single piston calipers on my Silverado to the two piston Suburban calipers. I got the two piston calipers at NAPA and returned the single pistons as cores. They never said anything.

 

Well I spent some time last night researching this and the 5 books I have on corvettes all indicate that Mitchell went outside of GM to Girlock because their brakes performed better and were lighter. They also mentioned the brakes changing again with abs and such as well as the ZR1 package. There are lots of references to the c4 having better handling and stopping power on line... I don't want to really get into an Arguement about it but can you reference some actual documentation or performance figures to show your point? If that's the case I would be glad to learn otherwise but then I have to figure out why my new brakes are subpare with semi metallic pads.
Because My old 84 corvette had much better brakes even though they were old and untouched than my 74 has with all new brakes...

 

That's pretty funny-I too looked long and hard last night to find some documentation to support my statements other than the pure physics of the 2 braking systems-comparing one to the other. There is actual very little data supporting a direct braking comparison between a C4 84-88 system and the C3 system. Here is what I found:

Braking from 80 MPH for a 78/79 C3 is about 240 ft with stock tires 225/70/15 (Crap rubber BTW) and stock brake pads back then - don't know what they used by probably some organic or asbestos pad. A non J-55 brake equipped C4-Single piston calipers all around with hugh 255/50/16 ZR rubber was also about 240 ft-No better-BTW.

Not really a fair comparison for two reasons: Put modern rubber on a 78/79 like I have (255/45/17 ZR) and a great brake pad (Hawk or Performance Friction-which I use) and I am certain that the 78/79 will out brake the earlier C4's-no contest. Why?

Back to the physics of the equation: 3 advantages of the C4 braking equation: Much Better tires which plays a hugh roll in the braking, lighter aluminum calipers-no effect on braking but helps handling, and a lighter car. HOWEVER, consistent across all car forums-no debate-a single piston caliper especially for the front is far inferior to a dual (better) or a 4 piston fixed caliper (best). Zero debate on this issue. Having 4 4 piston calipers at each wheel on a C3 provides a geometric magnitude in clamping force at each wheel over the single piston caliper which equates to better stopping on a rotor of equivalent size. There is not debate on this issue across any car forum-physics. The C3 system with multiple pistons also will have much better pedal feel, more consistent brake pad pressure, and with a fixed caliper much less caliper flex than a C4 system or any floating system-single or 2 piston.

The C4 rotors are 11.5 inches versus 11.75 inches for the C3. Consistent remarks across forums about the the heavy duty nature of the C3 rotor and the fact that the 11.5 C4 rotors were basically not very heavy duty. Also saw many complaints about the C4 brakes being not very good-Non J55 (Dual calipers fronts with 13 inch rotors-good comments about the J55).

 

Was the j55 brakes an option in 84? I don't know but perhaps I had it on my old car. I remember it had the z51 performance package... perhaps the tires ( I upgraded to wider zr1 style rims and tires..) had more of an effect than I gave them credit for.
I agre there is little comparison data between the two but I saw threads and sites were c3's were "upgraded" to c4 brakes.

From my understanding its the rotor surface area that has more of a real world effect. Than the amount of pistons applying force... this why there are many 2 piston systems with larger pads and rotors that have superior performance to the. Older system our vettes use. Especially with the limited force through the master cylinder and lines used.