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I'm suspecting that if it's doable, that Wilwood could do it since they make kits for other vehicles. I hate that drum-parking-brake-POS.[/QUOTE]
I suspect it is also. But...
First you'd have two common options:
1. The Dual Action Combo Caliper which is already used on a number of rear kits.
2. The Twin Caliper design, also used on a number of current kits.
I've used them both on custom builds myself. For smaller and lighter cars the dual action caliper make sense. It's capable of providing a solid braking event without a lot of space, uses common D342 pads, and has a modest amount of piston area. I've used the twin caliper design also; a customer who wantd four pot calipers on the back of his Mustang SN95 IRS suspension car. It was a challenge and one I'm rather proud of so here it is.
Now I'll take a swing at why you're quite unlikely to see this for the C3.
1. Piston area and design. The common D8 rear is a 3.0" caliper. The largest Dual Action caliper is but 2.06". Meaning you'd have a loss of roughly 33% clamp force. Not to mention the caliper is simply a single piston slider which will struggle to meet the demands of the performance enthusiast with a loss of pedal feel and response. It's clearly a step back.
2. The twin caliper design would address the needs of piston area as we'd have a four pot FNSL4 likely combined like above with that rotor. Brake force is back in check now. But it's designed for a .810" wide rotor so you'd lose rotor mass and of course be a 2pc design. That said you'd have a conventional BBK of sorts on the rear and oe parts up front. The matchy-matchy customers will cry foul. If it can be packaged you'd like need custom cables for the brakes also and the rotor would be quite small to package all that inside the wheel. Ballpark price: $16-1800 with the cables and such.
3. Market. The market for that just to ditch the drum-n-disc (a very successful and popular current design I might add) would be tiny if at all. You can get as good or better a rotor and equal caliper performance for about $500, why would you pay 3X the money for an equal product that's complicated to install, no better functioning than stock and clearly not period correct in is basic appearance?
*I'm not saying someone would not. And in fact if you want it; get with me off line and we can discuss it. What I can tell you is that the custom build of such a kit would run you probably $2200 or so by the time we're done with it. It'll be everything you want it to be just more money as I can't compete with my supplier for the basic parts. Been there, done it. Hit me up.
__________________ TCE
Your one stop...for Wilwood Brakes! 480.967.7901
haha... thanks for taking the time to respond. Good answer. I was looking at the following: http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/Cali...o=120-10110-RD
It's for the fat and heavy early 2000s Mustangs...so it looked somewhat doable. Thanks anyway.
Originally Posted by Todd TCE
I suspect it is also. But...
First you'd have two common options:
1. The Dual Action Combo Caliper which is already used on a number of rear kits.
2. The Twin Caliper design, also used on a number of current kits.
I've used them both on custom builds myself. For smaller and lighter cars the dual action caliper make sense. It's capable of providing a solid braking event without a lot of space, uses common D342 pads, and has a modest amount of piston area. I've used the twin caliper design also; a customer who wantd four pot calipers on the back of his Mustang SN95 IRS suspension car. It was a challenge and one I'm rather proud of so here it is.
Now I'll take a swing at why you're quite unlikely to see this for the C3.
1. Piston area and design. The common D8 rear is a 3.0" caliper. The largest Dual Action caliper is but 2.06". Meaning you'd have a loss of roughly 33% clamp force. Not to mention the caliper is simply a single piston slider which will struggle to meet the demands of the performance enthusiast with a loss of pedal feel and response. It's clearly a step back.
2. The twin caliper design would address the needs of piston area as we'd have a four pot FNSL4 likely combined like above with that rotor. Brake force is back in check now. But it's designed for a .810" wide rotor so you'd lose rotor mass and of course be a 2pc design. That said you'd have a conventional BBK of sorts on the rear and oe parts up front. The matchy-matchy customers will cry foul. If it can be packaged you'd like need custom cables for the brakes also and the rotor would be quite small to package all that inside the wheel. Ballpark price: $16-1800 with the cables and such.
3. Market. The market for that just to ditch the drum-n-disc (a very successful and popular current design I might add) would be tiny if at all. You can get as good or better a rotor and equal caliper performance for about $500, why would you pay 3X the money for an equal product that's complicated to install, no better functioning than stock and clearly not period correct in is basic appearance?
*I'm not saying someone would not. And in fact if you want it; get with me off line and we can discuss it. What I can tell you is that the custom build of such a kit would run you probably $2200 or so by the time we're done with it. It'll be everything you want it to be just more money as I can't compete with my supplier for the basic parts. Been there, done it. Hit me up.
Conversation got me to thinking...what other options do you have?
We overlooked a rather simple one; The line lock.
The C3 I'm pretty sure has a simple two channel brake system. One feed to the front and one feed to the rear. Far easier to work with than today's four channel systems for this.
Fit this in line to the rear and you'll energize the entire rear system. *And lost no rear brake performance for driving needs.
I will say this that the O ring calipers are no guarantee that calipers will not leak.
I can agree with that due to the numerous calipers I service yearly...when I take out the pistons to ship the cores back. MANY of the calipers that were leaking were O-ring design.
And just because a car has O-ring calipers...the rotor run-out and wheel bearings still should be well within tolerances.
Originally Posted by The Punisher
Oh I hear you on the parking brake thing. I am still trying to adjust those to work properly. I think it would be easier just to pull out a wheel chock when parking on an incline
Not saying that you did not or have not adjusted your parking brakes to make them effective...buy if you get to the end or your rope and want to talk to someone who does it numerous times every year and gets them to work...I would be more than glad to talk with you.. Just PM me if interested.
Hmmm.... I'm liking that idea.... well, other than the "engergize" to activate part -
Originally Posted by Todd TCE
Conversation got me to thinking...what other options do you have?
We overlooked a rather simple one; The line lock.
The C3 I'm pretty sure has a simple two channel brake system. One feed to the front and one feed to the rear. Far easier to work with than today's four channel systems for this.
Fit this in line to the rear and you'll energize the entire rear system. *And lost no rear brake performance for driving needs.
There are manual types also. The electronic models are used for staging purposes where they just hit the button to release it. You can find manual ones that you push down on the pedal and then push a valve down to prevent the pressure from flowing back.
I like that idea.
Whenever I put my car up on ramps I disconnect the battery and put an extension (wood, pipe, whatever) on the brake pedal to lock the wheels and avoid inadvertent "rolling".
Originally Posted by Todd TCE
There are manual types also. The electronic models are used for staging purposes where they just hit the button to release it. You can find manual ones that you push down on the pedal and then push a valve down to prevent the pressure from flowing back.
Oh man, I feel you. I took my first dive into Corvette brakes this past week. two were leaking and since the calipers were rusted as heck I decided to just purchase rebuilt ones. I got my front one through NAPA which was a Delco casting and that thing started leaking immediately, LOL! I pulled it off and one piston would not even stay in the cylinder. At least I could just drive a few minutes to the store and exchange it, unlike my other cars where I'd have to mail it back.
I must have gone back and forth three times between just getting Wilwoods and sticking with rebuilt. At least I am a pro at taking apart the brakes now. It is always something, LOL.
Please refer back to post #20. You should NOT have to go out and step on the brake pedal every couple of weeks to prevent calipers from leaking. Any brake caliper manufacturer that recommends that procedure for their OEM rebuilt SS lip seal/Oring calipers would make me very suspect of the faith they have in their product to not leak over time.....If the caliper is rebuilt properly with quality seals/pistons components and they leak, then something else in the system is faulty. Can you imagine if wilwood recommended this procedure for their caliper sets that can cost over a grand for a car?
Granted my VBP calipers were installed by me in 1985 and I don't know their quality today, but have you spoken to them? Another option is the NEW OEM SS calipers sold by a few vendors.
Please refer back to post #20. You should NOT have to go out and step on the brake pedal every couple of weeks to prevent calipers from leaking. Any brake caliper manufacturer that recommends that procedure for their OEM rebuilt SS lip seal/Oring calipers would make me very suspect of the faith they have in their product to not leak over time.....If the caliper is rebuilt properly with quality seals/pistons components and they leak, then something else in the system is faulty. Can you imagine if wilwood recommended this procedure for their caliper sets that can cost over a grand for a car?
Granted my VBP calipers were installed by me in 1985 and I don't know their quality today, but have you spoken to them? Another option is the NEW OEM SS calipers sold by a few vendors.
VBP would cost about $220 for 1 remanufactured caliper. Seems a bit costly
Looked at lone star caliper co. They recommend pressing on the brake pedal weekly to keep them from leaking.
This is a recommendation. I tell my customers that they should drive their Corvette and get it hot and drive it for about 30 minutes or so when it is at operating temp at least once in every 30 days.
It is also...a recommendation...instead of the car just sitting there. Not saying that a car just sitting in garage is bad ( except for possible flat spotting the tires)...but...it is not secret that ignoring the car can cause for seals and other items to begin to possibly fail.
I was looking at the following:
X2
