Have had a minor brake fluid leak that [finally] needs to be addressed as the car cannot be safety driven, the pedal goes to the floor.
Briefly discussed this with my buddy yesterday [he has a C3 & C2] and he suggested that I change the calipers to a model with o-rings, apparently the calipers with lip seal tend to leak.

https://www.corvettecentral.com/c3-6...ake-caliper%2f

I've had the car for nearly 5 years and other than the minor brake fluid leak, the brakes always worked good, no service needed except to top off fluid. With the temps 100+ all summer here in TX, I havent yet pulled the wheels and calipers to diagnose yet, so I need to see what I have.

What are your thoughts on this? If you changed your calipers, which did you go to?

BTW - the car is stock and driven aggressively.

Thanks

 

Installed a similar kit from ZIP on my '72 in March. I use DOT4 fluid. So far so good. But I drive like an old lady. LOL
However, brake leaks tend to develop from not driving the car.

PS. the kit from Zip cost more but the calipers are new and you don't need to return your cores or pay a core charge..

 

Thanks for your reply 3030. Did you do the upgrade yourself? Pretty straight forward?

I've done a few brake jobs and really dont anticipate any issues unless I run into rusted brake line fittings. My buddy offered to help when I am ready to bleed' em as that is a two man job. He's replaced the calipers on both his Vettes, I was surprised to find out the calipers were the same on his '65 as my '70! [Actually '65-82 are the same, that is a long stretch for no upgrade]

 

IMO.. i don't think a small leak would cause brakes to go to floor..
i would look elsewhere first.. master? other leaks??? major?
i went with zip and topflight for my calipers with o-rings.. core charge delcos moraine ..
note recently had 2 leak under warranty.. not like they used to be YMMV..

 

Yes, I did the upgrade. All four of my calipers were trash. It is pretty straight forward unless you encounter rusted bolts that don't want to budge. I had to drill out the mounting bolts for one of the rear calipers. Also, one rear rotor was still riveted to the hub and the rivets needed to be drilled out; not too difficult if you have sharp drill bits. I also had to replace the front-to-rear brake line along the frame rail.

It's good to have a buddy to help.

 

What that says is the original design is that good. In addition, o-rings were available in the early '60s when these calipers were designed and the engineers elected to go with lip seals. I've only had lip seals in my Corvettes (since the late '70s) with no issues as long as regular maintenance is done. The deal with lip seals is that more braking pressure exerts more sealing pressure against the bore and pushing the piston. Kind of like an inverted cup. O-rings do not have that ability.

Unless the small leak occurred over an extended time and drained the master reservoir.
I had a new Lone Star caliper leak. Faulty seal installation.

 

Since the brake pedal goes "to the floor" does that seem reasonable since these cars have a dual braking system? Shouldn't there be some minimal residual brake authority from either the front or the rear?

 

Oh boy, where to start here...
First, there is nothing straightforward about working on C3 Corvette brakes. Do a little searching on this forum; there have been literally volumes of threads on this topic. Caliper seals, rotor runout, master cylinder pushrod, bleeding procedures, all things with issues unique to C3's. Then you have the "normal" issues with rubber flex lines, rusty steel lines, etc.

2nd, if you don't anticipate any problems, refer to my first point.

3rd, if you have a buddy that has offered to help you with the brakes, AND he's done Vette brakes in the past, you've got one helluva pal there, don't **** him off. Treasure that friendship.

Seriously, C3 brakes are a handful. Are there guys that whip through them with no issues? Sure, and it might happen with you. But if that happens to you, go right out and buy a lottery ticket, cause you are one lucky sonofagun.

 

If you aren't going to flight the car, I'd go with the Wilwood calipers. I've had stock calipers leak, ss sleeved calipers leak, and o-ring calipers leak. Only design flaw with the Wilwoods is the location of the rear caliper bleeder. The caliper needs to be removed and stood up vertically to bleed the air out.

 

Thanks for all the replies and info, guys. The pedal may not go all the way to the floor but enough to make the light go on and give me concern.

I plan to pull the left read wheel in the next week or so, I seem to remember this was the one that had the leak. The car is currently stored at a friends garage at his Ranch, so I plan to work on it there [my garage is full at the moment with two cars and 7 motorcycles]

If that is the caliper that is leaking, I will pull it and determine what I have and which route to go.

To be continued...

 

THere is no need to go with expensive calipers. Pull the wheel and see how rusted the calipers are. If its just surface rust take it off the car and pull the 2 big bolts at the ends that hold it together and split the caliper. Once its apart look at your piston cylinder sleeve and see if its pitted. If it is pull all four and pull them apart. If any of the others are pitted then you can make a decision on how much you want to spend. You can replace the other calipers with o ring calipers and buy a kit for the remaining or just replace all four with o ring calipers. Willwood is expensive but you will save 28 lbs for the set at twice the price. Their least expensive caliper is the same as the corvette caliper performance wise, but it just saves you 7 pounds per caliper. If you are just aggressive on the street or maybe and occassional track guy you dont need them. If you are going to get into racing and are starting to peel off wight then its a consideration. I was into XC mountain bike racing and it was well over $100 per ounce to save weight back then so I understand.
https://www.summitracing.com/search/...wood%20caliper


The CC brakes look like a great deal but you have to send them your old calipers so add that to the price of what you are getting.
https://www.corvettecentral.com/c3-6...ake-caliper%2f
If you go with the rebuild from CSSBinc you will save some cash. $208 or $248 for all four, reguylar versus high heat. scroll to the bottom and you will see the kits
https://www.cssbinc.com/corvette-brake-calipers.aspx

full set with no core but you dont get hoses or pads, those are extra
https://www.cssbinc.com/caliper_rear_set-1.aspx


I dont know who makes the CC ones, but I do trust CSSBinc

 

Interesting

 

I just read an incident where the runout didnt introduce air into the system but it collapsed the discs far enough into the calipers that the stroke wasnt enough to return the piston/pad to the disc enough to prevent the pedal from bottoming out

 

nice looking,70. I would strongly suggest changing your brake fluid regularly. I got my ‘70 in 2012 and in that time I’ve replaced the front brake hoses. Put new seals in the Master cylinder and replaced one front caliper because of thread damage. All calipers have lip seals and I’ve had no problems with them, the car is driven regularly throughout the year, brake fluid changed every two years.