Hello, If I change my brake lines to Braided Stainless, Should i change my calibers as well? If so what calibers should i use ?
Thank you

 

That's entirely up to you.
I run braided stainless flex lines connected to stock calipers. My brakes work fantastic.
Aftermarket calipers may save you a few pounds. But won't shorten your stopping distances.

 

Try to stick to calibers that are commonly available. No boutique calibers, unless you have the rebuilding equipment.

Are you replacing the rubber hoses with stainless braided hoses? Try to look for hoses that state they have PTFE (Teflon) liners.

You don't NEED to change your brake calipers, just bleed them. Are they already leaking?

 

Two of my calipers are leaking from age and lack of use. I am gonna replace 4 calipers and install braided teflon liners. Someone earlier said to use factory calipers for my 74. Is that Ultimately the best replacement? I do not want to keep repeating replacement every 10 years. Opinions??

 

Have your calipers ever been changed over to stainless steel inserts? If you don't know, pull one of the calipers off the car and separate them. Remove the dust seals and pull the piston out and send a picture of the caliper bores. If they have been sleeved, consider rebuilding all four with an O-ring kit. Most of the major venders sell them. I use Van Steel for my brake needs. Jerry

 

Jerry,

Is the o-ring kit simple? Is that the common problem? Cheap fix is the best for me. Someone else told me that was common because of the factory o-rings leaking.

 

The O-ring conversion was not that big a deal when you have the calipers out of the car and can split them in halves. When I did mine, the bores in the calipers had all been sleeved. The surface was dirty and rough but cleaned up and were very smooth after a few minutes with a brake hone and an electric drill. I did mine in a bucket of kerosene so the oil was clean and fresh while I was honing each of the cylinders. During re-assembly use plenty of clean brake fluid to lubricate the parts as you put them back together. The biggest difference that I remember was simply how the pistons seals were installed. The original seals were prone to pumping air into the brake system. The o-ring system makes more sense and it works better (IMHO) than the factory seals.

After the re-assembly and installation back on my 1968 Corvette the brakes were impressive. No more leaks or hassles. I can "Lock-up" all four wheels if I need to and that gives me a good feeling of control.

The factory original seals were not O-rings, the O-ring seals for brake pistons came about many years later. I doubt there are many C3's on the roads today without Sleeved calipers! I saw one once at Corvettes@Carlisle and it was in terrible condition.

Stainless steel braided brake lines are a plus as they don't expand like the older rubber brake lines do. Just be sure they are D.O.T. Approved for use on the our highways, the Chinese ones are not approved in many cases

I second the recommendation for Van Steel. They sell good stuff and they "know" their Corvettes!

Take a good look at the Phoenix Reverse Bleeder system, it is a one man brake bleeding system that works really well, especially on the tricky ones. It makes the flushing of your brake fluid a much faster and easier job.

 

Im in the process of doing the O ring conversion now. The calipers seem to be original to the car and were not sleeved so this is going to be more expensive then I originally anticipated. The sleeves dont look too bad, but I think putting them back on the car without getting them sleeved would be a bad idea.

 

Are talking bullets?

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/RUS-692000



I'm running these with stock calipers. They ship with a "born on date"... must of been a month old. No complaints.