1982 Corvette 4 piston calipers

[Crosley.In.AZ]

If you were to do a complete brake job on a 1982 Corvette... would use the sleeved -reman  4 piston    calipers ?

Where would you buy the sleeved calipers?

[phat rat]

Try here, they used to be very well know for their Corvette work. Don't know for sure if they still are or not.
http://www.muskegonbrake.net/v4/go.gnf?s=mbservice&n=default&d=products&product=124192

[river1]

roadstar works as a corvette restorer (i think)

hopefully he'll chime in

later jim

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Yes, I would Tony. Muskegon Brake is a good supplier.

Charlie

[Crosley.In.AZ]

thanks guys ....  I drove the vette to my shop today.  the rear brakes leak so bad they really do not work much.

That Muskegon place seems to offer all I need for the brakes at the wheels.  The car will need hoses , master cylnder , mayb a few rotors  and who knows what when I take stuff apart.

It's a 99k mile car , I doubt the calipers have been worked on yet, besides the pads replacement

This is a side job for me...I've been placed on shortened work week schedule at my place of employment.......business is very slow.

[phat rat]

If you call them they would have everything. That way you could buy everything from one source. One bill and one shipping charge.
I went further on their site and found this. Take a look here.
http://www.muskegonbrake.com/v4/go.gnf?session=40b239b85687ef5d910256bb9b0cb7ba&s=vettedesk&t=&product=11013&n=default&d=products&listTemplate=

[Crosley.In.AZ]

yes , looks good for the kit program.  The car owner has checked around and knows that core charges can be different IF his calipers have been sleeved already ( I doubt this).  I figure at least 2 rotors are not reusable , that is just a WAG....  ;-)

I told the car owner  2 months ago the parts costs would approach  1 thousand dollars for the brake system repair , wheel bearings up front....

I plan on pulling the left rear caliper off and apart for inspection  of sleeve - no sleeeve , rust pits in the bores.. this caliper leaks the worse

[BFS57]

Hello;
Had a really good friend of mine that was a Corvette know it all! He told me that the calipers get so bad and rusty that they have to re-sleve them. The best ones are done in stainless and he always used the another kind of brake fluid, not dot 3! I think it was silicone fluid he used.
He's not here any longer but the 50 or so years I knew him he was never with out a Corvette to drive! He also did all his own work on the cars from paint to any mechanical problem needed done.

Bruce

[model a vette]

I've had 4 of Muskegan's Corvette calipers on my car for about 20 years.
The seals in one caliper went but otherwise they have worked very well.
The stainless sleeve was spotless in that caliper.

If you are doing the job for a customer be sure to check the runout on the rotors. Excessive runout will pump air into the system eventually.

I tried silicon brake fluid but did not like the mushy pedal. I switched back to Dot 3 but I will use Dot 4 in the future.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

I used Silcone fluid for many years (20) without any problem...except the soft or mushy pedal. I switched to Dot 4 in the same car about 4 or 5 years ago. I like it a lot better


Did Dot 4 on my track roadster and it is fine too.

Charlie

[Crosley.In.AZ]

hi kids.

I have not gotten to the corvette yet...trying to catch up (something I do poorly)

the rotors will   be machined or replaced , I do not do half - * stuff.  .

Like you folks working on your own car , it is worth doing , it's worth doing correctly.

[model a vette]

Crosley-
I have found that sometimes there is runout on the front hubs and on the rear hub flanges.  I think the front hubs were riveted to the rotors. You can cut the front rotors on the hubs but be careful to keep the rotor in the same relation to the studs if it is removable.
The rotors can be installed rotated on the hub in five different locations if the rivets are removed. I have used a dial indicator to get the least runout for the different locations.
I felt like a typical anal Corvette owner!
The rear rotors were riveted, at least on the '68 parts I used. I drilled the rivets out. The rear rotors can only be installed so that the parking brake adjusting holes can be used.
The front hubs and rear flanges have to be very clean to limit runout.
I think Muskegan gives instructions with their rotors and maybe with the calipers on limiting runout.
I've found that limiting runout stopped the pulsing I had before rebuilding the system.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

hi,

I finally got to the vette  brakes..  the calipers appear to be OEM , not sleeved reman units

Photos show rust crud in caliper bore of the worse leaking caliper...

and after clean up , the rust pits in one photo.  Pits are not as deep as the photo would indicate.

Rear rotors do not look bad at all.... measure as good.

Front rotors are iffy , need to remove them for full check....  I am tired tonight , they will wait till tomorrow.

[slocrow]

Tony; If you're going with sleeved I'd definitely go with the stainless, it's a usual selling point on classic Corvettes. Don't forget to order the master sleeved with stainless too. ...................

[model a vette]

I used calipers that had pits like you pictured but they would always leak.
I changed to the sleeved ones and never looked back.