Front Brake Caliper

[Jon280]

Hello - not been here for a while, but trying to get the wedge going again after a few months of inaction.

I have got a seized front nearside brake caliper, and am therefore needing to get this replaced.

I believe it is a Girling caliper and on the casing it has the following number - 64326046

From a bit of a trawl through the forum, I think its from either a Granada or an Escort, but struggling to find a suitable replacement online, they seem to have different piston sizes to mine. The one I have just taken off has a 48mm piston, the ones I can find online have a 54mm piston, so seem to be different calipers.

dose anyone have any recent experience of finding replacement front calipers for a 1985 280i.

Going to visit a couple of local motor factors tomorrow to see if they can turn up anything, and also give a couple of places a call to see how much it would be to get my caliper refurbished - Big Red seem to get quite a few mentions, is there anyone else worth considering?

Cheers

Jon

[phillpot]

Send the pair to somewhere like Bigg Red and have them refurbished?


Or buy the bits from Brakes Int. and do 'em yourself



You are measuring the outside diameter of the piston aren't you....................................... ?

[KKson]

I've always rebuilt them myself. Easy enough as long as you keep everything really clean.

[Jon280]

phillpot said:

You are measuring the outside diameter of the piston aren't you....................................... ?

Good point well made, it appears I measured the part that contacts the pad, which has a diameter a bit smaller than the rest of the piston...

Maybe these will fit - http://goo.gl/ouG9o1

Will give big red a call in the morning to see how much they cost, not sure I have enough patience or equipment to do them myself

[SEvans]

Used these guys quite a bit over the years. https://brakeparts.co.uk/

Not for the TVR but plenty of other stuff. If you are just after a standard caliper replacement it can be almost as cheap to buy the caliper as rebuild it yourself.

Cheers Steve

[Jon280]

Bit of an update, managed to get new calipers, and have just got a nice MOT pass, hopefully now be heading down to Poole Quay for the TVR event tomorrow.

As with all jobs I have done, it escalated slightly, as once I started looking did not like the look of hte brake hoses, so replaced those at the front too while I had it all apart.

For future reference, and anyone else looking for similar parts, the calipers were indeed from a MKII Granada. A local motor spares place managed to source a set the same day for a pretty decent price (less than £100 for both calipers and a set of pads, had to give them my old ones in exchange).

I ended up with some from Remy, part numbers DC80284 and DC80285.

Here is a link, though not where I got them from - https://www.micksgarage.com/d/brake-calipers/ford/...

I believe that the ones I linked to in an earlier post from Brake Parts would also fit.

Think I still have a bit of air somewhere in the system, as the brake pedal is a bit longer than it used to be, so a bit more bleeding required.

[anonymous-user]

Just seen this - would be very interested to know the shop you got these from as my local ones cant supply... so PM sent

[phillpot]

Jon280 said:

Think I still have a bit of air somewhere in the system, as the brake pedal is a bit longer than it used to be, so a bit more bleeding required.

Replaced my master cylinder quite recently, brake pedal was okay but not as good as I'd have liked so out with the Eazibleed again and three tiny bubbles from the left front caliper has made a world of difference.
The tiniest bit of air can have a huge effect on the pedal travel.

[anonymous-user]

I had BOTH brakes seize at the weekend which led to fuel vapourisation due to pushing the car hard to get to a layby, and did self recovery with the car trailer which then got a flat so when I got home ripped the driveway up as the trailer was then too low to get in.

Thanks for the info Jon280 - now sorted.