Rear brake caliper alternatives?

[The Pikey]

just looking at the recon rear calipers supplied with my new kit and I'm not too chuffed with them. Are there any new bolt on alternatives available?

 

thanks

Jason

 

 

[Pendennis]

Hi Jason.

 

try these

 

Want to rent an 18th century Farmhouse in Rural Somerset?

[Dave B]

Apparently VW Golf MK4 rear calipers are a very much lighter alternative. Hand brake linkage is the right way round, just needs a spacer washer to centralise them on the disc. I was shown these on a Xflow by a guy in the club but cant remember his name. Seem to remember he lives out Harlow way.

 

Dave B

[Johnty Lyons]

Just be careful with the Hi specs I have reason to believe some folk may have had trouble with them and as I understand it there is not a std pad available for it.

I'm sure others more familiar with them than I am will keep you right

[jchasey]

With the hispecs you need to drill two holes in the rear pads for the mounting lugs. Its incredibly straightforward. Just pop them in the calliper, mark the hole position, remove, drill, drop back in and put the lug in place.

 

(I've got the rear versions with the handbrake mechanism)

 

My only complaint is that if you are using 8" rear anthracite wheels then the bottom couple of mm of the calliper is positioned such that it can just catch the inside of the wheel. I used a 3mm spacer to move the wheel out slightly so its not a problem. Also gives more clearance with wider tyres for the tyre touching the radius arms under (very) hard cornering. (In race situation - doubt will be an issue on normal road usage)

 

John

[Graham Perry]

Dave B, It might have been me. When I fitted the Golf calipers, Hi-spec reputation was awful and there was little else out there that was affordable if you were on a budget and wanted something with a handbrake. Its in the archive about the Mk4's. They are not perfect in that they won't work with all 13 inch wheels and the pads are a couple of mm too large, but they have worked absolutely fine on my car for years now. I suspect that the Hi-specs are a good bit lighter than the Mk4's, but they in themselves were quite an improvement over the original Sierra calipers.

 

Edited by - Graham Perry on 31 Oct 2010 22:12:43

[The Pikey]

Thanks guys.

 

It looks like there and new Sierra ones available here but for the vented disks only. Does anyone know how they differ from the solid disk type? The calipers come in two parts, if it's the part without the cylinder that is different then I might be able to make a decent set up using the parts I have??

 

Jason

 

 

[henry21p]

apart from the bling colour, they look the same as the standard rear calipers - probably just a different gap to cope with the vented disc setup?

 

would be interesting if these worked with an uprated rear disc as the problem has always been finding a way of keeping rear temps cool without the need for ditching the handbrake

 

before anyone says - yes I have seen the various comments re spot calipers, wilwoods, highspec brakes etc and not seen anything I like yet

 

 

[The Pikey]

Thanks Dave

 

comparing the pics to the ones I have here it looks like the only difference is the part that bolts to the Dedion ear and I can use the ones I have here which are new and not recons. So as Powertorque is only down the road I'll pop in tomorrow to be sure the two are the same.

 

Jason