caliper seals??

[Johan]

Someone please straighten this out to me... I have my front calipers off and split, but have not yet removed the seals.
How can I tell what kind of seals/calipers that are used? Are there three different types of calipers; original, O-ring and SS-sleeved, or does SS always have o-ring seals?
The seal kits sold in the catalogs, are those the original type?

Also, how can I remove the boots/seals without damaging them? I suspect a leak on one piston, but I have also understand that this can be from the brake system not being used for a while?

 

[resto75]

If you already have ss calipers you will see the inner surface is a clean satin stainless steel color. The seals can be either the lip seal or O'ring type. I would pop out a piston and you will know if its o'ring or lip seal.

If they are apart already you might as well just go ahead and replace them. Unless you already have ss sleeved calipers you probably need to order a whole new set complete. If someone has already put in ss calipers you can just buy new seals and put back together. If you want to change to o'ring type from the lip seal type you will need new pistons also.

Vette brake products has what you need as well as many other suppliers.

A little carefully placed air pressure into the brake line hole will pop those pistons out just go easy on the pressure. You should be able to grasp them and pull them out also.

 

[Johan]

Well I dont have access to air, so I just tried to pull... hard... but no result. Is there a trick, or should I just grip the piston and pull as hard as I can?

Can the o-ring type replacement seals and pistons be fitted to calipers without ss sleeves? Redoing them to SS means sending them to USA and back, wich will be very costly for me, so I'll skip on that for now.

Can you tell from my picture what kind of seals my are?

 

[smurfvet]

I don't think you can tell withour removing the pistons. The outer dust seal covers the space between the piston and sleeve.

If the pistons don't come out, they are frozen due to corrosion in the area between the piston and cylinder (or sleeve) wall. Any scoring on these surfaces has to be removed or the leakage will be impressive. If those pistons are stuck in there, I would just dump 'em and get a new set of VBP o-ring calipers and lose all the problems.

 

[Johan]

No, the pistons aren't frozen, I can move them back and forth. (And the brakes did work great, I just discovered a little leak when I tore down my suspension)

But my question is what holds the pistons there? Is It just the outer seal that holds the piston in place, and should this pop out when I pull the piston?

 

[resto75]

Its just the seal holding it in. Theres a spring behind the piston also but thats about it. Not real complicated. Yours look like lip seal pistons. I only say this because when I swapped from lip seal pistons to o'ring style pistons the depression in the center of the pistons was much smaller. This might not hold true to all pistons however.

I would consider either checking to see if those are ss sleeved or replacing them with ss ones. Swapping to ss is pretty much considered a must due to the very poor orgininal design. This would be more important then worring about lip seal or o'ring in my opinion. If you just want to fix the leak in the one piston I would pop out the seal with a screwdriver and take out the piston. Order a new seal and and the lip seal. If you have ss calipers you will see them with the piston out.

Replace all the brake fluid in the master cyl and all lines and calipers while your at it. Your going to have to bleed it all anyway.

The whole job is very easy.There are also two small o'rings in between the calipers around the fluid holes. These need to be replaced when you split the calipers.

 

[resto75]

Try looking here
http://www.vbandp.com/

 

[Vette/Berlina-coupe]

Fustrating unless you are experienced...

JOHAN: -encountered the same problem, apparently some mechanics glue the dust-shields in to the extent that yes they are very difficult to dislodge; -however, i found that some of my dust-shields readily removed, so that was how i discovered how to cope with removal of the glued-in ones; --additionally, the above suggested vette brake supplier would'nt sell me just the retrofit aluminum seal-pucks w/O-rings, --but this following supplier will, plus their pucks are latest state-of-art "full-floating", -that is they eliminate the return-springs and thereby achieve a more precision action in which the pads last longer and are quiet !!(conversion-kit: $150 total-front/rear) ... ~Bob vH http://members.tripod.com/~GrandmaDucklet/preccaliper.html
ad :confused :eek :eyerole :dance

 

[Johan]

Ok, got the pistons out (and a large squish of brake fluid in my face...). Found that the calipers was ss sleeved, so thats good news.
Pistons w/seal look like this (photo), and I assume they are the lip type, correct? (the seal is not an o-ring, but u-shaped)

 

[resto75]

Those are the lip seal type. The o'ring is just that an O'ring. Your lucky you have ss already because thats half the battle.

You can either buy a new lip seal and dust seal or go the conversion route and swap it all to o'ring. The conversion kits are about 28 bucks a wheel but include everything including all four pistons. It's a good deal as the oem pistons are about 10 bucks each and you need 16 for the front and back. You can do everything right for just over $100.00.

Look at items 11309 and 11310

http://www.vbandp.com/

 

[Eddie 70]

Get the Vette Brakes O-Ring kits. They make for a nice brake set up. I just installed them in my 70 about 2 months ago. It was a very easy job to do.
You can see in this pic, besides my messy garage, the pistons and the orings installed on them. You also get new dust seals for each piston.