Rear Disc Brake Calipers

La Hot Rods

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
Was helping my bud Nathan with the brake system on his 67, we have installed rear disc conversion on the nine inch rear end. When we bled the system the left rear caliper is leaking fluid out of the piston area. Nathan can't find his paper work from when he bought the kit.
The caliper looks like the GM Camaro Firebird disc setup.
Question, is there a caliper that will replace this caliper that doesn't have the park brake made into it?
The spacing on the mounting bolts is 5 1/5 inch.
20200324_141541.jpg
Thanks James.
 

1958 delivery

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
yES, USE THE FRONT d154 CALIPER COMMONLY CALLED THE "METRIC CALIPER" Same dimension no parking brake. The piston is 2.5" so you likely need a proportioning valve. Used oin many S10's and 1980's Malibu plus many others

by the way, you should have left drum brakes on the rear
 

1958 delivery

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
The available kits using that Cadillac caliper are not very good. That caliper is a poor design and is very problematic. Cadillac shxt canned that caliper after 3 years. If that isn't enough your car won't stop any better. I sold that kit years ago and sold a lot, there is still high demand but I got tired of knowingly selling problem kits regardless of the money
 

boxerdog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Mike, what can you maybe add about using D154 kits vs. D52 kits on the front of a typical x-frame car???
 

1958 delivery

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
Large GM D52 calipers are much better then the metric caliper. Piston size is what gives you the stopping power(clamping force)
metric calipers don't save any space so why use them? Now these kits only fit non original wheels. If you're wanting to keep original 14" wheels then the only kit that will fit uses a 2.5" piston, not the metric caliper but same size piston
With that said a metric caliper kit is OK just the D52 is better.
 

boxerdog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Thank you!

Just a note, on my Nova, I used D154 front and rear, (the clip kit included them), but I used the 2" Wilwood in the back and it worked out OK on that little car. It has a prop valve but it doesn't seem to be critical and it stops well with no booster.
 

Skip FIx

Well Known Member
Metric size(late 70s Malibu) has a 2.5" piston, although Wilwood has some twin piston in various colors and sizes. What I have on the back of my Pontiac/Camaro race car. The ratchet 79-81 Trans Am calipers are a pain that those looks like.

The D52 as a big 2 15/16" piston a little big for the rear on most cars unless you have a very adjustable bias option prop valve or MC balance bar. The Late Model Asphault car I have has them on all 4 corners.
 

boxerdog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
The ones I used are relatively inexpensive, don't even have a Wilwood logo on them, but they are single piston bolt-on replacements for GM Metric calipers, and they are available in 2.75" and 2.00". They are much nicer that the generic GM metric calipers. Another problem, Mike probably knows a lot more about this than I do, is that some calipers are auto-retract. Hard to bleed, hard to identify, etc etc.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/metric-brake-calipers.47666/

So I used the 2.75s on the front and the 2.00s on the back on the Nova. E-brake is Flintstone/Skecher.
 

Temp2c

Member
The drum brakes work perfectly on a solid rear end. They have a self energising effect thats hard to beat. The main issue with the drums is the self adjusters making one side tighter then the other.
I remove the self adjusters and jack the rear end off the ground and run the car while looking into a mirror that shows both back wheels spinning. Watch which wheel stops first and make the corrections to the start wheel.
Its amazing how well these drum brakes help a car to stop. The self adjusters never tighten the rear brakes up enough.

Make sure you use the adjustable proportion valve on the rear line with a Metering valve on the front discs to preven nose diving.

I agree with the D-52 calipers being the best. Believe it or not but the best calipers I ever had were NAPA re-mans!
 
Top