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Front caliper rebuild kit?


Roger Ford

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Do these exist? I have a sticky front (standard) caliper, and thought I should rebuild both. I assumed I'd be able to get a kit consisting of new pistons, seals and boots, but can't find anything appropriate.

 

I believe the calipers are Girling Type 14LF. A source of new/recon GENUINE ones at considerably less than the the £420 Caterham want for a pair might be worth considering.

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Roger Just give Mick at Redline a call. He keeps them. Not expensive.

It can be a real bugger to get the piston back into the calliper but thankfully a lot easier than the same job on the rear calliper!

I did a rear one for a customer and it wound up with him helping by applying pressure to wind it back in at the same time as trying to get the dust deal to stay in place.

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If there is any rust on a piston I would replace it in any rebuild. Changing the pads means the piston is housed deeper in the caliper and the line of rust may cause the piston to stick in or out of the new seal. Happened to me last year on my MX-5. Caliper seized on, turned the disc a nice colour though. *eek*
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Roger,

I've just replaced my Girling Type 12 front calipers with exchange ones from James Whiting, I'm sure he has type 14 ones as well.

Rimmer are a bit cheaper but were out of stock and expensive P&P, howevr I got new springs, pins etc from Rimmer.

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Roger,

Knowing JW's aversion to anything non genuine, I suspect they are Girling. Mine fitted perfectly and had the right numbers/markings in the casting; but some copies are so good these days it's hard to tell the difference. Give James/Ruth a call I'm sure they can help.

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  • 1 month later...

Well I finally got around to doing these. JW do genuine refurbs for £150+VAT, but I went for the DIY route and got all the parts from Moss. The seals are genuine Girling. Not sure about the pistons, but they're good quality and fit well, though they're a little more expensive than other options.

 

I was expecting it to be a fairly ghastly job, having done this on bikes before. But actually it was really easy. The pistons popped out easily enough, there wasn't much corrosion, and everything went back together smoothly with a little brake fluid as lube. The trickiest bit was fitting the wire clip to hold the dust seal rubber in place.

 

I already had brake discs which I bought from James Whiting, but it's interesting to note that Moss sell them for £8.75 each. You can even get them delivered for that price by ordering from Moss on ebay. Stupidly cheap - I imagine it will cost most of that to post them.

 

I did buy a pair of discs for when I get around to doing the rears. The machining pattern is quite different (and less obvious) from that on the James Whiting discs. The JW look better to my untutored eye, but I'm not really sure what represents a "good" finish on a disc.

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Quoting Roger Ford: 
I already had brake discs which I bought from James Whiting, but it's interesting to note that Moss sell them for £8.75 each. You can even get them delivered for that price by ordering from Moss on ebay. Stupidly cheap - I imagine it will cost most of that to post them.

😳 Cheap, cheap, like the proverbial budgie.

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  • 1 year later...

I find myself with a leaking front caliper and thinking they were cheap looked at the Caterham site only to see £246 (sure it said £260 yesterday), I think I may try the new seals route first or at the very least take the caliper off and assess the job in hand. I'm amazed at the cost of the complete item when a brake upgrade kit is only £700ish!

Of course it's a little annoying that a 4 year 4000 mile old caliper should fail in the first place.

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Where is it leaking? I cured a few weepy standard calipers in the past by nipping up the bolts holding the two halves together. New ones are £100 a pair on a popular internet auction site.

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Mankee - Tomorrow morning's little job is to find out where exactly the leak is but I think it's a piston seal.

Charles - Where are the rebuilt ones available from? Looking around on the web I notice they are available from many sources like Rimmers etc.

I am correct in assuming the calipers fitted to a 2012 car would still have been Girling type 14's so a seal kit such as this https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/381445610570 would be the right thing to use if req'd.

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