Finding good quality rebuilds

[RS68]

One of my rear calipers is frozen on my 85 SPG. I purchased a nastra reman but was not happy with the core because the metal was very pitted and missing metal where the brake pad slides. What are the best rebuilders for brake parts and Saab parts in general? Should i just keep returning rebuilds until I get a caliper with a solid core? Or should I rebuild the caliper myself?

[Jordan]

Every remanufacturer is going to have good and bad cores unfortunately, and what they think is acceptable is going to be very ambiguous. There are restoration specialists like whitepost (http://www.whitepost.com/brakeform.html) that rebuild un-common calipers, but they are probably pretty pricey.

[DeLorean]

Yeah, caliper rebuilds are funny... I got a rear 88+ C-900 rear caliper from rock auto that appeared to have about 2/3 it's original mass due to blasting all the thick scaly rust off of the thing. I bet it was probably on rebuild number 2 or 3... I would not have picked that as a core to rebuild, that's for sure. Thing did (and does) work fine though, and was $50... so.

Other "rebuilds" look freaking brand new. The ones off my truck were nothing but rust, so I sent them some real trashy cores, the ones I got looked great and had 100% of their material, but were clear rebuilds. If you order "rebuilt" CTS-V calipers for $100 on rock auto, they are in-fact brand new in the GM box, made in Italy. Figure that one out Quality of rebuilds probably has something to do with where the cores came from. Southern cars parts just don't rust like our north-east cars do. One thing I really don't like is when you get a caliper with a piston that's clearly been cleaned up, but was so bad that the pads don't even sit flat against it. That piston should have gone in their scrap pile.

[RS68]

The rebuild you got sounds way worse than the one I got. Mine would probably work but knowing there are still some good cores out there I guess I'll return it and try again. Is there anyone who still sells the rear calipers new?

[billy bee]

Rebuilding it gets my vote.

I rebuilt calipers myself many, many times. It is fairly simple on a single-piston caliper. Remove the caliper, remove the brake line, and use compressed air to blow out the piston. Be careful. It will come our with a bang. Do not try to hold the piston back with your fingers unless you want to lose them. I would shoot the piston into a trash can or box or something. You will need a new piston seal, dust boot, slide boots, etc. That stuff is usually pretty easy to source. You can also keep the caliper connected to the car and use hydraulic pressure to force the piston out.

Clean the parts up well and reassemble with the new seals/boots using brake fluid as a lubricant on the piston. I would use a simple brake piston tool (see below) to drive the piston back into the bore. Occasionally I had to replace the pistons if they were pitted. That was rare. No sure when SAAB went to using the rear calipers for the parking brake. If the parking brake is on the rear it is a little more complicated depending on the style of parking brake used. Yours are two-piston calipers, I think. Again, they are a little more complicated. Still quite easy to rebuild.

Brake tool:
{img]http://c1552172.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/354563_x600.jpg[/img]

One other thing: make sure the problem is in the caliper rather than the brake master cylinder or proportioning valve. I have had both fail and cause calipers to lock up.

[Jordan]

The ones off my truck were nothing but rust, so I sent them some real trashy cores, the ones I got looked great and had 100% of their material, but were clear rebuilds.

See now there is the problem

[gmreider]

I see the problem of cores has to do with accepting really junk ones as core returns instead of charging the customer for an unacceptable core. The core buyers should be more fussy in what they buy and rebuilders should build better products. And customers should be willing to pay for a quality product. Like any of that will happen??
I have been repairing cars for 50 + years and it was always a problem.

Just got to face the fact that some parts are going to be un -obtainium some day. Unless we want to pay what they would cost to manufacture in small quantity's.

[RS68]

It seems like now is the time to find good cores while you can. I picked up one nos rear caliper and another rebuilt one for the other side on ebay. So much better being able to see the actual part being sold in pictures before buying. Im keeping my cores so i can rebuild them myself. Im returning the questionable rebuilds.

Also what is up with the non rebuildable axles some companies are putting out? I returned those and rebuilt my old ones.

[Jordan]

As for the axles, companies use a "generic" part to keep costs down. So in essence they make an axle with X length and X hub size and spline and X type of inner driver. Everything else will not match the stock components for rebuild.