[T3] Brakes (was Leak under front driver side)

[Jim Adney]

On 17 Mar 2013 at 21:50, Jacob Adam Schroeder wrote:

> Before people responded here, I noticed that JBUGS appears to have rebuilt
> ones for what looks to be about $70.  Has anybody from this list tried
> those?  I will still send mine to Jim, but I'm curious which places still
> reliably carry good parts.

I really don't have much experience with what other people sell, but 
my impression is that most of them stock rather generic parts rebuilt 
by commercial rebuilders. When I've seen those parts, I usually find 
that they have broken the center pins out of the caliper bodies in 
order to use cheaper pistons, or just because it makes life easier 
for them. I'm not absolutely sure that the center pins and the 
compensating mechanisms in the pistons are necessary, but I figure VW 
must have paid the extra money for that feature for a good reason. So 
I prefer to preserve them.

And sometimes, you get calipers with the wrong size pistons. This is 
bad, especially if the 2 sides don't match. ATe used the same casting 
to make calipers for lots of cars: VW, BMW, Saab, Volvo, Porsche, 
Mercedes all used the same castings but with different borings for 
different sized pistons. You can't tell them apart by just looking at 
the outside.

Sometimes I see pistons that don't have the 20 deg cutout on the 
face, which ATe used across their lineup. Late Brazilian ATe and the 
Varga versions leave this feature out, but I think there are sound 
reasons to include it.

The current replacement early size calipers available new today come 
with smaller pistons (less braking force), no cutout, no compensating 
mechanism, but dual bleed valves. The dual bleed valves are nice, but 
they've been provided so that these calipers, without the 20 deg 
cutout can fit on either side. This reduces inventory costs.

In general, I see lots of shortcuts taken in order to produce and 
sell the calipers more cheaply. Their prices are pretty low, so that 
forces me to keep my prices lower than I might like, in order to keep 
people from being tempted to go that route.

Frankly, I don't know of anywhere else you can go and be assured of 
getting exactly what you deserve in the way of calipers.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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