Remanufactured z32 Calipers from A1Cardone

[Icy13]

It appears that they are selling 30mm calipers that were originally 26mm calipers.

Alright, I will start this with the lesson I learned from my brake swap: I don't like hydraulics. True, a brake swap is very mechanically easy, and true the overall job is not that hard and has great results, but I, personally, had a bad experience with the hydraulics and have decided that my money is not worth so much as to mess with hydraulics myself.

That being said, I had more problems than usual culminating in one of my calipers being bad (this is NOT the re-manufactured one I will be talking about but the reason that I had to purchase this one).

The point of this thread is to inform consumers of my finding with a particular brake caliper from a particular re-manufacturer. Let me stress that I personally do not see a problem with the issue I am about to point out; mechanically the caliper I got should work perfectly and has been tested by the company that sells it to work.

However, it seems strange that a 26mm 300zx caliper would be remanufactured to 30mm 300zx and sold as such:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03038.jpghttp://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03039.jpg

Note the ~5mm spacer that is placed between the halves of the caliper (the different color silver). The disc channel is the ~35mm that a 30mm caliper is supposed to be (referring to the importnut.net writeup):
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03044.jpg
but clearly the spacer is the ~5mm difference between the 26mm caliper specs and the 30mm caliper specs:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03047.jpg

Basically, I would like opinions from the various parties on this site as to what they think the repercussions of this would be. I will stress that I did not do this, this is the part I was send and was sold by a company that professionally refurbs parts. Therefore, I personally DO NOT believe that there is any ill effect to be experienced with this part and merely think it odd that what I assume to have occurred was done by a re-manufacturer.

For reference on specs of different 300zx calipers (http://importnut.net/300zxbrakeswap.htm#compare)

So, comments, complaints, questions, doomsday proclamations?

[devnull]

I'd be curious to know if they used longer bolts along with these spacers. I wouldn't want to be shorted three threads on aluminum calipers.

[datboibrad]

lol i was going to post this a while back. i placed an order for these at my job and saw the same thing. they basically put a 4mm machined spacer in them so that the more available 26mm calipers can be made to 30's. and yes the bolts are the proper length. what i found odd was they the pins that hold the brake pads where the same as the ones on the 26mm calipers. what started my hunt was finding the actual brake hardware for the calipers. the pins and clips and such which no one offers. HOWEVER a distant cousin the 3000gt vr4 has very similar calipers that use the exact same brake hardware =].


they go for pretty cheap retail like 65 bux each iirc with a 50 or so odd dollar core charge. i get them for about 40 a piece with my discount.

[projectRDM]

No problem in that as long as the spacer is sealed.

As far as the pins, they're the same for both 26mm and 30mm calipers.

[Icy13]

alright people, I figured that the company knew what it was doing, and in all honesty I kinda admire the ingenuity and the look of the spacer so I will go ahead and paint this caliper to match my other (avatar pic) and all is well with the world.

Oh, and the pins I got are golden, and the right length:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03049.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Icy13/DSC03052.jpg

[kaaos]

its better than what morse (and another company does, autozone supplier) just plain sells 26mm calipers clearly not 30mm and not working as 30mm. but they are selling them as 30mm calipers im pissed

[dondochaka]

Interesting.. I've never seen that before.
I bought my reman'ed calipers from autozone before and they were 30mm but no spacers in the middle.

[94_240sx]

Well, it's not related with the topic, but I'll share. When I ordered 30mm calipers from Autozone. One of them was BRAND NEW caliper in black finish, but the other one was not. I contacted Beck-Arnley to buy another matching brand new caliper, they said someone put new caliper in a wrong box. It was funny as hell.

[red240]

I have one of these on my s13, it works OK and I have not had any leaks
I was surprised when I ordered one and that's what they sent,one of the bolts on mine was frozen and after trying every thing to loosen it, it snapped
Anyway it seems to work fine

[az_240]

When I was taking the brakes course at a local community college they always told us to never split the caliper in half because more than likely it will not seal correctly when put back together.

As long as it does not leak you should be fine.

[GSXRJJordan]

No problem in that as long as the spacer is sealed.

As far as the pins, they're the same for both 26mm and 30mm calipers.

When I was taking the brakes course at a local community college they always told us to never split the caliper in half because more than likely it will not seal correctly when put back together.

As long as it does not leak you should be fine.

Yup. Bolt em up, enjoy your new 30mm Aluminum Z32 brakes.

[bloodangels13]

thats interesting... i work for a A1c distributer and i bought my 30mm 300zx calipers from work about 2.5yrs ago... of course then it was wagner with a a1c part number... i think.. either way as long as the spacing is right and the pistons are the same diameter it will be the same performance

[mewantkouki]

I bought cardone 30mm iron calipers a while back. No spacers and they work perfectly to this day.

[Icy13]

Well, this caliper now comfortably resides in my car and works :)

On, and she is painted up like my profile pic.

and I love goooooooooolllldddd :).

I bought cardone 30mm iron calipers a while back. No spacers and they work perfectly to this day.
Yeah, but you have iron calipers, which aren't evil or anything, but I already had a passenger side aluminium caliper and needed a matching driver side. Oh fuck it, aluminum is win, iron is fail (jk jk)

[ze12o]

I got the same thing. I haven't put it on but it's weird because i bought two.. one with a spacer and one without. Other then that the calipers looks really nicely rebuilt and comes with new hardware.

[Lith]

its better than what morse (and another company does, autozone supplier) just plain sells 26mm calipers clearly not 30mm and not working as 30mm. but they are selling them as 30mm calipers im pissed

That happened to me today. I ordered the 1991 Z32 TT (aluminum 30mm calipers) from cardone (Part No. 19-1399 and 19-1400) and I ended up getting 26mm aluminum ones in the box.
I had to return them today (of course I didn't finish my brakes, which pisses me off). I will have to go back and just order 1993+ TT calipers and get the cast iron ones.. at least I will know that they only came in 30mm.