Caddy calipers

[78 Chevyrado]

This is unrelated but...    I had a caliper get stuck yesterday so I'll be redoing the front brakes this week.  Also the master cylinder is acting up so I'm replacing it too.  The back brakes as usual aren't right and never have been.  

So...

I'm debating doing the rear disc brake conversion on my 78 3/4 ton with a 14 bolt FF.  If I do I'll get some matching slotted and or dimpled rotors to match in front and back, they should look good behind the new rims.

Everything I see is all good and I want to get the TSM kit with the caddy eldorado calipers so I can have a parking brake still.

The TSM Kit: http://www.tsmmfg.com/2630E.htm

I've been reading online about them and the reviews are about 50/50 on weather the parking brake part of the caddy calipers are crap or not.   I don't mind paying for them and they aren't too cheap, but I don't want to put out all that money on calipers that are crap.  I do require a manual parking brake, I don't like the line-loc just because it uses the hydraulic part, and I want a cable run parking brake because more than once having a parking brake has saved my butt when the hydraulics have failed on me.

Are the caddy calipers absolutely the only ones that will work with the available kits?  I would love discs out back for simplicity's sake and so I dont have to mess with the axle and bearings just to check my brakes.  however I do need a parking brake, and If the caddys are junk or there's no other way around them, I'll make the drum setup work somehow.

So anybody here have experiences good or bad with the caddy calipers?  

Thanks guys!

[slammed79]

I beleive they're a D52 type caliper, the only difference is that they have the built in parking brake set up. Pretty standard GM fare.

Here's the trick: You can get the calipers from autozone for about $62.00 a piece, but that doesn't come with the emergency brake hardware, which I could not find at Autozone or Oreilly's. ( I haven't checked Napa yet) The core charge on these calipers are 37.00 each. So without a set to turn in you're looking at $200 for the calipers alone.

I contacted GM Obsolete, and they will not seperate the hardware from the calipers and want $600 for the whole set up.

[zieg85]

What if your master is/has been the problem all along?

[roadrage41]

Rockauto.com I'm gonna be doing this conversion in the real near future if you can hold out to see the results. We actually got a better deal from advance auto than rock, but we know the manager... call around.

[78 Chevyrado]

I'll know in the next month or so if I'll be doing the conversion...  I redid all the brakes, and got the rear wheel seal sleeves for the axle.  If it still leaks, or anything else goes wrong, I'll be doing the disc conversion as soon as I get tired of procrastinating.    So we shall soon see.  All I have to do now is get the truck bled, and I'm leaving it for a couple of days as it seemed NOTHING is going right for me right now.  I been having problems with the truck, the parts and the dang tools, so I just need to leave it for a day or two.  It's been a LONG weekend to say the least.

[roadrage41]

I ordered my brackets from Virginia4x4 on eBay, calipers and such should be ordered tomorrow.

[roadrage41]

Got the brackets in, the caddy calipers bolt right up, we can't find a decent source for loaded ones with all of the ebrake stuff included so were pretty much scrapping the ebrake plan.

[slammed79]

There was a eBay store that was selling the calipers with all the ebrake hardware, I'll dig around in the morning and see if I can find them

[modular93fox]

theres other options out there.... you could do a c5/c6 corvette style rear caliper and e-brake... drum in hat setup.







[img]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/2170/53149172.jpg[/img

clint

[roadrage41]

Looks trick man, in my truck though, dealing with ginormous 8 lug stuff.

[slammed79]

The first link here is for the 8 lug kit, and a +$300 for rotors. I gotta wonder if a stock rotor from a 2000+ 3/4 ton would work, those are $45.00 at Autozone.

[roadrage41]

i got new brakes for all 4 corners for 270, calipers, rotors, pads. they say on the ad to use fronts for a 75 3/4 ton, thats what i got on the second run and they bolt to the brackets fine, gotta get my rear suspension completely squared away and then it'll be on to the swap.