Mismatched caliper pistons???

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ValiantOne

ValiantOne

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Hey All,

I have a set of 73-76 calipers that I got for my drum to disc upgrade on my 68 Valiant. They are rebuilds that I got a few years back, but just now getting to the upgrade. Anyhow, one of the calipers has a metal piston in it, the other has one of those phenolic type pistons in it. Had I noticed that originally I'd have got a different set. Ain't no taking them back now.

Big deal? No prob? I don't much like it, but is it really an issue?

Thanks,

CE
 
I don't believe there's a functional difference. As least one of them may not corrode as bad as the other!
 
The phenolic piston was designed to be impervious to heat but have a reputation for binding up when pushed back in after a brake job.
 
Don't worry about it.
The car is never going to have another brake job done to it, in it's lifetime.
 
hemi71x said:
Don't worry about it.
The car is never going to have another brake job done to it, in it's lifetime.
Click to expand...

That's kind of cynical don't you think? Maybe it's gonna be a daily. :dontknow: ;)

I've done 2 brake jobs on my Challenger so far. One when I first bought it and went through everything to put it on the road (and upgraded to 11.75" rotors), and the 2nd when the pads wore out after about 45k miles. With any luck I'll put another 45k on it and need to do another one, although it will take longer this time around since I'm mostly driving my Duster now.

Of course, I do have to say that I didn't change or rebuild the calipers for either of those, and the actual calipers on the car might very well be original to it.
 
Haha, that is pessimistic. But you may be right. One day I aim to put an AlterK in it. Doubtful I'll put 30K miles on it before that. In the past 10 years I've only done 10K in it :)

hemi71x said:
Don't worry about it.
The car is never going to have another brake job done to it, in it's lifetime.
Click to expand...
 
The seal rollback is a bit different between a phenolic piston and a steel piston (they also have different friction coefficients on the seal). I'd pick up another steel piston caliper. They aren't that expensive.

I had phenolic piston calipers on the Duster for a few years, and then I swapped back to "front mount" calipers since I have the hotchkis UCAs and sway bar. The steel piston ones seem to respond better and also have less roll back, so the brakes feel better.
 
goldduster318 said:
The seal rollback is a bit different between a phenolic piston and a steel piston (they also have different friction coefficients on the seal). I'd pick up another steel piston caliper. They aren't that expensive.

I had phenolic piston calipers on the Duster for a few years, and then I swapped back to "front mount" calipers since I have the hotchkis UCAs and sway bar. The steel piston ones seem to respond better and also have less roll back, so the brakes feel better.
Click to expand...

Nice observation. I had never been able to compare on a car I drove regularly.
 
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