Rear Caliper Pistons

German auto / Sacco makes and sells aftermarket pantera brakes, cv axle
conversion kits, and some rear suspension stuff. They are in Norwalk Ca and their phone number is 562-863-1123.

quote:

Originally posted by Lousbby:
German auto / Sacco makes and sells aftermarket pantera brakes, cv axle
conversion kits, and some rear suspension stuff. They are in Norwalk Ca and their phone number is 562-863-1123.

Thanks for the lead, I will check it out.

Pete C.
6626

Hi Pete,

SACC Restorations are Pantera brake specialists and have drop in upgrade kits for the Pantera. We also do custom brake kits to customers requirements.

I would be happy to help you with your braking needs. I believe we have the best prices available for braking products. Give us a call or send me an email.

You may want to check out the following for the rear...

http://www.saccrestorations.ne...ar-for-stock-rotors/

or

http://www.saccrestorations.net/brake-kits-1/

This is just a sampling of the kits we sell. He have designed over 20 different kits for the Pantera because one size does not fit all. In fact, 5 sizes don't fit all.

Take care, Scott

Scott,

I just took another look at your site and I am mighty impressed! You are quickly becoming the go-to guy for upgraded solutions to common Pantera issues. The breadth of solutions you are offering is fantastic. (or is it "amazing"…, I'm not sure )

Mark

quote:

Scott,

I just took another look at your site and I am mighty impressed! You are quickly becoming the go-to guy for upgraded solutions to common Pantera issues. The breadth of solutions you are offering is fantastic. (or is it "amazing"…, I'm not sure )

Mark

LOL... Thanks Mark, very nice of you to say! I really like the "amazing" comment. That got me laughing!!!

Pete, if you want to buy replacement pistons, try here.
John Farrell sells stainless steel pistons and also the seal kits. Measure your piston sizes and he will be able to give you a price.
I can email you an old catalog if you want.

quote:

Originally posted by bdud:
Pete, if you want to buy replacement pistons, try here.
John Farrell sells stainless steel pistons and also the seal kits. Measure your piston sizes and he will be able to give you a price.
I can email you an old catalog if you want.

Thank you for the link, I will check it out. It would be great if etypeparts has the correct design. Since these are Lucas/Girlings I guess Jag's may have used a similar set-up. My concern is that duplicating the rear caliper pistons is difficult because of the complex self-adjusting pieces built into the piston set. The specific piston that is pitted in my case, is the one with the "fine thread tap" looking devise in it. I have access to aerospace engineers and mechanists where I work that can pretty much duplicate anything in a number of metals, but when I showed them the piston they just shook their heads. The closest I have been able to research is that Peugeot used a caliper that is really close reasoning that the pistons may be similar/same also. I still have not given up hope finding some good used pistons somewhere.

For now, I just want to get my baby on the road and just rebuild my brakes and clutch hydraulics, stock, if possible. I will probably end up getting the rear brake upgrade kit from Scott/SACC, and be done with it. I will use the stock rears for the parking brake where it will be purely mechanical in that function and not worry about any leaks around the piston (unless I got that part of the mod all wrong).

Thanks and take care,
Pete C.
(6626)

quote:

I will probably end up getting the rear brake upgrade kit from Scott/SACC, and be done with it. I will use the stock rears for the parking brake

I did this exact conversion a couple of years ago. Vastly noticable improvment in overall braking. And I can still run the original 15" campis if I want to put them on. Unless you are building a councours winner I would not even consider putting time/money into the originals.

Doug M

quote:

rear brake upgrade kit from Scott/SACC

I agree with Doug M. I've installed two of these conversions (on two different cars) with excellent results...significant improvement in braking, and a noticeable reduction in nose dive during hard braking.

John

Doug M, John,

OK, you guys convinced me on the SACC rear conversion kit. My fronts will remain stock, got new pistons and seals for them. I still have the proportioning valve installed, and unless a previous owner gutted the inside, I have to assume it is still functional. Based on what I read on the "Sticky #5: Pantera Brakes" discussion, there seems to be consensus that the valve should be removed (or deactivated) when the rear upgrade is installed. Is that what you guys did? Also, did you guys use the original rears for the parking brake, or go aftermarket on that too? Sorry for all the questions, but I would like to duplicate as close as possible what you guys have found to work well. Thanks!

Pete C.
(6626)

Pete,
I've been following your thread, also trying to justify going with the SACC versus rebuilding the original.
Glad you have asked about using original as emergency/parking brake

Something I have been googling would be possibility of using an hydraulic e/p brake. I found a hand lever operated master cylinder that the "drifters" use. I would like to see if the hydraulic could be used to provide an effective emergency and then the mechanical used for parking.

Pete, When I did my SACC conversion I used the factory rear brake for an e-brake. It works well. I did remove the valve in the front and replaced it with an adjustable proportioning valve.

Pete,

Yes, I used the original rears for the parking brake.

Doug M

P.S. Mine is 6638. probably within days of yours off the line.

Pete,

I used the original rears for the parking brake. I also changed the front pads to Porterfield R4S pads.

Note that the new 4 piston rear calipers will require slightly more brake pedal movement.

John

For other options, Wilwood sells a mechanical 'spot-brake' that I and Marino Perna at Pantera East both use as add-on parking brake calipers. We both fabricated different brackets to use the sliding-caliper Wilwoods on stock-width rotors & unaltered uprights with stock cables, and both work well. This then allows you to use most any hydraulic brake caliper back there and balance your system with a manually adjustable proportioning valve. Pantera East's adaption is also sold for hot-rod Dodge Vipers.

In reading Federal law, I believe there is no prohibition to using a hydraulic e-brake; it only says that the e-brake system must be totally separate from the car's main brakes and must stop the vehicle in a certain space without drama. "Separate' means from the pedal or hand lever to the caliper with it's own lines, I think. Manufacturers went with cable operation of e-brakes pre-WW 2 and never changed- probably due to cost.

Thanks everyone for all your inputs and advise. I think I am settling in on the SACC rear conversion kit, stock rears for parking brakes and adjustable prop valve. Just one last thing that I need to get straight in my head: I am assuming that when the original rear calipers are used as a parking brake, all you need is the cable hooked up, and the parking brake lever mechanically pushes the pistons to set the brake. So in that configuration the bore and pistons are just lubed up and the inlet port is capped. Do I have that right, or am I messed-up in the head?

As a follow-up to my original post concerning the stock caliper pistons, I found an interesting article:

http://www.peugeot505.info/ind...ear_brakes_01&lang=1

At the bottom of the first page are some clear pictures of the infamous "pistons". Other than some minor difference in the shape of the parking brake lever, the Peugeot 504/505/605 rear piston assembly looks the same to me. The caption on one of the pictures also states that the pistons can be had as OEM new, but the cost of one piston is about twice the cost of an overhauled caliper (go figure). There was an overhauled Peugeot 505 rear caliper on e-bay not long ago for about 50 bucks. So it seems that getting a good set of pistons (reasonably priced) is still possible by robbing them out of an overhauled Peugeot caliper. The lever should not be a problem. An excellent Pantera Place article on rear caliper overhaul shows that the lever can be removed by popping off the grease cap, pulling the spring clip and slid the lever out. Put the Pantera lever in and you should be back in business. Just wanted to share that, for what it's worth. Cheers everyone!!

Pete C.
(6626)

quote:

Originally posted by Pete:
the parking brake lever mechanically pushes the pistons to set the brake ,the bore and pistons are just lubed up and the inlet port is capped. Do I have that right

Yup.

Doug M