Caliper Questions Help!

[Smiliey Smiles]

Guys I'm building 1930 model A and trying to keep the car "all Ford parts". I never knew until recently Ford never made much in the way of great calipers in all the makes they made. I'm learning that now though, anyhow Is there any ready available Ford calipers in the junk yard that are light, multi pistons, desirable for a project like this. I like the idea of going to parts house and leaving within the correct brakes.

 

[ELpolacko]

Light, Multi-piston and FORD.... PBR calipers are found on Mustangs and such. They can be made to work on just about rotor given you have a bit of skill making brackets. But they are not really Ford calipers. PBR is an Australian company that provides calipers for many makers.

Good luck

 

[BlueNorther]

there is a reason most disc brake kits use the ubiquitous GM single piston caliper from the 1969 to 82 era, used mainly on full size and mid sized cars, Impalas and Chevelles.

known as the Delco-Moraine type D52, it was, and still is, the simplest and most durable of all disc brake calipers. they very rarely leak, never rust up, and can be bought rebuilt for ridiculously low prices.

the G body metric brake caliper is a down sized bad copy of the type D52, it tends to rust up and is a weak sister.

if you are shunning a disc brake kit for your Ford, just because it uses the D52 caliper, you are passing up the chance to have a great disc system just to say it's "all ford".

I would never leave a part off my car just because it didn't come from the brand I like if it is the best cheapest solution to my problem.

 

[Smiliey Smiles]

I see what you mean, and I agree in this case. I'm just really learning everything about cars, parts, who made them and for what makers. I never knew Canada and Mexico and other countries made so many original parts for American made cars either. Just found out this past week about the Mexican 351 Windsor blocks. I have put on lots of brake pads, rebuilt calipers years ago. I have never got to choose anything to be put on a vehicle before. I'm asking alot stupid questions to not make stupid mistakes because I just dont know and I have no one to learn it from except reading and asking. I just didnt want a frankingstien vehicle with car parts from lots of makes was my main goal after choosing to go with a Ford motor. If it makes since though, thats whole different story. Looking at the PBR off Mustang right now. I can get them so cheap. And pads are at every parts house.

Can someone explain this to me. As I understand it, the rear disk brakes never have as much stopping power as front on any vehicle. Or was it was never ment too. If it was the same exact calipers "all way around" would it then be equal stopping power on each wheel, or is there a physical reason why front brakes always take most of the load. Same question different way, why do car makers put disks on front and drums on back. Seems using disk all the way around would be standard on all cars. Better stopping power by far.

Thanks for answering this!

 

[JBailey]

Drum brakes, even on the front, work well when properly adjusted and maintained. I think a lot of people run disk (front and rear) for ease of maintenance. Brakes have always been like a 60/40 split front/rear. I've driven lots of vehicles when I was younger that only had rear brakes and they don't stop worth a hoot, but I've also driven lots with just front brakes and never had any problems stopping well enough lol.

I'm curious as to why you're set on dual piston calipers, when single pistons will give you tons of stopping power in a vehicle that weighs about 2500lbs. These are just my opinions but, like others have said the gm kits work great and parts are easy to find.

 

[BlueNorther]

the reason a lot of cars for many years came with disc front / drums rear was low cost, and as on most front engine / rear wheel drive cars the front brakes do about 60-70% of the work, the rear drums were cheap and made good parking brakes.

when you let up on the throttle and put on the brakes, the drive train adds a lot of drag to the rear wheels, thus NOT needing a lot of brake power back there to lock up the rear tires, which is a big no-no, as you end up watching where you came from very quickly.

as cars got faster and faster, it became necessary to add more braking power in the form of 4 wheel discs. even then if you look at factory systems you will see that the rear discs are front 50 - 70% smaller than the fronts in stopping power.

 

[Old Iron]

The reason there's less braking power on the rear is, when the brakes are applied, the rear of the vehicle gets lighter because of rear to front weight transfer, ending up creating 60% to 70% more traction available for the front brakes.
If you had the same amount of pressure with the same size calipers, the vehicle would always lock the rear brakes up under heavy braking.
This is also the reason for using a proportioning valve and or smaller calipers on the rear, to control the amount of pressure applied to the rear brakes.

 

[05snopro440]

The reason there's less braking power on the rear is, when the brakes are applied, the rear of the vehicle gets lighter because of rear to front weight transfer, ending up creating 60% to 70% more traction available for the front brakes.
If you had the same amount of pressure with the same size calipers, the vehicle would always lock the rear brakes up under heavy braking.
This is also the reason for using a proportioning valve and or smaller calipers on the rear, to control the amount of pressure applied to the rear brakes.

You hit the nail on the head with proportioning valve. Even if you had the same sized brakes front and rear on the vehicle, there would be a proportioning valve to apply 60-70% of the stopping power to the front brakes, because that is where the inertia applies most of the force when you're trying to stop a vehicle.