Rock Auto - has 1973 Brake Calipers in stock - Cardone

[3C's & a D?]

What brand were your calipers? I.E. what company was the rebuilder?

I made the mistake of purchasing rebuilt calipers recently for my modern Magnum. They have cast aluminum bodies, and phenolic pistons. A terrible combination. I learned alot though. Mostly that you should always buy new for modern LX's at least, given their finnickiness. Also that the only rebuilding company worth their weight in salt is Centric. In the case of these types of calipers, they are the only one's who hone the cylinder and replace the piston with an actual new one. Which is really the only way to do them the right way.

 

[1970FuryConv]

I made the mistake of purchasing rebuilt calipers recently for my modern Magnum. They have cast aluminum bodies, and phenolic pistons. A terrible combination. I learned alot though. Mostly that you should always buy new for modern LX's at least, given their finnickiness. Also that the only rebuilding company worth their weight in salt is Centric. In the case of these types of calipers, they are the only one's who hone the cylinder and replace the piston with an actual new one. Which is really the only way to do them the right way.

Good know. Centric needs to rebuild c-body calipers. Any chance of that?

 

[3C's & a D?]

Good know. Centric needs to rebuild c-body calipers. Any chance of that?

I'm the wrong guy to ask. Possibly? As others have mentioned, the C body cast iron calipers with steel pistons are easy to rebuild, or have rebuilt by a local brake specific shop, if possible.

And after rereading my post, I came of negative given my frustrating experience. The cast aluminum bodies and phenolic pistons are actually a good combination, chosen for their excellent heat dissipation. The problems arise when you try to reuse old, high mileage calipers, or cheaply rebuilt calipers, with new pads and rotors. The cylinder bores develope ridges, and the pistons lose their sheen, leading to dragging brakes.

 

[Bigasawhale2]

Pictures...

 

[73Coupe]

Looks clean, however it looks like they painted inside the bore. You'll want to remove that. The boot looks like the type with impregnated metal ring, not sure if that type works with this caliper. Mine used the all-rubber boot. Did you get a piston seal with it? Hard to tell if it's already installed in the casting....

 

[saforwardlook]

I have heard Centric has been bought out and the new owner doesn't deliver the same quality product anymore, but that is just hearsay at this point.

I did call Centric when it was the original company and they told me there were no plans to rebuild these Chrysler calipers again due to a diminished supply of cores.

So I am back to rebuilding my own again. They are not hard to rebuild but I liked the ease of just being able to get rebuilt ones at the local parts stores or elsewhere and focus my time on doing other parts of a restoration project. I will never buy a Cardone anything..........................................

 

[3C's & a D?]

however it looks like they painted inside the bore.

The whole caliper has been blackened. The ones for my Magnum were too. I didn't like the looks of it, on the inside of the bore, however it seems to be nonreactive to brake fluid. It will scrape off with any misalignment caused by rough pistons, tight seals, and cylinder ridge.

Those shiny pistons are going to be nice!

 

[70bigblockdodge]

yes if they didnt screw them up when they rebuilt them . i had tat happen with a 87 dodge truck .i had to get a pair from a junk yard & have them rebuilt mine was non rebuildable the bore was r=too badly scored my truck had a hard life before i got it

Someone scammed you out of a set of calipers. Piston does the sliding on the seal (except for Budd calipers) on all Chrysler products. As long as the seal grove can be cleaned enough to hold seal properly. Bore is usually nasty even on a nice set of calipers.

 

[66l78rat]

So I just received these from Rock Auto and both sides are B body calipers!! Wanted a spare set for my 72, like said,rebuild your originals,save yourself the hassle, sure miss the good old days. Quality control sucks in the auto parts business anymore

 

[1970FuryConv]

So I just received these from Rock Auto and both sides are B body calipers!! Wanted a spare set for my 72, like said,rebuild your originals,save yourself the hassle, sure miss the good old days. Quality control sucks in the auto parts business anymore

Hope you can make a return. Frustrating when you wait and wait and then the parts are wrong.

Furthermore, can you rebuild your c-body calipers?

 

[marty koirtyohann]

So I just received these from Rock Auto and both sides are B body calipers!! Wanted a spare set for my 72, like said,rebuild your originals,save yourself the hassle, sure miss the good old days. Quality control sucks in the auto parts business anymore

yep rock auto is a clearing house its possible they wass miss labeled when the supplier sold them to rock auto they should say on their site buyer be ware

 

[Boydsdodge]

Pictures...

View attachment 556102

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These are the Rock auto C-body calipers?

 

[Boydsdodge]

So I just received these from Rock Auto and both sides are B body calipers!! Wanted a spare set for my 72, like said,rebuild your originals,save yourself the hassle, sure miss the good old days. Quality control sucks in the auto parts business anymore

Just so I am clear, you ordered the C-body Calipers and received the B-body calipers? I will cancel my order.

 

[marty koirtyohann]

These are the Rock auto C-body calipers?

where did u buy them from? rockauto dose not make anything its a clearing house for parts i allways try to buy warber or rebeastest & stay away from cardone junk

 

[Boydsdodge]

where did u buy them from? rockauto dose not make anything its a clearing house for parts i allways try to buy warber or rebeastest & stay away from cardone junk

I haven't bought any of the discussed calipers yet. I am asking if the calipers in the photos are the C-body calipers we are discussing here.

 

[marty koirtyohann]

I haven't bought any of the discussed calipers yet. I am asking if the calipers in the photos are the C-body calipers we are discussing here.

they looked like a1 crap now they maybe ok but alot of their stuff u end up replacing a lot

 

[73Coupe]

I haven't bought any of the discussed calipers yet. I am asking if the calipers in the photos are the C-body calipers we are discussing here.

The photos above look like C-body. I don't know what a B-body caliper looks like, probably smaller. The good thing about Rock Auto is that you can choose between various manufacturers and look at photos of the parts. They offer two other MFRs besides Cardone - FVP and Nugeon - which I've never heard of, however it says out of stock for those. These calipers are shown to fit 1969 - 1973 C-Body, and '69-'71 300, '70-'73 Imperial.

Also, NAPA carries these same calipers: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/ADC2220XA?impressionRank=1

The photos below are from my 1973 NY when I rebuilt the LH caliper a few months ago.

 

[66l78rat]

The problem is that I received B boby calipers from this latest batch available from Rockauto.Look almost identical except C body calipers are 3.00 wide compared to 2.75 inch.Not Rockautos fault but Caredons quality control not knowing the difference.

 

[saforwardlook]

The photos above look like C-body. I don't know what a B-body caliper looks like, probably smaller. The good thing about Rock Auto is that you can choose between various manufacturers and look at photos of the parts. They offer two other MFRs besides Cardone - FVP and Nugeon - which I've never heard of, however it says out of stock for those. These calipers are shown to fit 1969 - 1973 C-Body, and '69-'71 300, '70-'73 Imperial.

Also, NAPA carries these same calipers: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/ADC2220XA?impressionRank=1

The photos below are from my 1973 NY when I rebuilt the LH caliper a few months ago.

View attachment 556266

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Yes, NAPA does show that they offer rebuilt calipers for our cars but my store shows them currently out of stock. Also, the NAPA stores carry calipers rebuilt by BBB Industries whom I trust a great deal and not the dreaded Cardone. I bought one of their BBB industries rebuilt steering gears for our cars just to try one out and despite them putting used Chrysler steering gear parts in their gears, they also use a steering gear housing that is their own, so it looks different than a stock Chrysler box and they make a few other changes they claim. It only costs some $150 plus core and for the guys that don't want to spend several hundred $$ at Steer and Gear or Firm Feel, they are a good alternative. The one I tried actually had a little better on center feel than the stock Chrysler gears but I have yet to do the alignment fully before deciding for sure on that issue, so more to come. Also, I had to just hog out one of the mounting holes by 1/16" to get it mounted correctly to my car which was pretty minor.

Also I tried to order that steering gear from Autozone since their prices were a little lower than most other stores, but after a week of waiting to get the part from them and endless calls to their management, I just gave up doing much of anything with Autozone anymore and just went to Oreilly's and had the gear the next day. I shop mostly at Oreillys these days just to avoid all the B.S. associated with Autozone and their low prices coupled with clueless management.


Also BBB Industries makes the only mini starter I will buy any more since the Chinese stuff is all junk. The BBB starter is just a little over $100 but I haven't been able to kill one yet, and they claim they remanufacture the original Denso mini starters exactly with no lapses in quality of parts compared to Denso specs., so I gave them a try and they don't fail. I believe it goes by the "Endurance" name on the box.Since I have been in contact with BBB industries about availability of their starters I will call them again and ask about their supply of rebuilt calipers for our cars and when/if they plan on getting us more supply. I believe it goes by the "Endurance" name on the box.

Since I have been in contact with BBB industries about availability of their starters I will call them again and ask about their supply of rebuilt calipers for our cars and when/if they plan on getting us more supply.

 

[3C's & a D?]

These are the Rock auto C-body calipers?

He was the original poster, so I believe those are the calipers he got from rock auto.

The problem is that I received B boby calipers from this latest batch available from Rockauto.Look almost identical except C body calipers are 3.00 wide compared to 2.75 inch.Not Rockautos fault but Caredons quality control not knowing the difference.

I remember getting one B body caliper with a set of rebuilds years ago, simply exchanged it for the correct one. I'm guessing it's not as simple when purchased online. As I recall the B body calipers are actually more valuable? And in that same vein, here are the rear calipers for the Magnum I received, of course the ONE box I checked at the store was the right one!