Itinerant Air-Cooled

I was cleaning 30+ years of old grease, dirt, and whoknowswhat off my front axel, brakes, suspension, steering etc. today and noticed the upper bolt area on my right front caliper is missing a good size chunk out of it.
I know that I've probably been driving around like this for quite some time. I have not noticed symptoms, rather I just really came upon this by accident/luck.

[albumimg]2213[/albumimg]

[albumimg]2212[/albumimg]

So it looks like I'll be learning how to work on brakes. Any ideas for sourcing a replacement inner caliper housing here in Portland area. Trafton's? U-pull-it?. How much should I expect to pay? Advice? Difficulty level? What other models and years are compatible with the '72 front brake caliper.

Thanks for any assistance

Troy

71-72 ONLY. And right is right.

Call Trafton he'll set u up. A good guy.

I'll give Trafton a call tomorrow morning. I've had good experience with him in the past and I've noticed that several others have had the same.

Should I be freaked out by this? I know it can't be good - at least I have one good bolt holding it on. Is it true that you should replace both front calipers at the same time so your bus doesn't pull to one side upon braking or is that just an up-sell tactic that brake shops use?

Troy

I wouldn't be to concerned. You still have quite a bit of meat around the bolt. Replacing both calipers is probably not needed but if you were to be replacing pads you'd want to do both sides.

I have on broken bolt hole/ear too. So far no problems. You could probably fashion something and jb weld or even really weld it on if you felt industrious.

Westy78 wrote: Replacing both calipers is probably not needed but if you were to be replacing pads you'd want to do both sides.

that makes sense to me... my pads should be good.

chitwnvw wrote:I have on broken bolt hole/ear too. So far no problems. You could probably fashion something and jb weld or even really weld it on if you felt industrious.

It's good to know I didn't narrowly escape death. I will get this fixed soon. If anything, just for peace of mind.

Thanks for your help.

Troy

Oregon72 wrote:Should I be freaked out by this?

It looks like it is on the trailing edge (the upper part) of the caliper. That means the chunk missing had no work to do as far as transferring braking force to the spindle in the forward direction. I say no panic.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

Oregon72 wrote:Should I be freaked out by this?

It looks like it is on the trailing edge (the upper part) of the caliper. That means the chunk missing had no work to do as far as transferring braking force to the spindle in the forward direction. I say no panic.
Colin

Colin, So what your saying is as long as I don't go 65mph in reverse and slam on the brakes I should be OK. Right?

I did stop by Trafton's backyard today and was able to pull a caliper from a '72 junker. I'm unsure if it is a serviceable caliper though. How can one tell if it is good or not ?

I cleaned the spider eggs out of it and this is what is looks like.

[albumimg]2214[/albumimg]
[albumimg]2215[/albumimg]

It has ATE and letters VW on it - Does that mean anything?

Based on what has been said here, I'll probably just leave on my current caliper ala Holyfield (missing ear chunk joke for all you boxing fans) for now.

Thanks,

Troy

and the one I pulled at Trafton's has only one upper bleeder while the one that is on my bus currently has one upper and one lower -- not sure what that's all about. See pic

[albumimg]2216[/albumimg]

The lower is good for flushing old fluid. The upper is needed for bleeding.
Some have both, others just one.