Finally got to drive my 7 for the first time! Woo, so fun, great noises, but um brakes...BRAKES...BRAKES! Yeah I have basically no brakes.

I already replaced all the other components of the system (Soft lines, master, bled system) and now want to do the pads/rotors/calipers.

So I hop onto Rockauto, favorite place for parts, and lo and behold all the calipers there are "except casting # 2005". I'm sure you can guess which sort I have. Now will the Non-2005 calipers bolt an place and function the same as the 2005's?

I did search, but I got page after page of users who registered in 2005/posts from 2005, so not too helpful.

 

Difference between # 2005 & all others is thread pitch(10x1.25) on caliper inlet. All others are 10x1.0 First thing i would check is thread pitch on your front flex hose at caliper to see what you have for sure. All other calipers will bolt up,use same pads,essentially same as yours except inlet thread pitch. There may be adapters available to change one thread pitch to another. Another option is to rebuild the ones you have,pistons and seal kits are available and all calipers use these same parts.

 

So when I ordered new re-manufactured calipers from rockauto for my SA, which has a different thread pitch that the FBs, I got a converter screwed into each caliper. The one caliper was originally an SA caliper and had a converter in it so it would work on an FB as well. The other caliper was an FB caliper and had a converter to work on the SA thread pitch. So I removed the FB converter and installed. Worked just fine.

Looks like the after market is drying up for SA calipers and this is the solution my the rebuilders. I wasn't expecting it based on the description but thats how they came.

Not sure what your application is, so this may not help you.

 

Calipers are cheap to rebuild but can be a PITA. There are lots of videos on YouTube.

 

I never have good luck rebuilding them. Even using a hone and cleaning it all up correctly and using new pistons. I've always had one of them start leaking eventually.

I've had much better luck with the OEM remans.

 

Have rebuilt in the high hundreds of calipers on many makes of cars over the years with great success. Sometimes the candidate you start with will determine success /failure. SA/FB calipers are of simplest design,even GSL/SE rear calipers are of simple design. The parking brake section of them can be a challenge. A pitted/rusted bore is not a good candidate for rebuild,same for piston. Meticulous cleaning,proper hone,wash and recheck,finish hone,hot soap and water wash and dry before assembly should be SOP. It"s the gunk and grit left behind that will always cause an issue with leaks/binding. Particularly these days with the low quality of rebuilt units out there now,have preferred to rebuild whenever possible,same goes for starter motors. You know it's every bit as good as oe when finished.

 

Sorry to resurrect this thread three years later - I can't seem to square all this in my setup.

Got an '83 GS with a sticking front left caliper. Same as Repuguy above - hop onto Rock Auto, and see the #2005 casting enigma. Despite having calipers with "2005" cast into them, I follow the sage advice of GSLSEforme and check the thread pitch on the flex hose at the caliper. Low and behold M10x1.0 (not what I expected with #2005)!

So then, my question is: here I am looking at a "2005" casting in my hand (or so I would think from the bloody numbers on the caliper), yet it has the ultra-fine (1.0) pitch, which would indicate "except #2005". Rock Auto corroborates GSLSEforme's mention of #2005 w/ M10x1.25 and non-#2005 with M10-1.0, so I am missing something?

I totally can get what t_g_farrell observed, as the years wear on, it makes sense for the SA/FB convertability with a simple adapter, but this seems odd, as I wouldn't expect rebuilders to be tapping new threads (chasing maybe, but not altogether altering pitch, which would likely require an insert to be placed first). Is this as simple as all these calipers have "2005" on them no matter what?

Unless you all think differently, my plan is to buy the 1.0 pitch (i.e. non-#2005) calipers because I sure as heck have 1.0 pitch flex line. Rock Auto will be getting #2005 stamped cores back though!!

...Probably should check the right side too (since I'll do the pair) and not assume anything, seeing I'm already dumbfounded