1970s 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Rear Caliper

[planetcadillac]

I plan to go through the brake system on a 1979 Fleetwood Brougham with 4-way discs. Rear calipers are not available (to my knowledge) ready to go. So I will either rebuild these myself or send them to a service. Any thoughts? Everything else seems to be readily available.

[TJ Hopland]

Are you sure they are not available? Or were they unique to those cars? I believe in the 75-85 range there were just 2 GM rear calipers kinda known as a small and large.  For a long time they were very popular for rear disc swaps especially on trucks so they were being made new.  The problem used to be that a big rebuilt caliper didn't come with the brackets for the parking brake so those had way more value than the calipers themselves but someone also started making the stock brackets as well as ones for swaps that used a more universal style cable.

They are usually known as Eldorado calipers because that was the most common place to find them.  I think next most common was Firebird but only TransAm.   Seems like maybe it was an rare option on on like a 98 or Riviera.  Disc may have been standard on Seville too. 79 Eldo and 80 Seville went to the smaller caliper but I think the older ones were the all the same. 

[planetcadillac]

Thanks for the reply. This is a spring project, so I am not in dire need, but I was pricing and sourcing everything. My go-to vendor is RockAuto since I usually get what I need at a reasonable price and high quality. No vendors, including chains like NAPA/Advance, have a listing. They may not need to be done, but I will remove them, clean them, lubricate them, and adjust them as necessary. Rebuild kits are available. I used to own a 1983 Eldorado with 4-way discs and rear calipers, which are currently listed. The bare caliper may indeed be something generic off-the-shelf GM. I just threw the question out in case anyone had a quick answer.

[TJ Hopland]

I know the 79-85 Eldo one is smaller.  Looking at Rock they don't list them for the 76-78 Eldo either so they must just not have a supplier.   Anyone got a interchange manual to look up and see if all the big GM's used the same ones?   That's really how I remember it and I want to say in the MOTOR manuals they listed all the cars that used them.  My motor manual was 78-85 I think so it had a list for both sizes.

Here is a place that has em for a decent price.  I see them listed in a few Cadillac specialty places for a lot more. 

https://www.amesperf.com/parts/9651/

[Big Fins]

I know on the 76-78, the front calipers also fit the rear. You just don't have an E-brake.

[planetcadillac]

For a rebuild kit, the original GM # is 19203659 Delco #: 18H26. The fitment guide shows usage for the F-bodies, so it's probably the same caliper shell. The car has been sitting a lot for most of the last 15 years, so as a matter of prudence, I plan to go through everything front to back.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

As one who's been there, my advice is to avoid aftermarket calipers at all cost and have the originals professionally rebuilt. Four wheel discs were standard on the Eldorado (1976 & later), Seville (1977 & later) and on the Fleetwood Brougham (1977, 1978 & 1979 only). I have no idea which years/models are interchangeable.

[TJ Hopland]

Sitting is for sure a problem for calipers with the parking brake.  The parking brake adds a bunch of moving parts in a hostile environment plus an additional seal and sealing surface. 

I think it was here not horribly long ago (but several years now) where someone perhaps in Europe rebuilt theirs themselves and did a really good write up with pictures.  There were a few aspects of them that were not obvious so the write up was really helpful. 

Ames Performance has been around for a long time so I would trust them a lot more than a typical parts store rebuild.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Regular use of the parking brake is essential to keep the calipers on these cars adjusted and from becoming frozen. This is especially true of '70s era calipers, possibly in later years as well.

At some point, rear calipers were redesigned and no longer required periodic use of the parking brake on vehicles with 4W disc brakes.

[Big Fins]

I use the parking brake on all of my vehicles for numerous reasons. The #1 position is...I like it to work when needed.