I recently purchased a set of rebuilt front calipers to replace the stock calipers on my '94-'97 setup. Strangely, the rebuilt calipers Autozone supplied are reversed - the "R" and the "L" calipers have to be swapped to the opposite side of the car, or else the air bleeders end up on on the bottom of the calipers once mounted (an obvious problem).

Question is, swapping the calipers from R to L required me to swap my caliper brackets across as well, and now the slide pins / bolts that the caliper floats on are switched top-to-bottom (there is a large diameter bolt and a small diameter bolt on the caliper bracket, and these are now switched in position).

I can't imagine this will cause any problem with the function of the brakes, as I think the stopping force from the brake pads is transferred to the caliper bracket itself, and not to the slide pins / bolts that the caliper mounts on. Can anyone confirm this theory, so that I don't have to worry about having swapped the calipers and brackets from side to side?

Thanks,

Kurt

 

Are you sure you don't have 1.8 brakes? This swapping sides is required when upgrading to the slightly larger '94-'97 brakes. With that swap you're only switching brackets thought IIRC, calipers can stay on their own side.

 

I think I had 1.6 calipers on 1.8 brakes, but purchased rebuilt 1.8 calipers, so maybe that's it. Although the rebuilt calipers have "R" and "L" stamped on them, and they are definitely on the "incorrect" side of the car now in order to have the bleeders oriented upward....

 

Right, so with 1.8 brackets and 1.6 calipers you swap the brackets but keep the calipers on the same side. Now that you have 1.8 brackets with 1.8 calipers, you'll have to put the calipers on opposite sides to work with the brackets. I forget if the spindie-bracket bolt pattern requires the brackets to be on the wrong side or what, so of you can switch them, that'll put the calipers on the right side. If that doesn't work or if you're lazy like me, just put them on the wrong sides and call it done. Makes no difference, except the bleeder valves, which like you said need to point up.

 

Great, thanks for the information. Very helpful.