Hi all

The first time I'm posting here so I just will introduce myself shortly.

I'm Andi from Basel, Switzerland. I own a 1989 Trans AM GTA. Completly stock besides the magnaflow cat-back system. Since I own the car the brakes are getting more worse. They are the completly original Iron calipers. the ones which have a weight attached to the the e-brake mechanism (J65?).

I need help finding some new calipers. The problem, even on rockauto I can't find these calipers. I only found different looking models and I don't know which of them will fit.

Could someone guide me through this? I don't want to mod to much because our inspections guys are so damn picky. They do not know anything about the car but if they see fabricated stuff which looks not original they will fail the inspection. I even have to figure out how to add 2 additional mufflers to the outlets because it's to loud. We're only allowed to have 74db :-( but thats easier to solve.

I also want to retain the stock GTA whells as I really like them.

Can anyone help me?

Here is a pic of my GTA:

 

Hey, Andi, welcome to TGO.

An 89 with J65 brakes should have 11.7" rotors and alum PBR calipers (the so-called performance package). If your car is equipped with the earlier, old-style system, 10.5" rotors and iron Delco-Moraine calipers, order the non-performance calipers for, say, an 87. RockAuto will have them.

JamesC

 

Hi James

Thanks for your answer. The car was imported and legalized in 1989 in Switzerland. i never checked the VIN for the actual build date. It could be that the car is a 1988. It was almost completly new when it arrives in Switzerland. Was a california car.
Could be as well that one of the mechanics swapped them because finding parts here in switzerland is not really easy. Actually I never bought a part for it here in switzerland :-)

I'm familiar with Alfa Romeos and Dodges. I owned a 1983 Firebird 10 years ago but had to sell it because of rust and I only had a small salary during my education.

To make it 100% clear are there pics around of the calipers you mean? Mine are looking more ore less like these: http://my.cardone.com/English/club/m...PARTNUM=184164 I think these Cardone ones could work, what do the others think?

 

Unlikely that they swapped them, willing to bet it's an 87 or 88. Your 89 must be erstzulassing not build date/year.

Rockauto has the delco moranies as well as the rebuild parts for it but don't waste your money on that junk. Buy some reconditioned PBR calipers, the short parking brake cables for those and a set of rear lines. Then get some original pbr rotors or c4 corvette rear rotors and the associated brackets (original ones or 12" upgrade, all available from flynbye.com) stock delco moraines are the suck!!!

 

@ Twin_Turbo

Thanks a lot! Thats exactly what I'm looking for! I really don't like the stock brakes on this car.

I now on deciding if LS1 brakes are better than the PBR's. Any suggestions?
Is the e-brake mechanism of the PBR fail proof? My Alfa's too use the disc brake calipers for the e-brake and it's allways a headache because our inspection wants to have it rock solid on the 4th to 5th click which sometimes leads to worn/smokeing rear brakes ;-)

other comments?

 

ls brakes have a drum type parking brake in the rotor, late model 1le/89+ camaros, 4th gen camaros and 4th gen corvettes have the same (apart from parking brake bracket) pbr calipers with integral parking brake, for a .81 wide rotor. Easiest way to do it.

 

Does someone know if Ed Miller answers to e-mails? I can't find the e-mail on the page but using the checkout it shows me an email on paypal. I used that but didn't get an answer so far. Just wanted to know if he sends the parts to switzerland or not and how much he estimates for shippment... I'd like to order the rear pbr kit and a front kit (12" C4 brake upgrade) Hopefully he answers soon.....

 

No answer till now. :-(

 

He's real slow with email, either just order from the website or call him.

 

Hmmm ordered the kits and spent 1500bucks at him but still nothing heard from him?!? Did others experience the same with?
I start to think it was a bad idea to order it from him but I wanted to have stock look as much as possible....

 

Hi Guys

Who has ordered something from his shop? Tried to call him today, just got the machine answering it.

How fast did you get any feedback from him? I've ordered the brake kits from his shop on 10th May and heard nothing from him since then. So I don't know if he ever saw my order which is already paid by paypal. Really frustrating. Does someone have a relationship to him and could ask if he saw my order? Otherwise I have to beg for refunding it at paypal which is really not something i want to do. I just want to brake :-)

oh dear.....

 

I'm happy. Teresa Miller wrote me a mail and confirmed everything. Puhh, I can go to bed now and hopefully sleep better dreaming of better brakes ;-)

 

Cardone told me if I send in my aluminum PBR calipers from my 89 there was an "80% chance" they could rebuild them. I recently got a reman DS full aluminum caliper from them and I noticed the aluminum caliper was not a core ie it did not have cast with the Australian PBR logo and such, there was no marking on it at all. Someone made new cast aluminum calipers for a while...

The Wagner rebuild kit from Australia is long gone. I've been watching for full rebuild kits for a couple years now. Only the rubbers seem to be available any more. heh-heh he said "rubbers."

The PS rear caliper seems to be gone also.

Well that's wierd how did this post get into an 8 year old thread...

 

I'm getting alerts that the rare PS aluminum PBR remans are coming back into stock. Check Rock Auto, Ebay.