Four-pot calipers...

[wedg1e]

Woohoo!

Just got myself a set for the 390.

Well it seemed like a fair swap at the time...


Ian

[york33]

How did you manage that then?! Swapped for what? What sort?

[dexy]

dont tell me, you havent have you, you swapped them for ya julie

[wedg1e]

york33 said:

How did you manage that then?! Swapped for what? What sort?

Dave, are you on a go-slow? The implication was that I'd swapped the calipers FOR the 390...

Ian

[wedg1e]

york33 said:

How did you manage that then?! Swapped for what? What sort?

Dave, are you on a go-slow? The implication was that I'd swapped the calipers FOR the 390...

They are the AP ones from the Austin Priceless. Made of purest Unobtanium, I found them in a breakers yard in darkest Matabeleland.















OK they were on Ebay...


Just need to clean them up, split them and fit some spacers. Ah, milling machines, don't you love 'em..

Ian

[york33]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, now I see

Yup, it appears my brain isn't fully functioning, which is kind of unfortunate as I'm just decomissioning (and migrating) our main fileserver Our last Alpha will soon be no more

Thankyou for explaining

[Graham]

wedg1e said:

Woohoo! Just got myself a set for the 390. Well it seemed like a fair swap at the time... Ian

you can just about guarantee that next time i go in the garage i'll trip over that set i've been looking for

[wedg1e]

Graham said:

wedg1e said: Woohoo! Just got myself a set for the 390. Well it seemed like a fair swap at the time... Ian you can just about guarantee that next time i go in the garage i'll trip over that set i've been looking for

Oh yes. And then I'll find that these are scrap...

Ian

[wedg1e]

Well, there's no sign of fluid leaks and the pistons are all free to move. Alas they were riddled with rust and strewn with spiders, thus:-




So a quick session in the blaster ensued, resulting in:-



Y'know, , I reckon if I slapped a coat of paint on these and banged them on Ebay, I'd make double my money back....

Ian

[wedg1e]

One for those who've fitted the spacers to fit the vented discs: are the spacers steel or alloy?

Ian

[zenboy]

hi all can any one tell me what years the austin princess had the four pot calipers installed?
thanks mike

[wedg1e]

I think it was 78-82, give or take. All models had them, as far as I've been able to establish. I presume that the Ambassador had the same units...

Ian

[degz]

my spacers are steel, and ap calipers were also fitted to land rovers, so when looking for the caliper bits check out the retaining clips for land/range rover at the motor factor. mine cost about £2.30 fits great.

[shpub]

wedg1e said:

One for those who've fitted the spacers to fit the vented discs: are the spacers steel or alloy? Ian

Usually alloy with flat ground faces.

[sevans]

Ian, mine were alloy and there were four per caliper. I bought some second hand AP bells and rotors from Tower View and they were good enough to send me the spacer kit for the calipers. So I guess these were the spacers originally used on the Wedges. I think the AP rotor may be thicker than the Granada vented disk.

[AM400]

I,ve got the alloy bells on my 400 fitted from the factory, the spacers in the calipers are alloy.

Andy

[wedg1e]

Cheers chaps! Just wondered, before I sally forth with a slitting saw and a lump of alloy... Thought maybe there were heat considerations.

Steve (Evans): four spacers? How does that work then?
My car has the Grandad vented discs, not the flash AP ones...

Ian

[ssc1]

now i may have missed somthing here but why do you need spacers when fitting princess calipers , is this because you will be fitting vented disc's as well and need a bit more clearance and can these princess calipers be fitted to a standard disc without spacers, and what are bells as well ....thanks ian...

[wedg1e]

ssc1, the AP (Princess) calipers happen to fit the same mountings as the Ford Granada ones, and the discs are in the same plane relative to the Ford ones, so you can slot them straight on to a solid disc Ford setup. This has been known for years and kitcar builders have always sought the AP calipers as a cheap means to get uprated brakes. Of course it applies to the TVR wedge as well since they use the Granada/ Cortina setup.
The slight hitch these days is that Princesses are getting thin on the ground in breakers, so a set in good shape can fetch silly money (there was a pair went on Ebay a few weeks ago for £250!- hardly a cheap upgrade any more, especially since there are people making calipers specifically as an upgrade package for not much more than that).
Right. So you have vented discs: the discs of course are thicker. But the inboard face of the disc is still in the same plane wrt the solid disc, so if you split the caliper body (4 bolts) and add spacers and longer bolts, you create the necessary clearance for the vented disc. Now the Princess ran different diameter discs to the Granada (TVR), so the pads overhang the outer edge. Not really a problem, but if you source the AP discs mentioned by Steve, you get the correct pad/disc interface.
The 'bell' is simply the disc/ hub assembly.

Ian

[sevans]

wedg1e said:

Steve (Evans): four spacers? How does that work then? My car has the Grandad vented discs, not the flash AP ones... Ian

Ian, I have 2 sets of 2 sandwiched together. I think they may be the 8mm ones that are too thin for the Granada disk but two of them (ie 16mm) is right for the AP disk.