1978 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL - Colonel Mustard.

Now *that* is useful to know. At least based on the photos in listings they definitely do look the same, and quite a few of the usual suspects do actually list them as in stock, unlike when searching for the Cavalier. They're still £100 plus change each (plus VAT and delivery) though so I reckon refurb probably still makes decent sense.

Personally I'd trust one of these calipers that's been overhauled by a reputable workshop to the one brand that Autodoc have listed that I've never heard of and has probably been sitting on a shelf for goodness knows how long. Plus if they then send me the wrong part I'm then stuck with it because their returns process is such an utter pain. Even when they have flat out sent the wrong part.

There's far too much throwing away of things in the world these days too, so doing a little to reduce that just feels like a sensible thing to do.

This afternoon I played chicken with the weather. This was rapidly bearing down on my position.



Mission was simple: Get the offside brake caliper off the Cavalier so I could get the pair sent off to be rebuilt.

In a rare show of organisation, I actually made a point of getting everything I expected to need out in advance and putting it where I could get to it, rather than the usual 15 trips back and forward to the garage.



Five minutes later, first contact with the enemy.



I was briefly sidetracked by a sinister looking bit of peeling seam sealer on the inner wheel arch, but thankfully I seem to have caught it in time.



Really isn't hard to see why these cars have a reputation for rusting.

Thanks to the wonders of power tools, less than ten minutes after picking tools up I had the caliper off, wheel back on and the jack back in the boot.

The little bag the jack and wheel brace live in are even colour coded to the car, how considerate of Vauxhall...



Yes I know they're just all that colour, but it amused me.

This is where we took a moment of "one step forward, two steps sideways."



These two calipers are not the same.



The one on the offside is made by Girling.



Whereas the nearside one is an ATE.



Not really surprising that the car has had one changed, but it's rather annoying as it means I don't have a matched pair to send off for rebuild.

I'm also rather alarmed that the pads in each side are a totally different brand with a significant difference in the amount of wear on them...so it seems that whoever changed the nearside caliper didn't bother swapping the offside pads when it went on... additionally the lower caliper to hub bolt was missing it's washer...You remember me saying I was going to test the rear brakes before pulling things apart? Nope...on the strength of this, they're definitely getting properly inspected beforehand now.

Don't suppose anyone has an old nearside Girling caliper floating around do they?

Did spot something I'd previously missed that was a quick fix (well, it still needs a little attention but is a lot better). Spot the difference.





The valance had been shoved upwards on the offside. It still needs a little finessing and whatever did the damage has broken off one of the tabs where it attaches to the lower part of the wing, but it's a lot better.



So a little stuck while I decide what to do about the brakes. If I can't track down either another ATE or Girling caliper I will probably just end up buying a new pair, as don't want to hold this up too long.

I have few calipers of these Ascona B's but I'm from the Netherlands so shipping is not cheap.

Ill take some pictures later today of the calipers.
*Edit* my dad scrapt them..

Apparently the new caliper has now arrived back home.  Sadly I'm currently 3,500 miles away from the car so it'll need to wait for attention!

Whether that caliper gets sent off along with the original one for inspection and any necessary rebuild work will depend on what it looks like.  I may well send them both away anyway for the sake of long term reliability anyway.  It's not as though I can start putting stuff back together properly until they're both present anyway.  It *looks* good in the photos on the eBay listing, but we all know how much that means.

Also on the subject of brakes, discs.  Am I correct in thinking that the wheel bearing races are pressed into the discs on these?  I've got a new pair of discs in the boot waiting to go on, but will get a bearing set ordered too if that's the case.  If I need to take everything apart anyway I'm inclined to just change the consumables involved to save me time and head off future failures before they have a chance to pop up.

Thanks. Been a while since I've changed a bearing that isn't pressed into the disc. Sounds like that should be pleasantly simple in comparison then. If we don't need to faff about with presses and the like I'll just inspect the bearings while I'm in there then.