i have never had a working park brake on any 914 ive ever owned.so i have got pretty used to not using one.i have read several times that you can use front calipers on the rear.what do you need to do to make them work ,is it just a bolt up operation.i noticed the offset is diffrent
what shims to use?
can you use washers ?
james

Damn James, just get a set of rears rebuilt and have a working ebrake. Its cool!

Geoff

Shims will work....be sure to go with a larger front caliper as the bias will be off.....rears locking first is a BAD thing.

Is it me or has there been a rash of rear caliper issues?

I've got a couple sets I need to rebuild.

with Z and G.

Here's an idea...

Buy the $40 set in the classifieds. (not affiliated)
Buy 2 sets of rebuild kits.
Rebuild the $40 set and install them.
Rebuild your old set and sell them.

Make $60.00 in the process.

with all the cars i pull apart i have like 15 sets of used ones.i just wanted to know the "how to" and pros and cons or using front calipers on my rears
james

Oh yeah... forgot about that.

OK... so try this: Buy 30 rebuild kits and make a lot of money

Do the late or early calipers work on the rears?
There are diff offsets right?

Hmm I might do this during Xmas vacation. I have both eraly and late fronts. and one last set of 320i early calipers. Not that I am complaining about my brakes. The stockers with bette pads work great on the street and for AX.

Just want to know for my self too.

I hear rebuilding the rears are a "_______(put your own term here)." There are people on the site rebuilding door handles, pedal sets, speedometers, etc. Anyone doing rear brake calipers?

I'm going to tackle a couple pairs real soon here. I'll keep you posted.

I got a set of rears that i need to rebuild. i've never done it before but i'll let you kow how it turns out.

I rebuilt my rear calipers myself..including the infamous little inner and outer adjuster seals. Took about 2 hours each to rebuild (not including taking them off/putting them on and bleeding everything). I honestly think it took me longer to bleed this friggan system then it took to rebuild all my brakes! Lesson learned...get the speed bleeders...not necessarily so you can one-man it but they seal up tighter then a drum. I had trouble with standard "replacement" bleeders leaking.

Question? Best place to get the rear caliper rebuild kits and speed bleeders would be____________?
CCLINPUMPHOLDBLEED

I got my caliper rebuild kits from GPR. This included the typical seals and rubber boots for the pistons, special o-rings for the inner/outer adjusters..and I got the little o-rings for when I split the calipers in half.

The speed bleeders i got from http://www.speedbleeder.com/ . I called, they have inventory under Porsche 914!..i got their little recovery bag also for the brake fluid..it's like a bag a hospital would use for blood..worked great! These guys make these things themselves so you are getting it right from the source.

Jim

I got my rebuild kit from Pelican Parts. Mine were frozen solid. I soaked them in solvent for 24 hrs. Took them apart carefully and laid them out exploded style. The piston were still frozen so I wrapped half the caliper in an old thick leather belt and hooked an air chuck up to it to force it out. After I cleaned them up and painted them they were great!! It really is not as hard as you would imagine. There are some funky things I havent seen before in them, but it went back to gether the same way it came apart.

I installed my front calipers on the rear of my car (1975 1.8) and am quite happy with the results.

The big picture is:
Installed BMW 320i calipers up front.
Installed 19mm Master cylinder.
Replaced proportioning valve with tee.
Installed front calipers on the rear.
Replaced flex lines all around.

Problems and fixes I ran into doing the work.
The front caliper offset can be corrected with grade 8 (hardened) washers.
The mounting bolts need to be about 5mm longer than the stock length to regain full thread engagment.
The hard lines need to be modified to enter the caliper from the inboard face not the top (stock location). I did this by cutting a couple of washers into a bending tool held in my vice. Bent the lines around the tool slowly by hand. They came out exactly as needed. There is limited room in this area for the bend due to the outboard surface of the rear suspension arm.

I left the parking brake and cables in place and bent a used set of hard lines leaving my originals alone just in case I ever want to reverse the setup.

I really like the results.

By the way, my parking brake never really worked and I don't miss it at all.

Do you guys that get rid of the parking brake ever have problems parking on hills (I know you can leave it in gear, but if the hill is steep enough . . . )? And do you have to pass some sort of visual inspection? Here in NJ, I'm pretty sure that you have to have a working parking brake.

-Chris

I would think that a working emergency/parking brake is a legal requirement for a street licenced car. Considering how few people don't have a valid drivers licence or insurance, I guess it doesn't matter. Carrying a 44 magnum can ensure that if someone hits you once, it won't happen again.

I have never been inspected for a working parking brake here in California.
I always curb my wheels when parking on an incline. (comes from learniing to drive in San Francisco I guess)
I use a chock in my garage when I want to run the engine.