OK guys, I tried to call PBM and ask them about this, but they never got back to me.

anyway, I am working my way through a 72 914. But a 75 came up here locally in the pick and pull. I have pulled the trans, side shifter set up pedal set etc,

but now I'm wondering if it's worth it to head back and pull the calipers? What a set of cores worth - they would probably cost 60 bucks from the junkyard, so don't know if it's worth my time / effort to go get em.

I did pull the rear pressure regulator , not sure if that has any value or not, but I grabbed it , just in case!

Both the calipers and regulator have value. Problem is, people don't return core calipers and regulators. Check and see what Eric's core charge is before paying $60.

I think Eric is traveling so it might be tough for him to respond...

Core charge for late rears is about $200, I just went through those on mine. I don't know if PMB would buy them outright for that much though.

Check the bleeders first. If they are lose they can be rebuilt.

Just went through this....

I can't speak for Eric, but when he did my rears i offered him a second set of early rears and he told me he can buy them for $20 so.......I sold them overseas.

CWB - your 72 will have the early calipers, so it's probably not worth the time/effort/cost to go get them, if Eric/PMB won't buy them for cores, or discount the resto of yours by that amount.


Tom
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If it's any reference, I saw a pair of 914 calipers at Hershey for $20. They were fronts. A core charge is meant to get the exchange part back. I don't think it's​ a good reference for value.

If you want to keep your brakes on the car while you wait on new ones from pmb, I would grab the cores from the '75. Call pmb's main number, talk to one of the guys and make sure they have an early caliper to trade for your lates.

I doubt Eric is buying cores for $200 but he does need them to keep the business running. I gave him a set at hershey - $n/c and have a couple sets to send him. I want him to be around for a long time.

When I got rebuilt calipers from PMB last fall, they were charging a $100 core charge for each pair of calipers (fronts or rears).

I traded him a bunch of cores a while back for 1 set of restored A calipers.. Mine were more desirable as they were off a 912 and a set of 914 ones so a total of 8 calipers.. He maybe willing to do somr sort of trade?

Eric's a great guy and it's good karma to send him the cores even if it's for n/c or perhaps some consideration in the future. Just remove the bleeders and send them wrapped in a flat rate USPS box. Your good deed may allow someone else's 914 to live with good brakes, and that's worth more than what you can get for the old calipers!

Eric has recently purchased pretty much all of the calipers he could get from EASY. Talk to him first and make sure he needs them. He answers his phone when I call so he shouldn't be this hard to reach.

I sent him 50 pairs last year. You can get 6-8 calipers in a large flats rate box but your post office will hate you.

855-STOP-101
855-786-7101 Press #1 for sales and speak with Dalton. Operators are standing by. (but, I believe we reached out to Carl yesterday??)

FYI - Last year alone we lost 100 pair of calipers for "lack of core return". A rising tide lifts all ships and the jump in prices with early, mid and late 911's has had an obvious affect on parts prices in general and 914 prices. We used to charge $100.00 for core but had to raise it to $200.00

Let's talk about core charges because this seems to be a mystery to many. A core charge is an "incentive" to return your cores. On many of the 911 calipers, $100.00 was apparently not a big enough incentive to return the cores. On late model 914 rears, apparently $100.00 wasn't enough incentive to return the cores. Our business depends on having core calipers to service the next customer. If they don't come back, we have to purchase more. Purchasing involves either shipping pallets or making pilgrimages to LA or SF etc... this takes cash and/or takes me away from the business (which also takes cash). So... core charges have gone up to $200.00

Do we pay $100.00 to $200.00 for cores? No. Core calipers on the retail market are anywhere from $10-40.00. We have bins and bins and bins full of 914 front calipers. Market is going to dictate price. I usually give people $10.00 for those just to be nice (I don't need them). If anyone can use them, I guess it will be us. When I say retail market, I mean what I would have to pay a retailer like "Recycler Core" in Riverside where our beloved Ron Meier (aka SLITS) worked, it's his brothers business. If I needed A-Calipers or M-Calipers from them, they sell for $35-40 each. Add shipping and I was basically breaking even or losing money @ $100.00 per pair and keep in mind, they weren't coming back at that price.

Some of our core prices are higher... substantially higher. We have $1,500.00 per pair core charge on 356 calipers and 914-6 rear calipers. As a final note on this, I usually tell people asking if we "buy calipers outright" to try to sell them here in the classifieds first you can probably double the money I would pay for them.

To address the OP's question "What's a set of calipers worth" and, this is taking into account what he is looking at so, it may get a little wordy to help establish "condition". Any junkyard caliper is more than likely stuck or frozen solid, beyond what a standard DIY guy would want to dig in to. The reason is, calipers hate to sit. Caliper bores were originally zinc plated. Over the years, that plating wears off. Fluid is hygroscopic (it attracts water). Water likes to gather around the rubber seals which is where the zinc wears off the bore as well. Water + unprotected steel = rust. When a car sits for 5-10-20 years, those calipers get stuck beyond the standard pressurized air method for (front) piston removal. Can they be restored? Yeah... not a problem. You'll need fluid to get the pistons out and, you'll want to zinc plate them for another 10-20 years of duty. We guarantee for 10 years. When you factor in your time etc., they may be just good cores to send in and let us deal with them so, here's my take on valuation:

Early 914 Front:
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $10-20.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $30-40.00 per pair.
Restored - $499.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

Early 914 Rear:
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $30-40.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $40-60.00 per pair
Restored - $499.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

914-6 Front (M-Calipers w/Spacers):
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $40-80.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $80-100.00 per pair
Restored - $499.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

914-6 Rears:
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $400-600.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $600-800.00 per pair
Restored - $1,599.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

Late 914 Front:
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $10-20.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $30-40.00 per pair.
Restored - $499.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

Late 914 Rear:
Junkyard/Milk Crate - $30-40.00 per pair
Operating on a car - $40-60.00 per pair
Restored - $499.00 per pair w/o cores $299.00 w/cores

All of these prices are subject to what someone is willing to pay and the date stamp on this post

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Eric. Regarding the non-return of cores, let me relay my recent experience.

I bought a pair of your late rear calipers from one of the big Porsche online retailers rather than from you directly, because I had a discount coupon from them that brought the overall cost down a bit. The online shopping cart indicated they would add the core charge to the invoice on checkout. When I did checkout and pay, no core charge was added. I then figured it would come as a separate charge, but it did not. They never charged me for the core charge at all. I am sure that you charged them a core, but it was not relayed to me. There appeared to be no monetary incentive for me to return them. If this happens very often with your outside resellers, it could be a significant part of the non-return problem.

The completion of the story is even sillier. I didn't want to just dispose of the core calipers, so I returned them anyway so that they could hopefully find their way back to you. Since I wasn't charged for the cores I didn't figure they would refund it once they reviewed the invoice.

Wrong. Within 2 days of my return, they refunded me the full core amount that I had never paid in the first place. Being the honest guppy that I am, I called and pointed out the issue. We did get it straightened out, and they indicated they were going to review why the online shopping system did not add the core charge in the first place. So hopefully this may not be an ongoing problem.

Thanks Eric,
We did speak yesterday, came to a reasonable agreement. I went and pulled the calipers tody, they appear to be working, I'm also sending the pressure regulating valve as well.

thanks for all the help guys!

Good for you...