Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorH
Is that little stainless retaining tab held in by the allen head screw the standard for retaining the pads in caliper? I'm sure hope it's red lock-tighted because if one side ever gets loose and comes off suddenly your pad is hanging down onto the hat or even out and it's not going to be very effective there.
Am I missing something?
Looks like a nice kit though.
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Thanks. Yes, that is exactly what that little stainless tab is for. In my ten years of selling brake kits, you're literally the first customer to ever ask that question...good one!
Yes, that little sucker is loaded with Loctite. Sometimes when we're rebuilding calipers for the race teams, we actually have to machine them out because they are so tough to remove. They definitely aren't going anywhere, and I've never heard of anything like you described happening. I just went back to our warehouse and snapped a pic of a NASCAR Sprint Cup caliper that was being rebuilt...they use the same feature:
That type of pad retention is pretty standard (although not everyone uses durable stainless steel like AP does). Below are a couple of our competitors' calipers that use the same type of feature. The screw that holds the pad retainer in place is in a different location on each of the calipers, but they all are doing the same thing. You can argue all day about the merits of each design, but the bottom line is that they work, and we've never seen any failures on this feature across the full range of AP Racing competition calipers.
Brembo
Alcon
StopTech
Here's a bonus shot that struck me as cool when I went back to get that first pic...a bunch of AP Racing Sprint Cup calipers waiting for rebuild. When you buy our big brake kit, you'll have full access to our caliper rebuild program. The same guys that rebuild these will rebuild yours as well. No need to drown yourself in brake fluid...send them to us and we'll send them back to you good as new.
