Caliper cross - GM D52

So I have big heavy iron B52 pad single piston calipers on the GMC project. What I'd love are some aluminum double piston replacements for cheap. I know Wilwood makes units like this, but they are $160 per side, and for a savings of four pounds each, it's not exactly cost effective. We made brackets to mount various Mustang calipers onto a couple of Lemons cars in the past, so that isn't out of line. The dimensions may be a little tougher though.

1.25" disc width
12" disc diameter
Something close to 6.77 square inches piston area
Ideally something which will fit in a 15" wheel
OEM caliper preferred

Any ideas?

Howe racing has a replacement caliper for about $100 but I don't know what it weighs.

In reply to Wally:

Still single piston and also not built with o rings on the sliders so the Internet claims they are noisy.

Good call though. I'll keep them on my radar. They are bound to be much lighter.

How thick are Corvette rotors? Would Vette calipers work?

Probably still noisy but two pistons

https://www.howeracing.com/p-7708-howe-double-piston.aspx

In reply to Wally:

Ok then. I didn't see those before. I'll take s look now. Thanks!

DeadSkunk wrote: How thick are Corvette rotors? Would Vette calipers work?

I was looking before at c4 and they are too thin but you made me look at c3 and indeed those are the right width and gave close to the same piston diameter. I'll check in the weights, although the vette option isn't much cheaper than the wilwoods!!!

What about ls1 camaro calipers? Dual piston, light, and I know a guy who has a spare set or three.

A C3 caliper is heavy. It's an iron 4 piston caliper that does not float and if it hasn't gotten sleeves by now probably leaks. I would even use them on a C3 anymore.

Wally wrote: Probably still noisy but two pistons https://www.howeracing.com/p-7708-howe-double-piston.aspx

They actually look like they have I rings. Lighter than the wilwoods too. I like. I will have to investigate the vette option versus these although the "not for highway use" scares me a bit. This is for s street car.

Wally wrote: A C3 caliper is heavy. It's an iron 4 piston caliper that does not float and if it hasn't gotten sleeves by now probably leaks. I would even use them on a C3 anymore.

Oh I thought they were aluminum.

Dusterbd13 wrote: What about ls1 camaro calipers? Dual piston, light, and I know a guy who has a spare set or three.

These are very close too. The rotor thickness is right. The area is a bit smaller, but I might be able to make that up with a different master cylinder. Let me do some math. Do you know off hand how far the mounting holes are from one another?

Not iff hand, and my shop is so trashed I'd have a herculean effort to get to them.

I had found a pdf for making a bracket to bolt them to a first gen camaro once. Want to say it was on the race home sight. Good domensions on it.

I used to do lots of C3 calipers in a resto shop I worked at. They were state of the art in the early 60s. The bores would pit and leak so they would get rebuilt with stainless sleeves. We used to have steel barrels full of cores and I tore my thumb open good one day moving it.

Wally wrote: I used to do lots of C3 calipers in a resto shop I worked at. They were state of the art in the early 60s. The bores would pit and leak so they would get rebuilt with stainless sleeves. We used to have steel barrels full of cores and I tore my thumb open good one day moving it.

Well four pistons or not, I am not going to spend a ton to replace heavy old calipers with more heavy old calipers. Thanks for the advice.

Now I have to figure out if a 5 lb weight loss and better force distribution is worth it.

I am digging the ls1 f body idea.

Does this stuff work? One set of rotors looks pretty thick.

http://annarbor.craigslist.org/pts/4832459294.html

What body is a D52? Like all the 90-early 2k GM brake parts can be mix and matched together. LS1 f-body and c5 front calipers are the same except the vette ones have cooling fins. Its common to put those over W body rotors to use them on a different bolt pattern than either the LS1 or camaro.

DeadSkunk wrote: Does this stuff work? One set of rotors looks pretty thick. http://annarbor.craigslist.org/pts/4832459294.html

A 1500 is too thin and a 2500 too thick!

Corvette front rotors are 1.25" thick for the base car. This ad doesn't say if the car is a base unit, or not.

http://toledo.craigslist.org/pts/4823879389.html

Leafy wrote: What body is a D52? Like all the 90-early 2k GM brake parts can be mix and matched together. LS1 f-body and c5 front calipers are the same except the vette ones have cooling fins. Its common to put those over W body rotors to use them on a different bolt pattern than either the LS1 or camaro.

The c5 has a bigger rotor than the 4th gen f body. The f body matches the truck. Also the pistons are smaller on the vette making a bigger change. Truck "ideal" piston is 51 ish. The f body is 45 and the vette is 40.

Leafy wrote: What body is a D52? Like all the 90-early 2k GM brake parts can be mix and matched together. LS1 f-body and c5 front calipers are the same except the vette ones have cooling fins. Its common to put those over W body rotors to use them on a different bolt pattern than either the LS1 or camaro.

The W bodies used the exact same rotor as the 98-02 F body, and the aluminum F body calipers are a direct bolt in swap on a W body.. all this means that these parts are cheap and available everywhere. Also, they fit some 15" wheels.

I used to have the bolt spacing specs for the F body caliper brackets from when I put them on my 86 Camaro a couple of years ago, but I can't remember where I saved it..

i think i have ls1 camaro brakes in the garage, and i know for sure i have d52 calipers. what year truck?

patgizz wrote: i think i have ls1 camaro brakes in the garage, and i know for sure i have d52 calipers. what year truck?

It's a 1972 Thanks!!

novaderrik wrote:

Leafy wrote: What body is a D52? Like all the 90-early 2k GM brake parts can be mix and matched together. LS1 f-body and c5 front calipers are the same except the vette ones have cooling fins. Its common to put those over W body rotors to use them on a different bolt pattern than either the LS1 or camaro.

The W bodies used the exact same rotor as the 98-02 F body, and the aluminum F body calipers are a direct bolt in swap on a W body.. all this means that these parts are cheap and available everywhere. Also, they fit some 15" wheels. I used to have the bolt spacing specs for the F body caliper brackets from when I put them on my 86 Camaro a couple of years ago, but I can't remember where I saved it..

All of the W body stuff I looked up is single piston. Can you give a specific example?