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On 15 Mar 2003 at 21:57, Mark Seaton wrote: > Anyway, the NOS calipers seemed exactly the same as the ones I took of > yet they had a different VW number cast into them (they are ATE). Did > these numbers change over the years?- or maybe these calipers were > destined for a Type 4? I didn't note the numbers but the old ones were > VW 112 &123 . Those are just mold numbers, they mean nothing. > I fitted them and the pads but there seems to be a gap of 3 or 4 mm > between the pad and the disk. Is this normal? I thought it would be a > tight fit to get them in. It means that this caliper was made to expect a thicker rotor. Since it was a Golf caliper we don't know what the piston diameter is either. In the long run, I don't see this as a very promising approach. Your brake balance has probably changed and eventually, when the pads wear down the pistons will come too far out of the bores and either lose all the fluid, or crack the caliper. Neither thought is very reassuring, but you have a lot of time before that will happen. > Now that I've bled them the pedal feels totally different- there is a > much longer travel and more progressive braking- I suppose that could > be the pads bedding in, but why the long travel? Perhaps the old > calipers were taking up the gap so they acted faster but the new ones > are freer moving so each time I brake I have to move the piston out > the 3-4mm gap? I checked the width between the pistons and they are the > same. Perhaps the old ones had the wear compensation device and the > new ones not? The obvious extra gap was made up the first time you pushed on the pedal. After that the pads just retracted a few thousandths. New (or rebuilt)calipers, even the exact correct ones, always feel different. The fact that they are not binding means that they will retract farther, so they require more pedal travel to apply. You are correct about the pads bedding in; this will change a bit as they conform to the rotors. The Golf calipers almost certainly do not have the compensation pins. BTW, I just tried to look up the piston diameter for a Golf, but my manual, which just goes up to 78 doesn't list it. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org