I have been fighting a running gun-battle with the Hoopty's front brakes for a couple weeks now, and it looks like my options to solve the problem are limited. Everything's bled nicely, the pedal is high and working as it ought to, but the check-ride resulted in a carved rotor from a popped-off pad tensioner spring.
Varga used to make the Wide-5 brakes sold by CB Performance, but they no longer do. The pads and calipers I have are the type sold to upgrade Type Is, they tell me, but I remember buying them as 914 replacements. They're a single-piston system, with what are supposed to be drop-in pads.
The pads do not 'drop in' on my car, because my drop spindles are on opposite sides and inverted from where they would normally be. They're behind and below the discs, meaning I have to load the pads in from below, not slot them in from above. It wouldn't seem to make that big of a difference, but for some reason, it seems to complicate matters for me -- but I like the difference in handling from the way the car was before that change.
I have been on the SOC FB page with this, but that audience is fairly small. What I'm specifically looking for is a source for those NLA pads. They have a spring-steel clip which resembles an archer's bow, clipped in the middle to a small ear on the top (in its normal orientation) of each pad, off from center, on one side.
Mine have been on the car for so long, not only are they obsolete, but the steel has lost its ability to stay clipped (in the case of one pad). I located the clip, pressed between the rotor and the pad it was supposed to live on, but only after it made the rotor look like a vinyl record with about five songs on it.
CB is perfectly willing to sell me replacement calipers, pads included, for $62 per side, and I'm certainly willing to spend the money for the right stuff, but the guy on the phone could not tell me whether those new-model parts would be interchangeable with what I have. He said they only sold Type I brake kits (which more or less match that description).
So. With the new master cylinder installed (I had to buy two, also TRW/Varga, also obsolete, also non-matching -- just because I broke an inlet stem with an old hose), every bit of the braking system R&Red and clean and ready to go, I need a one-cent nail and have to potentially buy a foundry.
I am on the horns of a dilemma; spend $600 for a full replacement setup, $120 for the calipers and pads and not know if they'll work, or try to find just the pads and/or spring clips I actually need. The system (holistically) works just f***ing fine, and I don't want to go whole-hog and spend money I could use elsewhere (Jeni's Mustang, our fire truck, et cetera), when I don't need to.
Anybody got a source? Or maybe four of 'em lying around? Or one stupid little clip they'll trade for a pie (who remembers THAT?)?
Any lovin's good lovin ... 'cuz right now, he's grounded until further notice.
