? Made in France, for what car ?

[Killer Texas GT]

Ran across an interesting set of disc brake calipers while sorting out some of the parts that I have collected along with a bunch of Opels in the last year. They say: " MADE IN FRANCE, 7 202 , AC , 22 " the bolt pattern for mounting them to either a spindle or backing plate is the same as that of an Opel caliper. As you can see in the pictures. The writing in on the back side of the caliper. The Opel caliper is a 75 big Brake. A heck of a lot more meat on the French calipers almost twice the surface area as the Big Brake. Still have to figure out what diameter rotor needs to go with them.

Anybody know who makes them and what car are they off of? Any ideas or suggestions would be a lot of help.

[BQS4]

Rodney;
Those could be off a BMW 2002 model. I coresponded (writing letters, before e-mail and pc's) with a racer who sent me the list of parts to upgrade an Opel and it was to use the BMW 2002 brake calipers

[oldopelguy]

The 2002's had 2 inlet ports, and they fit the stock Opel sized rotor. I'm running them myself on my Kadett wagon.

My guess would be BMW 320, or perhaps rear of Catera?

[Killer Texas GT]

These have a banjo fitting for the fluid inlet. The Caliper 'floats' caused by the outward pressure of the piston on the inboard pad. Typically in what I have seen just the outboard portion of the caliper and pad float, not the whole caliper like these would do. Is that how the 2002 or 320 beamer caliper functions?

[bello]

Hi! These are AC Delco calipers for a Manta/Ascona B, maybe others as well. Really nothing special about them- Same piston diameter, maybe a slightly smaller brake pad area, and the sliders are prone to sticking. They came in solid rotor and vented rotor widths. These were on the Manta i200 i sold to Rionart a few years ago... Also, the pads are oddball pads. I believe the late model Fieros and/or Pontiac LeMans used them as well. The neat ones were the aluminum ones from the Fiero V6- in that car they used a 10" vented rotor. I believe the ones you have there will fit a "75 rotor perfectly- the bolt-down holes in the spindle makes them into a 9.6" rotor . The brake hose seems to be an oddball, but the other end of the hose is the same as your Manta, etc. Hope this helps! Let me know if I can help you! Ernie

[yellaopelgt]

So these are the ones that could use the slightly bigger wheel cylinders as well? A bit more braking power than the Opel originals..just need to adapt the pistons to fit..

Joe

[gr_diver]

I have these very same calipers on my Ascona B. They were made by Delco-Moraine. Rebuild kits and pads are widely available in Europe, since they were fitted to Opels until the early '90s.

They came with two different piston sizes depending on the year, 50 and 52mm (mine are 52mm).

If you are interested in rebuilding them, you have to get 2 different kits for each caliper. One contains: piston seal/ piston dust boot/ bleed valve cap. The other contains: sliding sleeves/ sleeves' seals/ sleeves' dust boots/ sleeves' caps.

The kit for the sleeves fits all years. For the piston kits, you could either have 50 or 52mm pistons. The first use kit Opel #1605464, the 52mm Opel #1605585.

The sleeve kit boxes did not have an Opel # on them, but the AC Delco are: 1 # 3487 272 & JL 97 16 05 534.

If you decide to rebuild them, beware that fitting the 3 dust boots each caliper has is a pita... They have a slightly smaller metal ring than the caliper's seat, that you have to fit with a special tool. The tool is not available, and the Haynes manual recommends finding a piece of pipe "with appropriate diameter", put the dust boot on the caliper, put the pipe above the lip that the boots have, and use a hammer on the pipe to seat them. I could not find pipes of that diameter as much as I tried... I ended up heating them, and carefully using an old brake pad (to distribute the force) and a large vice I seated them...

But you can split the halves, since there is no hydraulic connection between them, and you have to replace the copper sealing washers at the flexy hose, if you disconnect it. Pay attention to the angle the hose is fitted, because if not fitted correctly afterwards (resting on the stop) it will rub the tires.

[Killer Texas GT]

This is exactly what they look like. And I thankyou for the part numbers to get them rebuilt. As I have a 4 of these calipers and with the pads having more surface area than the '75 Big Brake' I know that one set will be installed on my 75 Ascona the other on one of my other Opels. Can you tell me what is the diameter of the Rotor is and is there a vented version of the rotor? And also a part number for the Pads? Finally the diameter of your master cylinder and rear brake cylinder or are the rear brakes also discs?
I appreciate the information. I have a GT that is running 4 wheel discs with 10.5 inch vented rotors and the master cylinder and booster from an 87 Isuzu Impulse and really love its stopping abilities. Applying these lager Opel brakes with the appropriate master cylinder and rear brake set up should provide the same stopping power as the Isuzu set up. And as an option I can install a set of Isuzu rear disc brakes with the the Manta 'B' calipers on front.
Appreciate the information and any other info that you can provide.
Thanks

[gr_diver]

Ok here it goes:

Master cylinder bore: 20.64mm

Rear brake cylinders (drums): 19.05mm
Drum inner diameter: 230mm
Drum shoes: diameter 230mm / width 51mm (specify NON self-adjusting when ordering)

Front rotors (solid): diameter 246mm, thickness 12.7mm

Unfortunately I do not have Opel # for the brake pads, I didn't keep the last box. But many Opels (Manta B/ Kadett/ Corsa/ Astra/ Vectra) up to mid '90s used these same pads.

Also get a pins/spring kit, Opel # 16 05 699 & 16 05 804, it is worth changing these also since you are rebuilding them.

[gr_diver]

By the way, the calipers are mounted using allen head bolts, not hex as the standard fixed calipers. Their head accepts a 10mm allen tool, but I don't have any other dimensional data for them, since this comes from memory.

Take one of the sleeves you will remove, and on the cap side you will see it is "dished" (see pic). The head of the allen bolt sits only slightly lower from the edge. The thread should be the same with what your stub-axle currently has. So with a bit of trial and error, and a visit to a good hardware store you will find suitable bolts... I am not familiar with steel grades, but the stock ones are that black kind. But you can't use hex bolts, you will not be able to insert a socket in the sleeve anyway...

[gr_diver]

I here uploaded a zip file with hi-res scanned images from the GMF caliper section, of my Haynes manual. I also included the exploded diagram...

Something more, with these calipers, you can remove the rotor without removing the caliper. If you have the pads out, the hub-rotor assembly can get tilted out. (see pic).

[Killer Texas GT]

gr_driver,
Thank you for all of the information, it will be put to good use. Maybe someday I can be of help to you. Again I am very grateful for your help.
Rodney

[gr_diver]

Anytime Rodney!