zero tolerance brake calipers for 1976 Stingray

[Darlene Kohler]

Received a flyer last Spring from somewhwere in Florida about brakes with zeo tolerance between the calipers and pistons. Know anything about this? Anybody trie them?

[Joe L.]

Re: zero tolerance brake calipers for 1976 Stingra

Darlene----

The "Zero Tolerance" designation refers to the o-ring seal pistons used in the calipers. Original 65-82 Corvette brake calipers used a chevron seal type piston with, of course, chevron seals.

About 10 years ago, or so, a company by the name of "Zero Tolerance" of Fortuna, CA and, later, Visalia, CA developed a replacement piston system for 65-82 Corvette calipers which used an o-ring seal. This type of seal eliminates a lot of the problems associated with the chevron seal system such as "air pumping" and leaking calipers.

At first, I was VERY reluctant to "embrace" the concept of the o-ring sealing system reasoning that if this sytem was, indeed, better, then GM would have used it in the first place; o-ring technology is not new. However, the o-ring sealing system have now stood the test of time and I've never heard of any problems with them.

Many caliper manufacturers now use the "Zero Tolerance" pistons or "clones" thereof in caliper rebuilding and offer them as an alternative to the stock-type caliper rebuilds.

[Craig S.]

Re: zero tolerance brake calipers for 1976 Stingra

Vette Brakes offers this O ring option for an additional $10 per caliper during rebuilds. I opted for it during a recent rebuild of my 67's calipers, although I haven't installed them yet...Craig

[Edward McComas]

Re: zero tolerance brake calipers for 1976 Stingra

There was an issue a few years ago about zero tolerance pistons. As I recall, some company was selling caliper rebuild kits using these zero tolerance pistons. Apparently some, but not all, calipers had to be machined to accept these pistons. The company selling these kits neglected to tell their customers about this machining requirement.

If you are considering a complete caliper with these pistons already installed, then the machining issue should be a moot point.

Let us all know how it turns out.

[Steve Grodin]

Re: zero tolerance brake calipers for 1976 Stingra

I purchased and installed Zero Tolerance pistons, 10 years ago, in my '74. I bought them from the company when they were in Fortuna, CA. and haven't had any problems with them.