1967 brake rotors & pads
I ordered Raybestos brand front & rear brake rotors and pads for my 1967 through a Chicago area parts retailer which is a nationwide chain of auto stores. Raybestos offers a premium line of brake parts designated PG Plus and a lower grade parts line under the Aimco name. My entire order requested the PG Plus series. A current book concerning Corvette chasis and suspension rebuilding recommended the Raybestos PG Plus parts and other sources gave Raybestos brand parts good recommendations. However, I was disappointed with the Raybestos parts delivered to me and the parts retailer refunded my purchase accordingly. I refused to accept the parts for several reasons. I ordered part #PGD8 organic brake pads according to the Raybestos catalog but the pads that arrived were ceramic having the same part number. The Raybestos PG Plus part #5500 front rotors were packaged in a box designated "made in China." The rear rotors having part #5501 were the Aimco series and not the PG Plus series I ordered. The parts retailer stated that the PG Plus series of rear rotors was not available even though they are listed in the Raybestos catalog. I heard that Raybestos was recently purchased by another corporation and the brake rotors are now being made in China. I welcome other members comments regarding recent encounters with Raybestos manufactured parts. I do plan to contact other brake parts vendors such as SSBC and Vette Brakes & Products.
-
-
Re: 1967 brake rotors & pads
Leonard-----
As far as I can tell, the Raybestos #5500, front, and 5501, rear, are the only "stock-type" rotors that Raybestos currently offers for a 65-82 Corvette. They have other rotors but they are of the "slotted" type which was never used in PRODUCTION.
The PGD8 pads should be organic. Are you sure the ones in the box were ceramic? Ceramic are usually considerably more expensive than organic. Ceramic are great, but I'm not ready to try them on a 65-82 Corvette.
As far as "Made in China", you are going to be seeing that increasingly on automotive parts. Not just aftermarket replacement parts, either---you'll see that on new OEM parts. However, there are still U.S. and Canadian manufactured rotors out there. Some of the Corvette brake part specialty vendors should be able to set you up with them. Many rotors nowadays from all sources delete the rivet head recesses. However, there are still some that include them.
I believe that Raybestos used to be part of Dana Corporation. However, as part of the Dana bankruptcy, some of their operating units were sold off. I think this includes Raybestos, Wix, and some parts of Spicer.In Appreciation of John Hinckley -
Re: 1967 brake rotors & pads
Last time I was down to Volunteer Vette - I looked at the Wagner rotors and they were cast in Canada. The machining was excelent and a sample I checked had very little runout.
The only thing I must warn you is that the hubs and rotors were turned as an assembly. The last 70 LT1 I worked on had bad brakes - We checked the run out it was + / - 8 on one rear and the fronts were worse. It had new rotors installed. The axels and front hubs were pulled. The studs pressed out. One front hub was to far out to save. Found another at swap meet. All hubs were turned to a runout of +/- 0.001. The rotors were rivited and the assembly turned to +/- 0.001. We only had to remove a little from new rotors. After it was all back to gether. The brakes were broken in with a few easy stops and then we tried another from Speed and the owner said the car never stopped that good when it was new. I puchased all the NOS Delco pads from GM before they burried them in a landfill.
It seams that they did this on the advise from a Lawyer because they had several suits from old embloyees about asbestos contamination. 25,000 pad sets went into the land fill and a layer of concrete was poured over it all. Bad advice from a nit wit to a Harvard MBA.
Discusting.
This CEO of Delfi was asked to leave as they went in bankruptcy.Comment
-
Re: 1967 brake rotors & pads
Thanks Joe for the info regarding Raybestos. The Raybestos packaging box containing the disc brakes pads was labeled with their part #PGD8 and a notation that the pads are the ceramic type. That part number corresponded to the Raybestos catalog specification for their PG Plus brand of organic pads. I examined the pads which had a dark grey color with small slivers of a substance that resembled copper disbursed on the pad surface. I have previously used organic disc brake pads and the Raybestos pads having part #PGD8 presented to me did not look like organic pads. I am not an expert regarding brakes so maybe I am wrong. Thanks again!Comment
-
Re: 1967 brake rotors & pads
Leonard,
I hope that the quality of Raybestos doesn't go south. I replaced my OEM pads and rotors on a daily driver (not a Corvette) of mine about 3 years ago and have been very pleased. I too ordered their top of the line rotors and was sent fronts that were and backs that weren't along with the organic pads. As the fronts do most of the braking I decided to install what I was sent and have been very pleased with the performance after 35,000 miles of use. I had my mind set on using their products when needed in the future but now I may have to think otherwise.
WayneComment
Comment