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My car is a 1972. It's name is Sven and it's is pea soup green (Verona?). When I first got it in '89, it had what might have been a late 72 or a 73 engine (2 liter), and shortly afterwards, the gearbox blew.
In the early 90's I put a '76 FI - engine/gearbox, and used the single carb from the old engine. I didn't exactly know what I was doing then and shortly learned that there was incompatibility with the length of the '72 axles and the 76 transmission. The cv joints would be noisy around corners but it was worse on one side than the other, so I swapped one whole end with the 76/girling caliper, and had to adjust the tie rod end to reach it.
I actually drove the car a bit with an 72 Ate on one side and a 76 Girling on the other, but the Ate calipers were dying. I actually used a VW type 3 caliper (also Ate, and very similar, using the same pads, but with the bleed valve in a slightly different place) for a while on the Ate side, but I swear they used a slightly different thread for the hydraulic line (which is leading to my question)..
When I finally switched both sides of the front over to 76 axles and Girlings, I used the old Ate flexible lines and had to build those little 2 inch long curved brake lines with female end to fit one kind, and a male end to fit the later calipers. At some point, I had to replace the steering rack, and I don't remember if what I ended up using was a early 70's or late 70's 99 rack.. I think it's an early one because I remember that I could not find tie rod ends anywhere, and the tie rod ends are in rough shape (but the tie rod ends work)...
Anyway, The 76 calipers eventually went bad, and I have been upgrading to 85 900 calipers. I never paid much attention to the back brakes of any 99 or 900, but it just struck me that the late 99 and -->87 900 rear calipers are Ate and look a lot like the front ones on an early 70's 99. And I think the back ones on the 72 99 are like a smaller version of the front ones, though I don't know how far apart the bolts are that secure them on.
I know there was one (?) year of 99's that use Girlings on the back- but my question is this.. What fits what? and most importantly, and the threads for the brake lines different- or is that my imagination?
It looks like in the early 70's Ate made two sizes of the same design of brake caliper and used them on a bunch of different cars. For example early VW type 3's seem to use the smaller ones, and the later ones use the larger ones. I noticed that when I found a pile of decent VW pads that magically fit my early 70's 99's But getting back...
The rear calipers of the 72 are on their way out, and I don't have any of the same. Will 85 rear calipers bolt up? Or should i just throw some VW calipers on that fit? Does anyone know if there is a difference in threads? Or is this just my imagination? Will I have to make special brake lines to fit something or other? I have not swtiched the master cylider over to a later style 99 since it looks like the entire set up is not interchangable.. Also, I haven't really tried to make the handbrake work with either the older or the newer style cables. (I'm concentrating on the real brakes first)
Also, I once had to rebuild the Ate master cylinder to "Caroline", 73 99 4 door (which has all the original stock 4 speed, axles and brakes) and no one could get them for me! I went on a hunch and found that the guts to a 69 VW Bug (also Ate) were compatible, and easily available!
-Sven and Caroline
posted by 65.96.19...
, Wed, 13 Apr 2005 05:29:03, Fri, 15 Apr 2005 06:31:28
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