I have an 88GT and have always had a leaky piston on the
passenger side rear. I always thought it was due to the little
valve on the piston top going bad. Since I have seen some
questions about rear brake caliper recall (due to leaks) for
, I think, model yrs 84-87. The recall parts include the piston
and spring along with the seals. The GM part number is
18019027.

I went to the dealer and asked about this. They tried to look
up the database for recalls and it was so old it would just come
back with a blank screen. They could even try to enter the recall
number to see. Oh well, that's too bad, as they seemed to be
acceptable in doing the work.

My question is will the piston from that recall rebuild kit work
for an 88 caliper??? My caliper is without rust and the bleed
screw is OK. so I don't want to replace the whole caliper if I
don't have to. I rebuild my calipers (seals) every few years.

I ordered the rebuild kit to see what piston it comes with.
If no one can tell me if it will work on my 88GT, then I will
pull the caliper and see if it looks like it fits and will work or
not. If not I'll take it back to the dealer and think about biting
the bullet and buy a reman caliper.

By the way, It was $55.79 with tax ($60 bucks), but the
list price was $75 bucks. Rebuilt calipers from the Fiero
store is $140 bucks.

Please let me know if you know anything about this rebuilt
kit. I forget who's post it was I read the info about the recall
parts.

I suspect you can rebuild (I'm not 100%). Next time you need Calipers for a Fiero check out http://www.calipersonline.com he has the rest of the Factory stock and is a great guy. You can also use Front Calipers on the rears, if you don't want/need the E-Brake

The recall information used to be at the Michigan Fiero Club site. The old link was michiganfieroclub.org which has changed to michiganfieroclub.com but the recall stuff is missing. Apparently some of their files were lost when a hard drive crashed. I made a copy of their brake recall page before the crash and its posted at http://members.cox.net/2dry4u/recall-86C16/recall2.html. That link will go away as soon as the info is reposted at the club site.

The 88 rear pistons are different. The GM part numbers were 3487562 (LR) and 3487563 (RR). The ACDelco numbers were 179-1136 and 179-1137. All of those numbers are now obsolete.

The rear pistons for the 84-87 are now listed as ACDelco 179-1208 & 179-1209, same as Firebird, Camaro and 6000 for the same years. (GM 18019241 & 18019242).

The 88's don't have the groove for the pad retainer clip but there may also be other differences.

[This message has been edited by spark1 (edited 04-05-2005).]

quote Originally posted by Larry Nakamura: I have an 88GT and have always had a leaky piston on the passenger side rear. My question is will the piston from that recall rebuild kit work for an 88 caliper???

Larry,

Nope. Won't work. The '88 pistons are larger than the other years. You can't use the ones from the recall kit.

The internal piston guts are the same across all years so if you get brave (and ignore GM's warnings), you could take all the pistons apart, clean out all the goo, and swap guts from one to the other. It's possible but it's a tricky job without special tooling.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... -Bruce at FTF

OK, Thanks for your help. I thought it might be
worth a try. Like I said I'll just tell them to reverse
the charges.

I guess I'll try and see if I can figure out the leak
I have. I'm pretty sure it's from the 2 way check
valve or maybe how it seats in the hole.

How about pluging up the hole with JB weld
(haha). Looks like I may be headed for a rebuilt
caliper as the fix.

The valve in the piston face is nothing but a dirt seal. If you have fluid from the valve then the piston has failed internally and cannot be repaired. (Unless you want to try what Bruce just mentioned but that's it.) Sealing the vent/valve hole will just cause other problems.

------------------
The only thing George Orwell got wrong was the year...

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

I went with calipersonline for my rear calipers on my 88. Mark is a great guy to work with. I have seen him at Fiero functions.

Update, I got a call from the parts guy at the dealer and
he said the parts are no longer available. He did a search
and there were non available in all of CA. So even though
the database showed it was available, it doesn't seem so.
Just as well, wouldn't have worked for me and was going
to cancel the order.