Tom F&L GoR
Enthusiast
Many know I convert the OEM 36mm rear brake caliper to 38mm or 40mm. The hard part in this project is finding cores. Lots of you want to keep your old calipers, even when you upgrade to a StopTech 4 wheel system, because you need it as a parking brake. Here's some infomation I've found that may eventually help someone.
The same Brembo caliper design is also used on the Dodge Monaco/Eagle Premier, Lotus Esprit and lots of Renault vehicles. The difference between the Viper and Eagle caliper is that the bridge over the rotor is shorter. The distance you have to fit the pads and rotor is 30mm for the Viper, 20mm for the Eagle. (There is another difference, the cast boss for the bolt to hold down the brake line is removed, but that could be worked around.)
Therefore, if someone had a really crummy set of Viper calipers and wanted to have a fresh caliper for the parking brake, you could get the Eagle calipers ($122 each; $72 + $50 core at RockAuto.com) and use half-worn Viper pads for your parking brake. The pads would have to be worn about 5mm each, which reduces the total pad thickness (including backing plate) by about a third or roughly half the pad material. Using Eagle calipers would be an easy fix if your old calipers had torn dust boots or caliper slide dust boots, you lost some little hardware pieces while things sat around, or whatever the circumstance. The only other option is a replacement set of Viper calipers, since the service manual does not tell you how to do this. (If you want to attempt it, send me a note and I will send you my rebuild instructions.)
The year to look for is a 1990 Dodge Monaco/Eagle Premier with rear disc brakes. If this leads anyone to have a pair of Viper calipers left over, please let me know, I'd always be interested in buying them from you. Thanks.
This is the Eagle caliper; sharp eyes will note the pin holding the pads is shorter than the Viper version and the boss (below the parking brake arm in the top image) is very short.
EDIT: I should add this is an option for the 4 wheel kit and when you need to relocate the OEM caliper to use it as a parking brake. To use it as the only parking brake would not be a good idea, since you'd always have thin pads.
The same Brembo caliper design is also used on the Dodge Monaco/Eagle Premier, Lotus Esprit and lots of Renault vehicles. The difference between the Viper and Eagle caliper is that the bridge over the rotor is shorter. The distance you have to fit the pads and rotor is 30mm for the Viper, 20mm for the Eagle. (There is another difference, the cast boss for the bolt to hold down the brake line is removed, but that could be worked around.)
Therefore, if someone had a really crummy set of Viper calipers and wanted to have a fresh caliper for the parking brake, you could get the Eagle calipers ($122 each; $72 + $50 core at RockAuto.com) and use half-worn Viper pads for your parking brake. The pads would have to be worn about 5mm each, which reduces the total pad thickness (including backing plate) by about a third or roughly half the pad material. Using Eagle calipers would be an easy fix if your old calipers had torn dust boots or caliper slide dust boots, you lost some little hardware pieces while things sat around, or whatever the circumstance. The only other option is a replacement set of Viper calipers, since the service manual does not tell you how to do this. (If you want to attempt it, send me a note and I will send you my rebuild instructions.)
The year to look for is a 1990 Dodge Monaco/Eagle Premier with rear disc brakes. If this leads anyone to have a pair of Viper calipers left over, please let me know, I'd always be interested in buying them from you. Thanks.
This is the Eagle caliper; sharp eyes will note the pin holding the pads is shorter than the Viper version and the boss (below the parking brake arm in the top image) is very short.
EDIT: I should add this is an option for the 4 wheel kit and when you need to relocate the OEM caliper to use it as a parking brake. To use it as the only parking brake would not be a good idea, since you'd always have thin pads.
