# Girling 60 caliper "upgrade"



## ZAppelMk2GLI (Jun 10, 2013)

I'm sure that a lot of you "old school" water cooled guys have heard about doing the switch from your typical Volkswagen Girling 45 caliper to the bigger, dual piston, Girling 60 caliper. Well, recently I have discovered that this "upgrade" is much more of a hassle than I would've ever thought. It started when I was bleeding the brakes on my mk2 gli; everything was going smooth until I reached the last wheel. I started to open the bleeder valve when I noticed it was very tight, too tight. So me, being the dummy that I apparently am, kept applying more pressure in hopes that it would break loose, but, it snapped off. I still had enough of the valve sticking out to get a set of vise-grips on it but it did nothing. I had never seen something frozen so tight into something in my life. So after realizing that it was going to work, I began looking for a new caliper. I searched and stumbled across a set of Girling 60, dual piston, calipers. I thought it was a good idea, and I was getting a good deal on them; so I bought them. The calipers I bought came with a TRW seal kit, brand new and never opened. I sand blasted the calipers and carriers to remove the surface rust from them. I never had experience with putting seals in calipers but I gave it a try. The first seal was basically trial and error, and I failed; ripping the seal slightly. Little did I know, it was going to be such an intense, money blowing, hassle to get the correct part that I ruined. I've done countless searches for them and still have not had a real strike of luck yet. Evidently you can buy them from VW but they're $76 for four small pieces of rubber, which is something that I couldn't really understand, or justify. So, I kept buying seal kits that said they were the right one I needed; but once the part arrived, bam, not even close; or just cheap junk. I found a site that, hopefully, carries what I need. But, my suggestion to you is. If you plan to do this upgrade, don't buy them unless they come with the rebuild kit, or if you already have the needed seals. It just amazes me that a part can be so difficult to find when it should't be, and that such a small part can keep an entire, two year, project from being completed. Maybe you'll have better luck with them than I have, but this is what happened to me when I thought it'd be a simple, affordable, and easy "upgrade". If you do end up with this problem just use the VW # 447 698 471 and see what you can come up with. I've seen so many different part numbers that I won't know which one is right until I receive the correct part, for once. I just purchased ones from World Impex; I hope that they are what I need. If I find out differently I will post and the CORRECT part number and a place to order them from.


----------



## petethepug (May 25, 2001)

My story about Girling 60 dual piston calipers ... and relevant part #s here 

I opted not to rebuild my calipers. I figured correctly that the knowledge base needed to rebuild these comes from hands on experience. The link above has links to get all the rebuild parts and is a great read.

Do you want the $70 core charge paperwork to mail rock auto back a set of Girling 60 calipers and brackets? LMK if it will help you recover any of your initial investment. I got a set girling 60 re pops from RockAuto Centic (with brackets) for $156.45. Centric rebuilt them. $70 of that is the core charge I can't get back since I'm not returning my cores.

If you still have another set of girling 60 that need to be rebuilt the dude below on eBay will rebuild them for cheap. The brackets are expensive if you don't buy them with the calipers. The eBay dude below gave me some rates if I sent in my own calipers that were fresh rebuilds.

"Hello, The powder coating is 42.00 per caliper. I have to take the caliper apart and rebuild it after its powder coated. This is an additional 60.00 each (30.00 to take apart and 30.00 to rebuild). The total would be 294.00 plus shipping. I'm not making any money on the powder coating, just the tear down and rebuild. It will take about a week to get them mailed out as the powder coating will be a three day process." 

I had him put another coat of clear powder coat on the color so I paid extra for clear p/c. So it was $294 for his labor to tear down, p/c color, p/c clear, assemble and ship. A total of $434.45 that includes the $156.45 for the Centric calipers & brackets from RockAuto. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/7777-19-988...Parts_Accessories&hash=item51be2d36e4&vxp=mtr
http://www.ebay.com/itm/7778-19-989...Parts_Accessories&hash=item51be2d36dc&vxp=mtr

Just got these back in the mail from him today ... If anyone is ever wondering how much these weigh .. 

Girling 60 are 13lb ea, including the bracket. g60/VR6 rotors are 12.6/12.7lb. The next larger size of oe VW brakes is ... 
DE (driver edition), single piston calipers at 20lb *not *including the bracket. The rotors are 17lb


----------



## ZAppelMk2GLI (Jun 10, 2013)

I tried the Rock Auto site because I was referred to it. I hadn't heard of it prior to all this. I ordered a set using the correct part number, it also had a picture of the correct seals. When it arrived in the mail, it was very much the opposite. I'm about to look into a site that my buddy that works at a hydraulic shop referred me to. It's biggred.com they seem to have a lot of things appropriate to my problem. 


Thanks- Zach


----------



## ZAppelMk2GLI (Jun 10, 2013)

I used high temp caliper paint after thoroughly cleaning them. I'm happy with it. Powder coating would be nicer though. 


Thanks- Zach


----------



## suburbangeorge (Apr 24, 2004)

Looks like these guys have them http://www.discountbrakes.com/shop/?N=0&VN=4294967146+4294966641+4294966541+4294967132+4294966538&Nr=AND(category:Brake,universal:0)&Ntt=brake+caliper+repair+kits

I still own a few TRW kits which will rebuild a pair. These say one kit per calper and their kit looks like half of mine.


----------

