Dual Piston Calipers?

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:42 pm

I just went to put steel rims on my 92 SS for the winter only to find out they will not fit over the front calipers. they are dual piston ones that I have not seen before on my other turbos. My 94's both have single piston front and rear. Was this standard fror 92?

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:57 pm

All BC/BF turbos came with two-piston calipers and 276mm rotors on the front. If you have a turbo with the small front brakes someone must have switched them over at some point in the past.

You do need 15" wheels to clear stock Legacy Turbo brakes.

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:58 am

The rotors on all my turbo cars are the double disc ventilated type, and the n/a calipers do not fit over the turbo rotors. But only the 92 has the twin piston. The 94 cars will not accept the n/a calipers. and only have single pistons. I have three different calipers here: Narrow single piston on my 90 n/a.
Wide single piston on my 94 TW & 94 SS
Wide double piston on my 92 SS.
Are you sure all the turbos had double pistons? Where did the wide single piston ones come from? Are the rear turbo brakes suposed to be double piston also?
Frank

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:13 am

No, the rears are single, just wider to fit over the vented rear rotor.

Phil, if you see this thread, what did you have on your '94 ss up front before the rex brake swap. IIRC when we did your front pads at my house after the F&S they were the double piston calipers, weren't they?

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:18 am

Hmm. That sounds weird.

I don't know now. I didn't realize there were three types of front calipers. Let me see what I can dig up. In the meantime maybe someone who knows more about this than I do can chime in.

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:35 am

Nothing I have is ever normal

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:03 am

94 SS front caliper:

ALL Turbo Legacy's had 2 piston front calipers and 1 piston rear calipers. The 94SS and 94TW was no different than any other turbo vehicle. We all have 276.5x22mm front rotors. The part numbers for the rotors are the same from 1991 to 1994.

The wide single piston calipers probably came from the rear of a sedan or wagon, and you are mistaken. I know my car came with 2 piston front's, and unless FHI decided to make a 1994.5 mid-year cost cutting decision, your car has the same brakes. I can't think of ANY subaru that has had 1 piston front calipers.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:26 am

N/As and older cars are 1 piston calipers.

Steve

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:29 am

So it is possible to put rear calipers on the front as long as they are both turbo? The only difference would be single or double pistons? So than the three different calipers are:
n/a
turbo front
turbo rear
If this is right then I am not as confused as I was before.
I wish I had just one car that was like it was supposed to be!

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:36 am

Turbo rear and N/A wagon rear are the same. Would the rear mount in the front? I don't think they'd fit front rotors of either size even if they bolted up. My guess is you have N/A fronts.

Steve

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:53 am

The Turbo rears are wider to accept a vented rear rotor. The rear rotor part numbers are different between N/A's and Turbo's. Don't the N/A's have solid rear rotors?

No, it's not possible to put rear calipers on the front I don't think. Maybe, but I doubt it. Why would you want to?

If he had N/A fronts, wouldn't they easily fit under the wheels he was trying to use?

If, with the wheel off, your brake caliper looks similar to this:

Then you have 2 piston front calipers.

*Those are WRX front brakes, but it doesn't matter, both the Turbo Legacy and the WRX have 2 piston front calipers.*

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:45 am

All my turbo rotors are vented, an n/a caliper wouldn't fit on my car because it is too narrow to go over the double wide vented rotors.
Does everbody out there with a 91-94 turbo have dual piston calipers on the front?

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:59 am

Do you have a picture of your brake setup?

If 14" wheels will NOT fit, then you have 2 piston, Turbo legacy brakes.

If the 14" wheels DO fit, then you do NOT have the Turbo Legacy standard brakes.

Do your front calipers look like the setup I posted (second picture)?

If so, then you have 2 piston calipers. Your 94SS and your 92SS should have the same exact brakes.

If they don't, then your 94SS was swapped to the Non-Turbo front brake setup.

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 2:27 pm

Non-turbo front brakes still have vented rotors, they're just smaller in diameter.

If your front calipers are single piston then they almost have to be N/A IMO.

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:20 pm

I didn't know the n/a's came with vented rotors on the fronts, my 90L had the unvented type, when did they go to the vented type? I am gonna look at my daughters 99L and my wife's 98 OB and see what they got. I never owned a 92-94 n/a, ya think those were vented?

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:02 pm

They are all vented in the front (with the possible exception of the very rare cheap-ass one that had rear drums). The turbos were the only ones with vented rears. Sounds like someone did some cheap replacement brake work on these cars.

Steve

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:38 pm

Yeah, that makes perfect sence to me, I bought the 94 SS about a year ago, I picked it a few weeks after I paid for it and the brake pedal went to the floor. The brakes were fine when I paid for it, I think the guy switched them before I came back. Hard to believe, real nice guy.
The 94 TW I bought about 6 years ago, the previous owner said she had a lot of brake problems and showed me reciepts for haveing the calipers replaced..........you can guess the rest.
Thanks guys,
Frank

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:49 pm

Makes sense. I'm sure the turbo calipers would be difficult for your average person to source (and expensive).

Steve

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:42 pm

The turbo calipers wouldn't be THAT hard for your average person to source. Most vented Subaru calipers up front use a 22mm front disc. I'd imagine even an N/A BC or BF caliper would bolt to the turbo bracket.

Hell, our Turbo front brakes share the same front rotor as several other Subaru's. It's our REAR brakes that would be rare and difficult to find, since it's the only Subaru I know of to use vented rear rotors (save the STi). So you couldn't just use any regular caliper for the rear.

The fronts, could probably use an N/A caliper bolted to the Turbo bracket.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:50 pm

That's what I'm saying. It was probably easier and/or cheaper for that girl's mechanic to throw N/A calipers on than get turbo calipers. That would explain her statements about brake problems. Probably wore the pads past the backing plates and ate the calipers (women

). The mechanic probably said, the calipers were $$ and the rotors blah, blah, blah because this is a turbo, but I could probably get you the regular Legacy brakes and it would save you ... Typical stuff that a customer equates to big problems. I can just picture the sigh and the hand going to her lightly sweating forehead as she contemplates the final bill before asking what the price difference between the two options would be and then worrying about having weak brakes as if she were going to drive off the road for lack of them. Happens all the time. I love the people who worry their cars will catch fire if a light goes out.

Steve

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:57 pm

But the bracket is what determines the size of the front brake. I wouldn't be surprised if the caliper between the Turbo and the N/A had the same part number. Swap the N/A calipers onto Turbo brackets, and you can still use the 276.5mmx22mm rotors.... or at least that's what I'd think...

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:08 pm

Ah, I see what your saying (writing) now. That follows as the mechanic probably wouldn't bother changing the brackets and why 14s subsequently wouldn't fit.

Steve

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:59 pm

Exactly, but that doesn't explain why there are 1 piston calipers up front. I don't KNOW if the 1 piston front calipers would fit the brackets for the Turbo.

Bottom line: Your car came stock with 2 piston front calipers and 276.5mm x 22mm vented rotors. Somewhere along the line, you got shafted, or your brakes ARE 2 piston calipers, and you are mistaken.

Blackbart · Post by **Blackbart** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:27 pm

When I took the wheels off of the 92SS I said "WOW, two piston calipers!" I just now got finished changeing an axle shaft on the front of my 94SS and it has only one piston. They got swipped by the guy that sold me the car. I had noticed that he had painted all four calipers red, don't know why, the back ones are still red, the fronts are unpainted. He switched the diff also, it was an LSD now it isn't.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:04 am

94's were not available with a 3.9 LSD. It was always open. The LSD was standard in 91 on Turbo's, and optional on 92's IIRC. Not available on 93-94's. Sucks for me, as I run into teh traction problems, lol.

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Dual Piston Calipers?

Dual Piston Calipers?