Brake Caliper Puzzle

[litlgeezer]

Can anyone suggest why these two housings are different. The 'secondary plate' is not parallel to the housing face in the second picture. Is the housing in the second picture a manufacturing fluke where they did a poor job of machine work?

[panheaddale]

What?

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by litlgeezer

Can anyone suggest why these two housings are different. The 'secondary plate' is not parallel to the housing face in the second picture. Is the housing in the second picture a manufacturing fluke where they did a poor job of machine work?

Looks like they're cast, with machined surfaces only where they make contact with another part. Not really a manufacturing defect; looks like it can be fixed by using the appropriate shims (thin spacers) to make it parallel.

[litlgeezer]

Protagonist, You may be right about the shim. As you see in the photos, I already had to fab some shims to take the new oversized disc pads that were sent to me. Hopefully, shimming the 'd' side will correct this problem (see attached photo). Being a former machinist, I was a little put out at the obvious poor machining job done on this caliper. Thanks for your suggestion. Now to shim it just enough to get the face plates parallel as much as possible.