Front brake pins and spreaders help, Front Brake Help Options

[North Coast Jim]

My project car has been running great for 3 years now and 5300 miles of spirited driving. Even made the last Teenerfest and ran the Tail of the dragon !!

Front brake performance has fallen off dramatically and upon inspection found that the spreader is holding the brake pads from closing on the disk. Ordered another set of pins and spreaders for a late 914 from Stoddards and received a set of pins and spreaders that do not work with my calipers. Upon review of other parts suppliers websites these are the parts I should be using.

See pic. The items on the car presently are shown at the top. Pin is 3.040" long and the vertical part of the spreader is "wide". The entire brake system was purchased from PMB
in late 2015 and has performed flawlessly until now. Calipers were stated as being for a "late 914". When I try and install the new parts the spreader impinges on the OD of the rotor and will not turn. Hard to install as well.

What hardware do I need ?? Thanks to the Brain Trust

[914Sixer]

Are you running -6 M calipers?

[fixer34]

My project car has been running great for 3 years now and 5300 miles of spirited driving. Even made the last Teenerfest and ran the Tail of the dragon !!

Front brake performance has fallen off dramatically and upon inspection found that the spreader is holding the brake pads from closing on the disk. Ordered another set of pins and spreaders for a late 914 from Stoddards and received a set of pins and spreaders that do not work with my calipers. Upon review of other parts suppliers websites these are the parts I should be using.

See pic. The items on the car presently are shown at the top. Pin is 3.040" long and the vertical part of the spreader is "wide". The entire brake system was purchased from PMB
in late 2015 and has performed flawlessly until now. Calipers were stated as being for a "late 914". When I try and install the new parts the spreader impinges on the OD of the rotor and will not turn. Hard to install as well.

What hardware do I need ?? Thanks to the Brain Trust

Just a flyer here, but were the fronts upgraded to vented rotors? The lower pins/springs look to be for stock non-vented.
In any case, I believe the original spreader spring center piece is/was too wide, that is why the pads were (most likely) hitting them. The long center piece should be no wider than the rotor itself.

[North Coast Jim]

Are you running -6 M calipers?

Purchased from PMB in Dec of 2015. They were reported to be "late 914" calipers. Don't know what a -6M calipers is.

[North Coast Jim]

My project car has been running great for 3 years now and 5300 miles of spirited driving. Even made the last Teenerfest and ran the Tail of the dragon !!

Front brake performance has fallen off dramatically and upon inspection found that the spreader is holding the brake pads from closing on the disk. Ordered another set of pins and spreaders for a late 914 from Stoddards and received a set of pins and spreaders that do not work with my calipers. Upon review of other parts suppliers websites these are the parts I should be using.

See pic. The items on the car presently are shown at the top. Pin is 3.040" long and the vertical part of the spreader is "wide". The entire brake system was purchased from PMB
in late 2015 and has performed flawlessly until now. Calipers were stated as being for a "late 914". When I try and install the new parts the spreader impinges on the OD of the rotor and will not turn. Hard to install as well.

What hardware do I need ?? Thanks to the Brain Trust

Just a flyer here, but were the fronts upgraded to vented rotors? The lower pins/springs look to be for stock non-vented.
In any case, I believe the original spreader spring center piece is/was too wide, that is why the pads were (most likely) hitting them. The long center piece should be no wider than the rotor itself.

Understand the too wide spreader issue. The reason I'm trying to replace them. Rotors a stock non vented.

[davep]

The upper spreader is for vented rotors and certainly not suited for non-vented rotors as you have found. I could trade you for the proper spreader for a late 914/4 caliper.

[fixer34]

Having had somewhat similar issues with spreader springs, I'm thinking the non-OEM design is contributing to the problem of it jamming against the rotor. See if you can find springs that are 'folded' at the end rather than the inverted 'U' shape in the center.

But that doesn't answer the question about the pin length. I assume the top/longer one fit the caliper just fine? So the new/shorter one would not retain the pads or spring properly.

[fiacra]

Don't know if this helps, but here are some pictures of the PMB restored front caliper and PMB supplied spreader I just installed in my 1975 1.8. The pin length is shown in the pictures. It fits fine. I have the old pins in place temporarily as I somehow lost the clips for the new pins.

Some pictures of your calipers/rotors would help to confirm the set up on your car. Calling PMB for some advice/help is also not a bad idea.

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

there are early and late kits, the late ones have wider cross clips

My project car has been running great for 3 years now and 5300 miles of spirited driving. Even made the last Teenerfest and ran the Tail of the dragon !!

Front brake performance has fallen off dramatically and upon inspection found that the spreader is holding the brake pads from closing on the disk. Ordered another set of pins and spreaders for a late 914 from Stoddards and received a set of pins and spreaders that do not work with my calipers. Upon review of other parts suppliers websites these are the parts I should be using.

See pic. The items on the car presently are shown at the top. Pin is 3.040" long and the vertical part of the spreader is "wide". The entire brake system was purchased from PMB
in late 2015 and has performed flawlessly until now. Calipers were stated as being for a "late 914". When I try and install the new parts the spreader impinges on the OD of the rotor and will not turn. Hard to install as well.

What hardware do I need ?? Thanks to the Brain Trust

[87m491]

[/quote]

Understand the too wide spreader issue. The reason I'm trying to replace them. Rotors a stock non vented.
[/quote]

Dremel/tin snip 3/16s off each side of the spreader spring, issue solved?

[neilbardsley]

My project car has been running great for 3 years now and 5300 miles of spirited driving. Even made the last Teenerfest and ran the Tail of the dragon !!

Front brake performance has fallen off dramatically and upon inspection found that the spreader is holding the brake pads from closing on the disk. Ordered another set of pins and spreaders for a late 914 from Stoddards and received a set of pins and spreaders that do not work with my calipers. Upon review of other parts suppliers websites these are the parts I should be using.

See pic. The items on the car presently are shown at the top. Pin is 3.040" long and the vertical part of the spreader is "wide". The entire brake system was purchased from PMB
in late 2015 and has performed flawlessly until now. Calipers were stated as being for a "late 914". When I try and install the new parts the spreader impinges on the OD of the rotor and will not turn. Hard to install as well.

What hardware do I need ?? Thanks to the Brain Trust

May I ask how you released the springs were stopping the pads from gripping the disc? Where the springs bent or damaged?