Technical AIRHEART A Caliper

Can anyone identify this caliper and if a repair kit or parts are available? "AIRHEART A" They are on a Pro-Stock Drag Car from the mid 70's

 

Original Airheart parts are made of unobtanium but you can source the o-rings from any good supply house. Naturally you will want to be sure they are compatible with your brake fluid. Speedway Motors has brake pucks for those.
I’m on my way out but I’ll scan and post a sketch later of two helpful tools for rebuilding those.

 

Look up some vintage motorcycle places have replacement parts for certain models of those.

 

Bump

 

Here are the Airheart instructions and also dimensions for the disassembly/assembly tools-



The protector sleeves referenced shown on the diagram could be the hardest of all to find, I've made new ones from correctly sized rubber, and even silicone tubing. I guess their function is to keep dust and dirt from entering the caliper halves and fouling the o-rings.

 

Thank you

 

Check with Wilwood, their single puck caliper is pretty much the same as the Airheart.

 

No affiliation, but I found this: REBUILD KIT

 

Smaller, I think that’s for go-kart applications.

 

Similar, but no parts interchange and would need different caliper brackets if OP switched to those.

 

Put some pressure to them and see if they work, they're rugged and durable, might not need rebuilding at all. I think I've got a few of them laying around along with the floater brackets etc if you need some.

 

I have a set from an old rail dragster project.

 

FYI: EPDM seals are compatible with brake fluid (Dot 3/4).

 

Thanks, GH

Hello,

Out on the West Coast, a couple of custom builders got a set of Halibrand Spoke Wheels, machined all of the parts and adapted the Airheart Disc Brakes for the custom motorcycles. It was outstanding as the parts were nowhere to be found. So, the owner machined all of the attachments and braces to make a very clean build of the first Airheart Disc Brakes on a custom motorcycle.

They were primarily on the front wheels, but soon, they were adapted to the rear wheels for better stopping power. The fronts were the most used since they take up most of the braking action on motorcycles and cars.

Others had disc brakes pilfered from foreign cars, but no one had them on motorcycles as yet. When the discs started showing up, they were the copied varieties from those small foreign cars and looked good. At the time, no one had discs on hot rods unless they were race cars for the drags only.

Jnaki

Most of the spoke wheels ran without brakes on competition cars. But, for the street, some folks adapted them with add on disc brakes. But, that is a choice one makes… YRMV

 

Thanks