Odd Rear Calipers

[mk28vpb91]

My handbrake has a lot of travel and I was poking around the back of the car yesterday to see what I could do about it. As everything is working at the moment and it was raining I didn't want to take anything apart as I need to make a few journeys over Christmas (I have a habit of finding (creating  ) more problems when I work on cars).

One thing I noticed was that the rear calipers are not matched at the back. The one on the nearside has a spring on it (looks like the picture in Haynes), the one on the offside has no spring that I could see easily without getting under the car. The way the levers on the calipers pivot looks very different. The offside lever looks it moves in the same plane as the wheels.

I did have a look at the cable at the handbrake lever (wasn't raining inside the car; not today anyway). The cable for the nearside had a lot more slack than the offside cable.

I'm thinking that the car has suffered from a seized caliper in the past and that someone replaced the assembly with a different type. Do I have a Mk3 caliper on one of the wheels? I assume that the one that doesn't match the picture in Haynes would be the odd one out. Is it dangerous to have a mix (it doesn't look right)? Any ideas?

Cheers,
Max (91 Mk2 8V)

[mk1]

Looks like you have a mix of early and late calipers. Best to match them as the pads are different and iirc the piston in the late caliper is a different size. There has been a lot of talk on the forum about fitting mk3 calipers on, as these are a better design. May be worth getting a s/hand pair and be done with poor hand brake performance, sticking levers etc.
Steve.

[golfvr6]

Yep sounds like a mix. One of them is probably seized.