Are brake callipers sided?

Hi just wondering if the brake callipers fitted to the van are sided? They are Ate callipers with the two bleed nipples.

Cheers

 

Apparently if they have 2 bleed nipples then they are not sided, if they come with just one then they are as the bleed nipple needs to be at the top when fitted.

I put replacement ATE calipers on my bus last year - they were handed.

 

WHS

 

I just put new calipers on from vwheritage and they only had one bleed nipple but I swear the boxes they were in would have meant putting the nipples at the bottom, I didn't by the way.

 

To bleed a one nipple caliper just turn it upside down ,put something in the middle to replicate the disc..

ALL calipers can be fitted to either side..

 

I often wondered why there are two nipples as the lower one is never used for bleeding. So it's just on that particular item they don't need to make left and right handed versions - obvious really!

 

I thought they were sided because the top bolt with the shoulder only fits through the top hole?

 

I thought it was added to allow fluid from the whole caliper to be bled.

 

I'd always vaguely assumed the two-nipple ATEs weren't sided, but you may be right...the bolt shoulders may be different. Or not. I forget.

 

Looking at Haynes and other books, plus the JO DIY video, and they all suggest that the Calipers are sided. As others say here, the bolts are different sizes.

 

JK (flippin auto correct! )

 

We had a similar debate a few months ago and I couldn't work out how lost-en-France managed to fit them without tipping the van upside down. Hadn't thought of taking them off at the time!

 

Presumably (though i've never tested this) the top and bottom nipples are connected and any air would rise to the top. I've never bled both, only the top one, so why is there the bottom nipple given that a lot of calipers only have the one, at the top. If my theory about left and right handedness doesn't bear fruit, why two nipples? I'm only curious.

One possibility I thought of may be that these calipers are designed to fit a lot of different cars, so if you drive an Austin Allegro, you may need to bleed it out the bottom for whatever reason.

 

I've got a book which has a year by year production survey and I checked it last night to make sure I wasn't imagining the second bleed nipple thing, and apparently the second nipple was added part way through the '71 model year to allow fluid to be bled from the whole caliper.
I guess there's little symmetrical difference apart from the diameter of the holes which is what makes them handed, I guess you could use one 'upside down' if you didn't use a shouldered bolt at the top, but that's not a good idea.
I'd quite like an allegro