Frey Bentos Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Howdy chaps. Just wonderin' like. The calipers on my 1100gs are pretty fucking manky. I take em down every so often and give them a rough clean but I would love to take them off completely and strip them and clean the fuck out of them. I read somewhere where a bloke doing this on a jap bike popped the pistons out on purpose to clean and then put them back in again. Is this something to be avoided? Is it a figment of my imagination that somebody done this deliberately and in actual fact it is something to be avoided at all costs as to the dificulty in getting the bastards back in again. Thoughts please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budda Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Its not the problem most expect mate, just polish em up with a clean cloth and some brake fluid then clean the seals the same way and pop em back in. If yer anywhere near the Peterborough area next week I'll do it for ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpyduck Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Piece of piss, done it loads of times, you need to DIY or you will never learn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chancho196 Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Yeah it's easier than you think. Pump them out with the brake lever until you see them "tip" as they leave the caliper. Clean the piston(s) up with rag and WD40, even fine (600/800) wet and dry if they have slight corrosion. Clean around the inside of the caliper with clean rag and brake fluid (you don't want to get solvent on the seals) and refit the clean piston coated in either brake fluid or red rubber grease. It'll slide in easily if it's at the correct angle (turn the piston as you insert). Normally I would fit a brake pipe clamp to rubber hoses to stop losing all of the fluid (usually when working on a car) because it's easier to get them bled afterwards but is certainly not necessary. If you use rubber grease, expect to see the brake fluid come out red for a while when you bleed and flush the system. Job jobbed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kawafookin636 Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 If yer anywhere near the Peterborough area next week I'll do it for ya. Not on Tuesday though mate, I'll have taken up all the workshop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomfoolery Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Tis a bit fiddly, but follow the Gaynes and it's straightforward. The Brembos on the GS are a piece of piss to work on, lovely calipers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gurninman Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yeah it's easier than you think. Pump them out with the brake lever until you see them "tip" as they leave the caliper. Clean the piston(s) up with rag and WD40, even fine (600/800) wet and dry if they have slight corrosion. Clean around the inside of the caliper with clean rag and brake fluid (you don't want to get solvent on the seals) and refit the clean piston coated in either brake fluid or red rubber grease. It'll slide in easily if it's at the correct angle (turn the piston as you insert). Normally I would fit a brake pipe clamp to rubber hoses to stop losing all of the fluid (usually when working on a car) because it's easier to get them bled afterwards but is certainly not necessary. If you use rubber grease, expect to see the brake fluid come out red for a while when you bleed and flush the system. Job jobbed. Wot e said - it's an easy job (bit of a bastard on Tok 6 pots, mind cos they are shite) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorenzo Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 You'll find that as you pump them out one or two want to come more than the others. Wodge something in there to stop just one popping out and leaving the others left in there. A big fat screwdriver's especially good for this. A screwdriver, being wodged, yesterday. Depending upon what sort of layout your brakes are (4 pot, 2 pistons opposing each other perhaps?) you might need to split the caliper itself to get all 4 pistons out at once. This is a reet bummer to do as the bolts holding them together can be really tough. Once a caliper's in halves it's quite easy to work on and stuff. If a piston's got a bit of corrosion on there, get some 1200 grade wet and dry and simply rub it round a bit, polishing the corrosion off. If it's proper corrosion, lumpy and stuff, then it'll probably be new piston time. As for seals, you'll have 2 per piston, an outer dust seal and a inner fluid seal. The fluid seal needs to be OK, and 99% of the time it is, it'll be the dust seal that'll get gunged up with grot and corrosion. You can take the piss a bit with the dust seal, just scrape the crud out of it and stick it back in. So long as it hasn't swollen and stretched really badly then you can usually use it again. Of course, this assumes that you decide to completely strip them down; you might just want to pump th epstons out 90% of the way, clean up what you can see, then put them back in. This means you don't have the faff of bleeding them afterwards too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budda Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Not on Tuesday though mate, I'll have taken up all the workshop You already have ya wee bugger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kawafookin636 Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 You already have ya wee bugger. Oh, I haven't even started yet . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frey Bentos Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Cheers chaps. Will have a bash at it when the time comes. @Budda, Thanks for the offer but im in the west of ireland. Could you not come over and do it for me?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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