Caliper seals

[matt_vfr]

Ive just stripped my front calipers apart ready for freshening up. Looking at seals, the whole lot from DSS will be over £50 by the time you include vat and postage, but there is a guy on ebay flogging some nikone ones for £12 a side! Anyone had any experience with these, or is it best just to play it safe and get genuine honda ones from DSS?

Cheers, Matt

[Neosophist]

Not used 3rd party caliper seals before, i've not had good results with the fork seals though.

If you think about it, your calipers are probably still on the original seals, so 20+ years from a set of genuine ones isn't bad at all.

You might be saving 1/2 the money but if you have to do it twice, not including time you'll be worse off.

£50.00 doesn't sound too bad.. it was nearly 2x that for the ZXR calipers

When your doing the brakes, make sure everythings spotless.. apply a smear of red rubber grease on the seals and piston before re-assembling, makes things much easier.

[ibby4585]

Is that just the fronts matt? 50quid? I'm just stripping mine today and debating whether to replace the seals or not! The pistons seem ok.
Kris

[matt_vfr]

Well i'll eventually be doing the rear too, but for now all ive stripped is the front... one of them was well and truly shagged... i need to replace at least 1 piston as it was such a shit to get out i ended up damaging it So if anyone reading this has any spare pistons in good nick, drop me a pm please :)

They are all going to be sandblasted and powdercoated, freshly rebuilt with all new seals, red rubber greased, new 5.1 fluid, new braided hoses etc, will be like new :D I was just going to get everything from DSS and then i made the fatal mistake of adding up the potential bill and got cold feet, but i guess ill just have to grit my teeth and do it!

And yes, they were the original seals Neo!

Cheers, Matt

[ibby4585]

yeah its costly, Am i right in thinking there are two seals per piston the larger one is fluid seal and slim one is a dust/crap seal??

Kris

[matt_vfr]

Yeh, thats right for the fronts. Not sure about the rear but i would have thought it to be the same!

[Neosophist]

Yes there the same.

Pistons are easy to get out when you know the tricks

Compressed air is dangerous but your friend here....

If you use compressed air where the fluid used to go it will force the pistons out.. often you have to cable tie the loose pistons in a little as they will always pop out first (and pop out with force they do. had them shoot across the room when i've falied to secure them properly.)

Saves damaging pistons though :-)

[matt_vfr]

Alas i dont have a compressor (its on the list) so i had to find alternatives; i got them as far out as possible using the brake lever, then tried the 2 bolts and a nut trick i read off here and that failed miserably! In the end i got some thin wood and cut it into small bits, then put them either side of the wall and pulled them out with pliers!

One was very stuck, even tried a heat gun etc and to no avail... eventually came out with a lot of force and perseverance but the wall of the piston is tad damaged on the outside at the very top, its probably still ok but i'd rather not risk it!

Matt