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Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:37 am
by thunderace
Does anyone know if any other calipers will fit the NC24 without me changing the forks?
Trying to get a pair of front calipers is proving a fecking nightmare

Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:53 am
by Neosophist
Why not just rebuild them.
It'll cost you abuot £40 to rebuild a set of NC24 calipers using genuine Honda parts, that with minimal maintainance will last a long time.
They have plastic pistons so there never usually a problem.
Main issue is that the sliders dry out due to lack of maintainance, and / or the wrong types of grease and sieze solid.
http://www.jacksons-lair.co.uk/caliper.html
NC24 caliper build guide.
And for your orignal question.
CBR400 and CBR600F calipers are all the 2 piston sliding, the 400 probably being most likely to fit.
However, you face buying a set of calipers and having to rebuild them sooner or later anyway...
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:40 am
by thunderace
Reason I asked is that on the FNS caliper, part of the outer seal rim has broken away. I've noticed that the NC21 and NC24 brakes are the same but NC30 are different, one piece and non sliding. Will NC30 calipers fit without any mods to the forks or discs? There are hundreds going cheap on the bay.
Got pipped by 2p on a pair of NC24 on eBay the other day

There are others but the smegger wants £65 for them.
I'm going to see if the wife can get some pistons machined up once I've got the current ones out. The OE ones have all got loose and battered caps and they leak so much that I can't force them out with fluid so it looks as though I'm going to end up drilling and tapping them to pull them out
Once that's done, I'm hoping I can re-build the rim with metal putty. It only holds the outer seal so it should be more than strong enough.
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:09 pm
by Neosophist
Ah the dust seal.
Yep you should be able to rebuild that.
The pistons are plastic.. the end-caps don't matter too much... theres a resin / wood type thing under them that holds them on, you can just glue them back on... compressed air is great for getting pistons out.
Put a bolt in the brake fluid input, loosen the bleed nipple and 8 bar of air and boom!
Keep fingers well clear, once once piston comes out, push it back in lightly to make a seal and cable tie it in place so it wont shoot out, this will force the other one out too...
The NC30 calipers are awesome, 300x better than the NC24 ones * (if they have good seals in them)
But they wont' fit.
Fork mounts are totaly different, discs are too small, the NC24 fork operates the anti-dive too.
Theres some cheap seal kits on ebay £6.99 a side! Non honda though..
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-VFR-400-NC2 ... 3f02f57ee4
full system inc hoses for £60? Braided lines too which isn't bad considering those are £60 on their own.
If you still have the original 20 year old rubber hoses i'd defiantly consider that.. throw in a couple of seal kits and your good to go.
Be glad you dont have a ZXR or NC30, they have 8 pistons instead of 4, twice as many seals and pistons.
Fortuantly all of my ZXR pistons are spotless, did take lots of compressed air to get them out.
Rebuilt them on Saturday....
£75 for Kawasaki Tokiko pads
£38 for 8 dust seals
£46 for 8 fork oil seals
Not cheap :/
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:18 pm
by thunderace
So a re-build of the alu is do-able then. Phew!
I managed to get some genuine Honda seal kits for £5 per caliper (ask no questions, etc)
The £60 system I saw on the bay included the OE rubber hoses which didn't look as good as the hoses I have currently (I doubt they are original ones, they look to fresh. No cracks at all in the rubber and no age related stains). I'll take a look at the one you have linked, or rather I'll see if the wife will buy them on my behalf. I better be a good boy for a while if she agrees
The way things are going, I doubt I'll be selling the NC24, ever! I'll have to get quite a few miles on the clock to get my money's worth out of it

Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:13 pm
by Neosophist
lol. bottomless pits!
Good price on the seal kits, did you get the 'boot a / boot b' which are the slider seals, these are the most important as you need a good seal on the sliders to keep the grease in and the shit out, otherwise they will sieze up in no time.
the only maintanace you shjould need after that for a good wihle is a good cleaning every 6 months or so, DONT use harsh chemicals like WD40, petrol etc anywhere near the rubbers else they'll swell up and go nuts.. just some detergent water should be fine.
Make sure you check theres still grease in the sliders.
I rebuild some sliders of similar design on an XBR 3 or 4 years ago and they still work like new now that there owned by somebody who looks after them :)
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:26 am
by thunderace
The sliders have been previously modified with nylon (I think) sleeves

They seem to work fine but I'll get them back to standard fitment once the sleeves wear out. Can't justify spending to fix something that works right now. For now I'll just keep them greased up with lithium grease, that should be fine on nylon.
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:21 am
by Neosophist
fair enough.. 'nylon' sounds like a bit of a bodge job by the previous owner..
Breaks are probably the most important thing on the bike though.. no good going anywhere, even rolling if you can't stop.
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:08 pm
by thunderace
I take your point
I'm just concerned with getting it through the MOT for now. Over the winter I 'm going to look into changing the front forks anyway for a pair that have all three adjustments, and get rid of the anti-dive at the same time.
Re: Front Calipers - NC24
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 2:07 pm
by Neosophist
Isn't that a bit over-kill?
Bike won't be worth much and rides pretty fine on the standard equipment.
If you do have more money than sense
....
NC29 (CBR400RR 41mm fork tubes)
These are LONGER than the NC30 fork tubes but same diameter.. there very close to the NC24 length.
NC29 Yokes too. (as well as bars and switchgear)
NC30 Lower Legs, these will fit the NC29 fork tubes... and let you use the better NC30 brakes, wheel and disk.
You'll need some wheel spacers but it can be done.