feasablilty of a caliper rebuild

My front brakes are leaking from somewhere, and although I haven't really dug in there yet to find it (hoping its a loose fitting or something easy), I thought I'd ask about rebuilding the front caliper. I've seen posts about rebuild kits, and I was wondering how much they run and how easy it is to do. Any thoughts from the experts?

Lohnair

'82 XJ550 Seca

 

I rebuilt my caliper with a Yamaha OEM kit.
Included the Piston and both seals and lube.
It was an easy job and now I have confidence in my front brake.
The kit I bought was arount $50 or so.

 

I rebuilt mine replacing only the seals and it cost me $16. easy job. The only hard parts are removing the piston and bleeding the system. If you have a good air compressor the piston removal is easy. If you know someone with a Mity-Vac then bleeding the system is easy. Speed bleeders are a good investment if you don't have the Mity-Vac. With the equipment on have this could be done in an afternoon. If you had one of our Gurus there ....2 hours tops!

 

My Max has dual fronts. When I picked her up from the PO both sides were acting like they were welded closed.

I took-off the whole works ... hooked 'em up to my 900 to move-out the pistons ... and completely re-built both of those two calipers all the way down to the brass tack.

I pulled everything apart. Sanded the mounts. Primed 'em and painted them with some Ferrari red. Pulled the caliper off the slider. Cleaned it all up. New O-rings for the travel arm. New seals for the piston. TEAC Reel to reel Rubber Pinch-roller Re-conditioner-ed the Dust Cover.

Then ... stripped-off the paint and polished both calipers!
The Piston Seals were from OldBikeBarn.com
The small O-rings were right out of the drawer at the hardware store ... 25-cents each.

 

Nice work, Rick!
You do like to polish things, don't you? 8)

 

i'm wondering, where did you get that kit from? @ $50, that couldn't be from the dealer... right?

 

I know XJ JoJo brought a kit from the dealer for similar money. I also know that he found a kit online for much cheaper and would have been happier to have done it himself. Cheaper and the experience.

 

Rick, Nice work!!!

Max, I have never heard the term speed bleeders, what are they?

 

speed bleeders are basically one way check valve bleeders that replace the factory bleed valve

it makes the bleeding process so much easier, because all you need to do is pump the lever and the system will auto keep out all the air. google speed bleeders for the website, i believe it is 7 bucks for a pair of them, not a bad deal for the labor it saves

 

Ok this is going to sound really stupid coming from someone who has been working on all kinds of mechanical equipt for over 35 yrs. (I'm 53)
I've worked on everything from cars, motorcycles, trucks (heavy and light) Aircraft recip engines, earth moving equipt....

WOW!!!!

I often thought there should be something like this!!!!!

Too bad I didn't invent it!
I'd have just lost it to some crook patent attorney or something anyway.

Guess I'll just have to reap the benifit by using them!!

 

I rebuilt mine several times and didn't need any parts. They usually just need to be cleaned and bled unless a seal or something is damaged.