Bikes, Hints'n'Tips > Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner

General techniques: Cleaning brake pistons.

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roxburd:
I've gotta share this coz I'm dead chuffed with how well it works!! Maybe it's well-known already but I'd never heard of it so here goes.


I was cleaning up my front brake calipers coz the right-hand one had started to drag a bit. Haynes has its usual text - push the pistons out a little and clean the edges up so you don't push any crap back under the seal when you push the pistons back inside the caliper. But while you can get to most of the piston edges, on some parts the clearance between the side of the piston and the caliper body is minute - maybe less than a millimeter. My brush sure wouldn't go in there! And there was plenty of crap that needed shifting. I couldn't rotate the pistons either. The technique I used was this:


Get some thin material (mine was an old shirt). Tear off a strip about 5mm wide. Use brake & clutch cleaning fluid. Thread the strip of material into the gap and work it back-and-forth round the piston. That's it - works a treat. Cleaned up the piston and the caliper body around it. Pistons pushed back into the caliper a treat. Lovely jubbly.


So like I said, maybe everyone does this already but hey, if not, give it a go next time.

coffee:
Defo try that next time ;)

stevierst:
The simple ones are normally the best, I’ll give that one a go next time it’s brakes service time 👍

robbo:
A useful tool if you maintain your own brakes, is a set of Sealey VS1806 Brake Piston Removal Pliers, cheapest I've seen is £12.50 from Tools4Trade. These would allow you to turn the piston during maintenance/cleaning etc, so the entire leading edge surface can be visually checked.

roxburd:

--- Quote from: robbo on 23 October 2018, 09:33:41 am ---A useful tool if you maintain your own brakes, is a set of Sealey VS1806 Brake Piston Removal Pliers, cheapest I've seen is £12.50 from Tools4Trade. These would allow you to turn the piston during maintenance/cleaning etc, so the entire leading edge surface can be visually checked.

--- End quote ---


On order! Cheers robbo


I'll turn the pistons to clean them and use the rag-thread technique to clean all the crap out of the gap between the piston and the caliper. Job's a good 'un!

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