TexasDawg Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 Got a question, I took my front calipers apart and cleaned them up and painted them in prep for putting on SS braided lines. I took the calipers apart and drilled out the middle piston in prep to de-link the bike. Everything smooth so far and then I see the manual calls for new piston seals upon putting back together. I took the original ones out so as not to get paint or cleaner on them and bagged them and didn't do any damage to them. Question is, can I reuse the original instead of getting new ones? My bike is an '03 with 6500 miles on it and any dealer in town will take 3 to 4 days to get new ones and they are twice as much ($60) as any on-line parts place that will take 4 to 5 days to get here. Would you re-use the seals or bite the bullet and wait? I got new rims coming in Tuesday,,, later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 Got a question, I took my front calipers apart and cleaned them up and painted them in prep for putting on SS braided lines. I took the calipers apart and drilled out the middle piston in prep to de-link the bike. Everything smooth so far and then I see the manual calls for new piston seals upon putting back together. I took the original ones out so as not to get paint or cleaner on them and bagged them and didn't do any damage to them. Question is, can I reuse the original instead of getting new ones? My bike is an '03 with 6500 miles on it and any dealer in town will take 3 to 4 days to get new ones and they are twice as much ($60) as any on-line parts place that will take 4 to 5 days to get here. Would you re-use the seals or bite the bullet and wait? I got new rims coming in Tuesday,,, later Hi Dawg...Mate I've been a mechanic for 25 years and the only way I'd re-use piston seals was if I was in the middle of Aust and had to do it to get home...I'd wait, fit new ones as if a seal lets go under hard braking into a corner your gunna end up cannon fodder mate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northman Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Hi Dawg...Mate I've been a mechanic for 25 years and the only way I'd re-use piston seals was if I was in the middle of Aust and had to do it to get home...I'd wait, fit new ones as if a seal lets go under hard braking into a corner your gunna end up cannon fodder mate! I disagree. If you've kept everything clean, and the seals are in perfect condition, there is nothing wrong with re-installing them. Especially at such low mileage. Lubricate the seals & pistons liberally with clean brake fluid when re-assembling & you should be fine. Check for leaks when you're finished bleeding. Also, piston seals will not "blow out" on hard braking. They may leak, but won't fail catastrophically due to their design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Hi Dawg...Mate I've been a mechanic for 25 years and the only way I'd re-use piston seals was if I was in the middle of Aust and had to do it to get home...I'd wait, fit new ones as if a seal lets go under hard braking into a corner your gunna end up cannon fodder mate! I disagree. If you've kept everything clean, and the seals are in perfect condition, there is nothing wrong with re-installing them. Especially at such low mileage. Lubricate the seals & pistons liberally with clean brake fluid when re-assembling & you should be fine. Check for leaks when you're finished bleeding. Also, piston seals will not "blow out" on hard braking. They may leak, but won't fail catastrophically due to their design. Please don't ask me to ride your bike, I value my life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Para045 Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 I have never done it on a bike but I pulled the calipers off my 78 F100 4x4 about 10 years ago when I flushed out some shitty fluid and the piston seals and boot looked almost new so I put them back in They were finally replaced ~50000km later when the boot got torn and the piston started sticking on one side The other side looked fine though and neither seal was leaking but you can't just buy a boot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porterb123 Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Hi Dawg...Mate I've been a mechanic for 25 years and the only way I'd re-use piston seals was if I was in the middle of Aust and had to do it to get home...I'd wait, fit new ones as if a seal lets go under hard braking into a corner your gunna end up cannon fodder mate! I disagree. If you've kept everything clean, and the seals are in perfect condition, there is nothing wrong with re-installing them. Especially at such low mileage. Lubricate the seals & pistons liberally with clean brake fluid when re-assembling & you should be fine. Check for leaks when you're finished bleeding. Also, piston seals will not "blow out" on hard braking. They may leak, but won't fail catastrophically due to their design. Please don't ask me to ride your bike, I value my life! You don't want to ride mine either!! When I delinked a few years back and had to disassemble the calipers for drilling, I reused my perfect looking seals and have been fine since then. They are really nothing more than a flat O ring. If there are no nicks or abrasions or cracking when bent, at that low mileage they should be fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasDawg Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 Thanks for the replies; I am going to reuse the seals. Now if I can get a day off to remove the rest of the brake lines from delinking and get everything back together. later,,,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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