Front Caliper Piston Seal Kit for 2005 GS500f

[fallenallstar]

Hi Everyone!

Looking for a little help here! I can't seem to get the correct seals for my 2005 GS500f. I have ordered 2 different kits, multiple times each to be safe, and neither kit has a "full set" of seals. The local dealership is starting to believe that my caliper is not the original caliper for the bike as they have never had so much trouble finding a seal kit. Looking at the diagrams the caliper does look correct, but none of the kits fully work. They seemingly *could* work if I mix and match between them, but I just want to see what I am doing wrong....

Caliper has 5020200 stamped on the top and pistons are the same size.


Here is what I have ordered. Part #'s
59300-0BE10 - According to what I am finding this should match the U.S. version of my bike. This is the Red item in the image below. It came with 1 Dust Seal and 1 Piston Seal. Would need 2 kits for caliper.
59300-33841- This should work for the EU version of the Front Caliper. This is the Green item in the image below. Came with 2 Dust Seals and 2 Piston Seals. Would need 1 set for caliper.

BLUE are the seals that came out of the bike. Dust seals are in the lower row. Piston seals are in the upper.



It appears to me that the dust seals from the GREEN set matches the original with the newer version having a slightly more pronounced "ditch" on the inside. The dust seal from the RED is way way to small, is twice as thick, and has no ditch on the inside.

It looks like the piston seal from the RED set is the same thickness as the original but the inner diameter is a hair larger. The piston seal from the GREEN set is way fatter, both in outer diameter and thickness, and does not come close to fitting in the caliper.



Sorry for the short novel, just wanted to be thorough! Any help would be appreciated... Thoughts? Want to make sure I get the front brake right!

[Ron888]

Ouch that's a strange one!
Um, if i read this right the dust seal from the red kit is smaller than it's matching piston seal?If so that cant work can it?Can that be a simple error by the parts packers?

[gsJack]

No idea what's going on there, when the GS500 assembly moved to Spain starting with the 04 F models they started getting the brake calipers from a local supplier so they are different from ones previously from a far east supplier but I thought the Spanish ones from 04 on were all the same.  Apparently not but they are all still interchangeable as assemblies.  I just replaced both my calipers on my 02 at 99k miles with low mileage like new ones from a 09F wrecked model.

Riding year around here in NE Ohio my calipers get very rusty and the pistons get a hard crud built up on them that a wiper won't touch so I pop the pistons to clean them every pad change and throw the useless wipers away, the piston seals are all that are needed if your not trying to push dirty pistons back into the calipers.  I put 80k miles on my 97 GS and 100k miles on my 02 without ever having a caliper leak and had same experience with previous high mileage Hondas.

I did notice looking at the parts fiches that only the US calipers for 04-06 were different from the rest of the world in some unknown minor internal details and all were the same from 07 on.  Would be a non-issue for me and most others I think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GSbrakechainlog_zps1b8c96a9.jpg

[fallenallstar]

Ouch that's a strange one!
Um, if i read this right the dust seal from the red kit is smaller than it's matching piston seal?If so that cant work can it?Can that be a simple error by the parts packers?

Yup, way smaller in ID/OD as well as thicker. And to get it around the piston, I felt like I had stretch it a dangerous amount. Not to mention it doesn't even come close to fitting in the groove. I thought it was an error as well and ordered two additional sets through a dealership.  First one came from partzilla, the next ones showed up as the same.

[fallenallstar]

Would be a non-issue for me and most others I think.

Thanks for the input Jack! I'll use the Piston seal from the RED set and the Dust seals from the GREEN. I test fit them and it seemed like a very very good seal.

To compare, I just ordered a low mile 09' front caliper off Ebay for $20. I'll post up which seals fit it when I get it.

-Bryce

[burning1]

There were 3 calipers for the GS500, each with a different seal kit. Annoyingly, 2 calipers are externally similar, but the seals aren't quite compatible. Most of the parts catalogs claim that the seals were "superseded" but don't give info on which seals fit which kits.

Basically, order 59107-35F00 and 59107-39100, unless you have the newer SV caliper. One of those two kits will fit.

The SV caliper has same sized pistons. The older caliper has one larger and one smaller piston.

[burning1]

Basically, the superseded gaskets only fit the superseded caliper. I'm not sure if there's a good way to tell the two apart.

My general recommendation: If you have an older style caliper, chuck it and install the SV caliper.

[Ron888]

One larger and one smaller piston. That's something i hadnt yet seen on a bike

[sledge]

Thanks for the input Jack! I'll use the Piston seal from the RED set and the Dust seals from the GREEN. I test fit them and it seemed like a very very good seal.


That's not a good idea......fitting and functioning are two different things and you don't want to suddenly find out they don't function just when you need them to.

[gsJack]

One larger and one smaller piston. That's something i hadnt yet seen on a bike

There was a change in the GS500 front caliper around 1996.  Basically 89-96 were the original design replaced by a redesigned front caliper for 97-02 and then for 04 and later F models the Spanish made caliper which is a 3rd type and visually different from previous ones.

I think that might be what Burning is referring to in referring to 3 designs. The old 89-96 calipers had 2 different size pistons:

  http://www.shspowersports.com/fiche_image_popup.asp?fveh=2103&section=92768&year=1989&make=SUZUKI&category=Motorcycles&dc=3378&name=FRONT+CALIPER+%28MODEL+K%2FL%2FM%2FN%2FP%2FR%2FS%29

Still there is some small internal difference between US and other calipers for 04-06 F models and that is what I referred to as a non-issue as far as I'm concerned.  I bought like new 09 calipers to replace my old rusty 99k mile calipers on my 02 GS.  I took them apart and inspected them, put them back together, and put them on the bike.  No need to worry about small internal differences as far as I'm concerned.



                                                                                                                       

[fallenallstar]

That's not a good idea......fitting and functioning are two different things and you don't want to suddenly find out they don't function just when you need them to.

Can't argue with that at all!


Now some of you are probably aware of all this... Typing this out to kind of work it all out in my head.
After doing a bit more research of the parts fiches. It looks like:
04-06 US bikes and ALL 07-09 bikes used a caliper with part number 59100-01DA0-999. With those bikes being the only associated bikes to that caliper.

NON-US bikes from 04-06 were supplied with a caliper carrying the part number 59100-33D90-999. There are way more bikes associated with that including 03'+ SV650's.

And from what I can find on this forum, the right caliper from 03'+ is a bolt on to the gs500. Which makes sense considering they were used in those couple years on the Non-US bikes. So I think to make things easier I am going to go with Burning's suggestion and pick up a SV650 caliper. I might as well considering I have a couple pairs of seals kit for it... And that the seals listed everywhere for 59100-01DA0-999 look to be completely incorrect...

Thoughts? Seems logical to me... But you guys are way smarter than I! Haha.

[motocoder]

Did you ever resolve this? I am working on my son's 2009 GS500F, and I ordered a seal kit which seems to match the "red kit" you show in the picture above. The dust seal is way too small, just like the one in your picture. I'm not able to put the bike back together until we resolve this, and I'm a bit worried that we're not going to be able to find the right parts.

[fallenallstar]

Did you ever resolve this? I am working on my son's 2009 GS500F, and I ordered a seal kit which seems to match the "red kit" you show in the picture above. The dust seal is way too small, just like the one in your picture. I'm not able to put the bike back together until we resolve this, and I'm a bit worried that we're not going to be able to find the right parts.

I went back and forth a few more times with the same and another dealer... Neither could get me the correct kit to fit the '05 USA caliper or figure out why the incorrect kit is listed EVERYWHERE!

I went with Sledge's advice of not trying to make either of the kits "work" so I gave in and picked up a "Right Side" '08 SV650 Front Caliper (59100-33D90-999) off ebay for $30 and rebuilt it using the GREEN Kit (EU KIT 59300-33841). Seals fit perfect, it bolted up just fine, and uses same pads.

[motocoder]

Did you ever resolve this? I am working on my son's 2009 GS500F, and I ordered a seal kit which seems to match the "red kit" you show in the picture above. The dust seal is way too small, just like the one in your picture. I'm not able to put the bike back together until we resolve this, and I'm a bit worried that we're not going to be able to find the right parts.

I went back and forth a few more times with the same and another dealer... Neither could get me the correct kit to fit the '05 USA caliper or figure out why the incorrect kit is listed EVERYWHERE!

I went with Sledge's advice of not trying to make either of the kits "work" so I gave in and picked up a "Right Side" '08 SV650 Front Caliper (59100-33D90-999) off ebay for $30 and rebuilt it using the GREEN Kit (EU KIT 59300-33841). Seals fit perfect, it bolted up just fine, and uses same pads.

Ok, so if I am understanding things correctly, the caliper on my son's bike is the same as the SV650 caliper? It has same-sized pistons. And if that's the case, no need to replace it, I can just buy the green seal kit (59300-33841)?

[fallenallstar]

Ok, so if I am understanding things correctly, the caliper on my son's bike is the same as the SV650 caliper? It has same-sized pistons. And if that's the case, no need to replace it, I can just buy the green seal kit (59300-33841)?

If yours has "AJP" cast into the side then it is likely the same caliper as my original (See photo in original post). Partzilla shows that the same caliper was used on 04-09 US GS500's. I was unable, after a long search, to find seals for it.

Non-US 04-09 GS500s used a different caliper that also matches the front right caliper used on  US 03-08 SV650s and a few other bikes (DL1000 and GSX750s). It has "Tokico" molded into the side.

Side by side the calipers looked very very similar after I bought up the sv650 one. I did not measure the actual pistons, but the kit made for the SV650 caliper did not fit to my first caliper to satisfaction. It was close but was "sloppy". I took sledges advice and didn't take a chance.... The "Green" Kit did match the original seals in the SV650 caliper and went together perfectly. The "Red" kit went in the trash.

I hope that all makes sense...

EDIT... And I just remembered!!! I did buy a used '09 GS500 caliper. It matched my original. So that's what lead me to to SV650 caliper.

[motocoder]

Ok, so if I am understanding things correctly, the caliper on my son's bike is the same as the SV650 caliper? It has same-sized pistons. And if that's the case, no need to replace it, I can just buy the green seal kit (59300-33841)?

If yours has "AJP" cast into the side then it is likely the same caliper as my original (See photo in original post). Partzilla shows that the same caliper was used on 04-09 US GS500's. I was unable, after a long search, to find seals for it.

Non-US 04-09 GS500s used a different caliper that also matches the front right caliper used on  US 03-08 SV650s and a few other bikes (DL1000 and GSX750s). It has "Tokico" molded into the side.

Side by side the calipers looked very very similar after I bought up the sv650 one. I did not measure the actual pistons, but the kit made for the SV650 caliper did not fit to my first caliper to satisfaction. It was close but was "sloppy". I took sledges advice and didn't take a chance.... The "Green" Kit did match the original seals in the SV650 caliper and went together perfectly. The "Red" kit went in the trash.

I hope that all makes sense...

EDIT... And I just remembered!!! I did buy a used '09 GS500 caliper. It matched my original. So that's what lead me to to SV650 caliper.

Ok, that is really helpful. The caliper on my son's bike does indeed look just like the one in your original photo. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of parts coming for it, all of which probably won't fit. Guess it's time to find an SV650 caliper.

Thanks for all your help!

[fallenallstar]

Ok, that is really helpful. The caliper on my son's bike does indeed look just like the one in your original photo. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of parts coming for it, all of which probably won't fit. Guess it's time to find an SV650 caliper.

Thanks for all your help!

You're welcome. And I know the feeling... I bought all all the parts for the first caliper as well. Now just sitting on the shelf.

[motocoder]

Ok, that is really helpful. The caliper on my son's bike does indeed look just like the one in your original photo. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of parts coming for it, all of which probably won't fit. Guess it's time to find an SV650 caliper.

Thanks for all your help!

You're welcome. And I know the feeling... I bought all all the parts for the first caliper as well. Now just sitting on the shelf.

I was able to source a replacement inner seal from a local company here that specializes in hydraulic seals. We're still going to swap out the caliper, but this let us get the bike back together so my son can ride it over the 4th of July holiday.