Had to split my caliper as a brake pad win was stuck. Still couldn't get it out so I brought into a shop.
He got it out with some heat but the result was the seal melted all over the place, even inside the housing of the piston some how.
Otherwise they were fairly manky inside, lots of stiff, built up dirt and whatever else.
I can either send them to a shop to get professionally cleaned or buy a new one because nothing I was doing was having much affect.
Might actually be cheaper the get a new one but does anyone know if all the rear calipers were the same throughout the years?
I sometimes see refurb kits marked "1989-1992" or "93-2003". My GS is a 2000
I was looking at this caliper for £50, says it's for Suzuki GS 500 GSX 600 750.
You think it would work? Seals look different.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GS-500-GSX-600-750-Rear-brake-caliper-fully-serviced/382477504057?hash=item590d6f8e39:g:X9IAAOSwRXRZSQTP
(https://i.imgur.com/wZfTC7H.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/wEd1gt2.png)
Different calipers - much to my own personal dismay as my bike apparently has the ones with the worst parts support - but the mounts, disks etc. are the same, so you should be able to swap them fine.
Quote from: Kookas on May 31, 2018, 04:03:13 AM
Different calipers - much to my own personal dismay as my bike apparently has the ones with the worst parts support - but the mounts, disks etc. are the same, so you should be able to swap them fine.
you mean the pistons and seals are a different size?
Quote from: Toner on May 31, 2018, 07:24:36 AM
Quote from: Kookas on May 31, 2018, 04:03:13 AM
Different calipers - much to my own personal dismay as my bike apparently has the ones with the worst parts support - but the mounts, disks etc. are the same, so you should be able to swap them fine.
you mean the pistons and seals are a different size?
Yeah, exactly. I can't say what years go with what, and I don't know about that caliper in your picture, but bikes of certain years you just can't find the seals for their stock calipers - I know when my seals need replacing I'm going to have to need to replace the whole caliper with something more common.
Seals are basically not available for AJP rear calipers which I believe start in about 2003. If you have these you are shafted. Apparently even ordering directly from Suzuki you might get the wrong ones. I don't know if the Tokico ones are different in different year ranges. or if they can directly be swapped for the AJP ones. Also, I do not know about the front calipers.
Quote from: olosh on June 02, 2018, 12:17:42 PM
Seals are basically not available for AJP rear calipers which I believe start in about 2003. If you have these you are shafted. Apparently even ordering directly from Suzuki you might get the wrong ones. I don't know if the Tokico ones are different in different year ranges. or if they can directly be swapped for the AJP ones. Also, I do not know about the front calipers.
Same deal with the front caliper unfortunately. I ordered a set of seals and the oil seals didn't fit at all. I could only swap the dust seals. Fortunately, my old oil seals were OK. (As were the dust seals, to be honest.)
Makes the blood boil, should be illegal for a respectable company to make stuff then not support it :-(
Well I received that caliper last Friday and I just want to point out the differences to anyone else researching this topic with a few photos.
I popped one of the pistons out as it had been installed poorly and was crimping a bit of the dust seal it was not supposed to.
Noticed it very pitted so the seller has agreed to send me a better pair.
Anyway, here is the top-down view of 1989-1993 gs500 Rear Brake Caliper (I think those years are correct)
(https://i.imgur.com/fBPd2zF.jpg?1)
They must have realised it was a poor design to have changed it in 1994 and now I regret buying it.
Here is a picture of the seal being pulled back.
Although you can see there is an outer groove in the picture, there is no corresponding piece on the seal that fits into this groove so I don't know what the point of it is.
Seems to me that once these pistons are pushed out, the whole seal will just come with it, even though there are folds in this seal that would work quite well if the seal was attached to the caliper some how. Strange design.
(https://i.imgur.com/CsJqAZx.jpg?2)
(https://i.imgur.com/VXByT55.jpg?2)
This is my old 2000 caliper. I believe gs500s from 1994-2003 have this caliper but again I am not sure. I'm just going by what seal repair kits on ebay are labelled and different kits say different years. You can see on this model there is a dust seal groove on the inside right next to the main caliper seal. The dust seal looks like the main caliper seal but don't confuse them and never put the caliper seal in backwards or all the fluid will come out when you pump your breaks and you will crash. The caliper seal is a little higher at the back end and you should be able to feel this height difference with your finger when it is inserted.
(https://i.imgur.com/ItMtufn.jpg?1)
Here is a comparison of the two caliper pistons. You can see the 89-93 model is much wider and smaller than than the 94-03 model.
(https://i.imgur.com/FFC9dx0.jpg?2)
I'd be very interested in seeing what the 04- caliper looks like and whether it improved.
They were probably in bad condition because the correct way to do the rear callipers is to remove them completely only then can you clean them properly and its also much easier to install the pins and stuff. However on the vids that show you how to do it on youtube, all the heroes write in the comments how stupid it is to remove the calliper because that's why they make the little plastic cover only a complete moron who understands nothing and is not part of the special club of clever people will take off the whole calliper.
Fact of the matter is you want to clean all the grunge that has accumulated on the pistons since the last brake change, then taking of the callipers and splitting them is a completely trivial bit of work. I see every opportunity to work on the bike as a chance to get to understand it better and inspect it properly, that way you spot problems before they become problems.
That's why working on your own bike is better than taking it to a workshop whenever possible because workshops don't give a f***
Quote from: user11235813 on June 11, 2018, 11:50:13 PM
They were probably in bad condition because the correct way to do the rear callipers is to remove them completely only then can you clean them properly and its also much easier to install the pins and stuff. However on the vids that show you how to do it on youtube, all the heroes write in the comments how stupid it is to remove the calliper because that's why they make the little plastic cover only a complete moron who understands nothing and is not part of the special club of clever people will take off the whole calliper.
Fact of the matter is you want to clean all the grunge that has accumulated on the pistons since the last brake change, then taking of the callipers and splitting them is a completely trivial bit of work. I see every opportunity to work on the bike as a chance to get to understand it better and inspect it properly, that way you spot problems before they become problems.
That's why working on your own bike is better than taking it to a workshop whenever possible because workshops don't give a f***
One guy on youtube advises removing the caliper from the disc, taking out the pads and pushing out the pistons a bit and then washing them in soapy water and a tootbrush about once a month.
I think I might start doing that to avoid future problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNz00OTRLzM
@Toner, we don't have winter here in Brisbane, but once a month for normal street riding sounds a bit excessive, but if you do take them off after a short time, you'll soon find out if it was necessary or not. It can't hurt. However this tool is well worth getting, you can faff around with a G clamp and the back of the old brake shoe but why bother when you can have this...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disc-Brake-Pad-Spreader-Installation-Caliper-Piston-Compressor-Press-Steel-Tool-/112887030911 I found out about this thanks to Sledge.
Quote from: user11235813 on June 12, 2018, 05:04:07 AM
@Toner, we don't have winter here in Brisbane, but once a month for normal street riding sounds a bit excessive, but if you do take them off after a short time, you'll soon find out if it was necessary or not. It can't hurt. However this tool is well worth getting, you can faff around with a G clamp and the back of the old brake shoe but why bother when you can have this...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disc-Brake-Pad-Spreader-Installation-Caliper-Piston-Compressor-Press-Steel-Tool-/112887030911 I found out about this thanks to Sledge.
I have one. It's a handy tool but not much use when you want to hold one piston in and pop the other which I often have to do because I probably don't clean them enough.
For that job, I find a pair of these very handy with a flat metal bracket.
(https://i.imgur.com/PmAn2Hh.jpg)