rear pads

[csj]

Just watched a youtube video by Dag. I now see that you can replace the rear pads without
having to take the caliper off.  OK

Part of the instruction was to push the piston back in to allow the new pads to fit, of course.

Question is, how to push the piston with the caliper still on the bike?
An answer to this would be helpful, thank-you.


However, if I must take the caliper off, I'll get it done, but as I remember, taking
it off was a real battle. Advice on this point would help as well, thanks.

[hubcapsc]

Look close at your pistons. Are they dirty? Even if you clean off
the part you can see, there will still be contamination on the
pistons beyond the point where they disappear into the caliper.
Here's where I cleaned my pistons and then extended them
some more to show the "hidden" contamination:



I think jambing dirty pistons back into your calipers when
installing new pads is asking for trouble down the road.

I've heard people talk about a "short cut" way to clean
the pistons pretty well without removing anything, but
I've never done it and would probably end pushing them
too far out and making a giant mess... remove the
old pads and press on the brake pedal "the right amount"
and cause the pistons to come out far enough to clean
all the "hidden" contamination. Substituting some
thinner object for the old pads to keep the pistons
from coming out too far might help... like the pieces
of wood in my picture...

In my picture the caliper is off the bike, the fluid is gone
and I pushed the pistons out with compressed air, so my
picture is only useful for showing the hidden contamination.

Good luck...

-Mike

[Paladin528]

IF you want to go this route it is actually quite easy.  you just need to PUSH with some force on the outside part of the caliper (the floating part with the pistons) if you can push hard enough the pistons will drive back in flush with the caliper.  I have done this on a few occasions when I just wanted to "get 'er done".

As for dirt on the pistons.  you should be ok as the part of the piston that matters is covered by a boot.  The seal is well behind that.  The only dirty part should be outside the boot.  If they have NEVER been cleaned then I would recommend removing the caliper and replacing the piston seals and lightly honing the cylinder bore.  Remember these bikes are getting long in the tooth.  Clean ALL components and put it all back together.

[hubcapsc]

As for dirt on the pistons.  you should be ok as the part of the piston that matters is covered by a boot.  The seal is well behind that.  The only dirty part should be outside the boot. 

While that seems right, we're installing new pads and mashing the pistons way back in here...

I mashed the nasty pistons back into my calipers when I got my bike and put new pads on it,
and it wasn't long before the pistons started locking up...

-Mike

[gordonv]

I have always taken a large flat blade screw driver and pried it between the rotor and the pads, until they have reseated. I used to use the level of brake fluid (time to add more) as the indicator of time to replace my pads. 100K miles on different cars, multi pads, and never had had any problem.

Only change pads on my new to me 30K KM ACE Tourer, because I thought they needed replacement. Since then, will only do it when they need doing, before my next tire change.

[fudgie]

I use a screw driver and take the resv cap off.

[Hook#3287]

Ontario huh?

Your riding season will be over in a month or do, won't it?

It's well worth the time to remove and rebuild the caliper and although a little tedious , not a hard job.

[csj]

Yeah Ontario, about the same latitude as Mass. Your riding season is short too. Think I will take the time to clean the pistons, hey, thanks for all the advice guys.