Is this caliper salvageable?

[MtnMan]

Hello,

Good thing this happened in the garage! I took my 1981 GL1100 from the centerstand, was getting ready for a ride. I used the front brake to stop the bike from rolling and suddenly the bike felt like it was glued to the garage floor. :shock:

The brakes were binding so hard that I could barely move the bike. I opened the brake bleeders, which did not help. I took the calipers off and removed the piston from one of them and what I saw was not pretty. A brown soup with some particles in it. I just flushed the brake fluid in the summer but never removed the pistons (I got the bike in 2011).

Is this caliper salvageable?



Do the surfaces have to be polished? They look dull but feel smooth. Should I use very fine sandpaper?

I was looking for caliper rebuild kits. I found a "K&L" brand kit. Is this brand OK or are there better ones?

Any help is much appreciated!

Greetings from Colorado,
Armin

 

[Joep]

Put your nitrile gloves on use some clean brake fluid and a scotch brite pad ( green pot scrubbers).. and work it back and forth.. with the brake fluid.. and check it every minute or so.. and see if it cleans up without pits showing... it looks good just some old crud built up.. clean the seal groove also... rinse in clean brake fluid.. also use brake cleaner to clean the hose port and breeder and port....take and post photos after ... no pits, no scoring. Can reuse it... all your doing here is cleaning residue off surfaces... I ordered my rebuild kits from partsnmore.com...and also pistons.. if ordering parts from Honda.. on the front they may show 2 different parts numbers... one is fir the left and the other for the right... one side may be larger then the other side... also.. polish lightly the slider pins and the brake pins so they are shiny.. now you went to the caliper...
HINT HINT HINT LOOKY HERE..............v

you need to look at the master cylinder.. that may be where the issue actually lies... there is a tiny return port that may be plugged.. won't allow the fluid to bleed back into master after lever release... we are talking a wire brad or welding tip cleaner tiny... I used a map tack at first... then a wire brad.. finally a hand sewing needle to get mine cleared..if you can't find it then it it's plugged... May have dark crud in it... and it is tough to clean.. most likely hardened. Brake cleaner did not budge mine...several on here know what I am talking about

 

[Steve83]

That caliper looks like new compared to some I've seen. It should clean up fine.

+1 on everything in the above post!

 

[Andyb]

You can also use aluminum foil to polish the pistons.

 

[RBG]

Basically as long as it's clean below the groove and the piston doesn't have any pits or rough spots where it passes past the seal..it works but as the pads wear the piston range moves down the piston but the the range still is only a 1/4" or so..