changing brake pads / fluid

Hey all, I got some new pads and I decided to take off the calipers to clean and paint. when I was draining the fluid out of the master cylinder there was a lot of black gunk in the fluid. I'm wondering if its dirt or maybe paint bits? There is a lot of signs of paint damage due to fluid leaking on the outside of the master cylinder.

then, when I was taking off the calipers and draining them, I found that the fluid in one of the calipers was brown and gunky. I am guessing that this is rust and evidence of water in the fluid?

I have not noticed any stopping problems, but I have noticed that the calipers are not releasing and drag all of the time (that's another reason for the cleanup).

The question I have is: am I going to be able to clean it up by flushing fluid through or am I going to have to take it to a shop and get it completely rebuilt? Or is it impossible to tell from my description?

Calipers that drag all the time means that dirt or crud has gotten between the piston and cylinder and is causing a bind. You could take them apart and to a nice clean up job but as long as your there you might as well put a kit in. Flushing them might help but crud has a way of crawing into corners and coming back out later.

take them apart and clean them out really good.use rubbing alcohal to clean rubber parts.also check the bolts/pins the calipers slide on they can cause dragging also;)

thanks for the reply. I took the bolts out and the caliper on the piston side out.

I took a look at the cylinder, but didn't see an obvious way on how to get it out or apart. How do you do that?

wrap it up in a heavy rag.being really carefull to keep your fingers on outside blow compressed air through the bolt hole where banjo bolt screws into caliper,this will pop the piston out.BE VERY CAREFULL TO KEEP FINGERS CLEAR WHILE DOING THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sounds easy enough. thanks.

Also, forgot to mention. I buggered up the two screws on top the master cylinder reservoir so I have to go buy some new ones next week. Not a big deal, but I won't be riding any tomorrow:angry:

Well, I took the advice given and took out the pistons. It was a good thing because they were pretty gunked up. I cleaned out the cylinders and the ducts. Then I painted the calipers with caliper paint. Since I had the calipers and lines all off, I decided to change the steering stem bearings but that's another post.

its a never ending process,everytime you fix/clean one art it makes the one next to it look bad!:laugh:

Don't forget tyour fork seals, wheel bearings and on and on :laugh:

:woohoo: :woohoo: Slow down guys!! I know, I know. I also need to look at my swingarm bearings, valve clearances, and ______ & ____ (fill in the blanks)....:laugh: :blush: