brake rebuild kit question

GC - been using Pennzoil premium wheel bearing grease (RED) on slide bolts for years - has all qualities of PBC- high temp , water resistant and extreme pressure and is not expensive - any good grease such as this will do the trick

Hey guys, I'm pretty disappointed right now and need to vent! I might have mentioned that I had the calipers painted by a friend with an auto body shop. I think they gave it to the rookie to do because they got paint inside the whole thing. I had to strip it out of the piston chamber, brake bleeder and banjo bolt threads on BOTH calipers. This was on top of those tight seals we talked about. Yesterday I tried to mount and fill with fluid. After hours of workI could never get the bleeders tight enough to stop leaking, no matter how much bleeding I did there was black clouds and bits of paint coming out AND I could hear bubbles in my 4 way splitter when pressing my ear to it. What a mess!!

I'm actually stripping the paint off the calipers entirely right now and will just run bare metal. At least I can eliminate ONE problem. I had to replace my old brake set up which was NASTY. I have a new 5/8" Nissin master cylinder (same size as original), new SS brake lines, new goodridge banjo bolts, original 4 way splitter, but new brake switch. I can definitely see that the 4 way is a perfect place to get air bubbles. The best I could get the brake lever to do was move the pistons a fraction of an inch.

Keep in mind that the caliper's piston does only move a fraction of an inch... look up Pascal's Law.... LOL.

The rest of your problems really sounds sucky though, sorry to hear all that.

gc - make sure you have a full bottle of brake fluid or possibly more on hand to push all that crap through
What a mess mate - you definitely got a novice to paint that - never seen a brake caliper before by the sounds.
As long as you have the piston inners down to bare metal you will be fine - thats why your seals seemed too big and your slide bolts wouldnt slide nicely.Must have a good coating of paint in both areas.
Be real careful using any chemical if you are bud - dont want to ruin you new paint job . I would "VERY"slowly and carefully scrape out fluid and dust seals with something small,soft and fairly blunt (just make sure you get all the rubbish out ) and do inside of slide bolt holder as well- calipers insides are soft so go easy

Thanks of for the sympathy guys, if anything it's nice to be able to complain to someone. Everything else on the bike rebuild project is going very nicely so the paint and brakes are really my only "nightmare" part of the project. I figured out how to bypass the pressure brake switch on the 4 way by connecting to the new brake switch on the handle. I'm going to remove the 4 way and put in a simple T style 3-way connector. That will at least remove that bottle neck for bubbles. I also get the added benefit of the brake light coming on earlier with less pressure.. sweet!

Hey guys.. got myself into some trouble again. Finally got around to stripping the bad paint job off the calipers and decided to leave it stripped. It looks cool and I'm getting impatient to ride. Cleaned them up really well, treads and all, reinstalled everything with no problems.. EXCEPT.. one bleeder which will not tighten. Of course I got down to the very last bit before realizing this. Previously, with the paint stuck down in treads I couldn't tighten it enough to stop the brake fluid from coming out, now I can't tighten it at all. It goes down 3/4 way and then spins. Did I ruin the whole caliper?

Two steps forward, one step back as usual.

GC - How does bleeder thread look and how does it look inside bleeder seat - thread ?

I actually have a brand new bleeder from z1, old one had rusted threads and I figured that was part of the problem of not tightening. Inside the bleeder hole is clean. I noticed some burrs and bending on the edges of the treads inside the bleeder seat so I used a tap to clean the edges using brake fluid to lubricate. I used very light pressure and now the treads look straight. I cannot tell for sure as it's a small hole, but I believe that the burrs broke off and now there is not enough meat to grab and is causing it to spin.

There is a oversized kit I was looking at at OR. I was planning on changing the position of my upside down one.
Steve

I was able to get a replacement caliper off eBay. I installed and successfully bled the brakes today. You can close this thread because the brake job is done. Thanks to all of you for your help!!

Good for you.
Steve

Good one gc - so thread was nearly gone on old caliper ?