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Caliper Pistons

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:37 am
by Dal
Hi all,

I am in the middle of building two ZXR400 H2's one as a fun bike for the road and the other a track bike.

Anyway while waiting for a load of parts to come back from being powder coated I decided to service the calipers. There seems to be a common theme although the pistons all work ok and none of the seals are leaking the fibrax (or whatever it is, top of each piston) section of the pistons have all crumbled away. How important is this to the functionality of the the brakes as it's gonna coat a small fortune to replace all the pistons.

TIA
Dal

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:47 pm
by Dal
Well I think I have answered my own question.

It looks like this material has a dual role.

1) It stops the pad welding itself to pistons due to heavy or persistant braking due to heat transfer.

2) Simalar to above it keeps the heat away from the piston and as such reduses brake fade as the fluid does not over heat.

Ok having discovered the above and noticing that all six (two bikes) of my calipers could do with new pistons. That's 20 new pistons and seal kits, costing approx £22.00 each :smt010

That's clearly not going to happen so can you help with this thread?

http://www.zxrworld.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... 1045#21045

TIA Dal

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:27 pm
by Duane
Use brake pads that come with there own heat shield and you should be fine. Modern braking systems dont have these type of pistons and cope just fine.

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:24 am
by Dal
Now theres an idea, thanks Duane.

So anyone know which pads have sheilds?