Brake piston treatment.

[tomtyer-drake]

Right I'm rebuilding the front callipers on my zzr 600 (fitted with the callipers from a gsxr1000 K1) and a few of the pistons got pretty munted over the past few months, very ceased etc.

and then me being an idiot, i put the nail in the coffin by using vice grips to take them out...
(yes, i know, compressor...)

anyway after calling up all the wreckers yards i could think of, and having no options for second hand replacements, I looked at new ones, but with anything new going on an old bike, the cost will be high.

so I talked to some friends who suggested getting them made.

which sounds like a good idea.

the pistons are ally, and thats fairly easy to source and get machined, but the blokes i talked to seemed to think that they were treated in some way... does anybody know what the treatment is? and where i could get it done?

if not, I'll just not bother with it, and see what happens.

Cheers

Tom

[schrodingers cat]

If they are aluminium they are hard anodised (brake fluid is mildly acidic).
The other option is to get some machined in stainless steel. Find a mate with a lathe and some skills and buy a big bottle of bourbon for him!
The only thing to ensure is that the surface finish is to a REALLY high degree of polish.
The outside dia obviously is very important (within 0.02mm) but because the material is stronger the wall thickness doesn't have to be so thick. If is doubt just copy the sizes exactly.

Before the haters start - unsprung weight blah blah, as a percentage increase of the total front unsprung weight it is infintisimal.

That is all

[onearmedbandit]

PM imdying, he has a set of my old callipers off my 1000 that I don't think he has a use for any longer.

[imdying]

Yeah I've got a set, but keep your old calipers, not worth putting those on. Depends on what version of the calipers you have as to whether they're anodized or not, some aren't even metal.

[AllanB]

Pop onto e-bay and see if you can score a complete set.

An entire piston set - pistons and seals for that model on bikebandit.com is $78 US.

[tomtyer-drake]

arse! I have never used bikebandit.com, if i had I would have just ordered a full set and rebuilt them myself...
where can i get things hard anodised???

[schrodingers cat]

arse! I have never used bikebandit.com, if i had I would have just ordered a full set and rebuilt them myself...
where can i get things hard anodised???

Yellow Pages - Metal finishers.
Or call anyone that does any sort of plating - they will point you in the right direction

[FROSTY:Me]

might be an idea to just look out for a good set of calipers

[The Stranger:Me]

Right I'm rebuilding the front callipers on my zzr 600 (fitted with the callipers from a gsxr1000 K1) and a few of the pistons got pretty munted over the past few months, very ceased etc.

and then me being an idiot, i put the nail in the coffin by using vice grips to take them out...
(yes, i know, compressor...)

anyway after calling up all the wreckers yards i could think of, and having no options for second hand replacements, I looked at new ones, but with anything new going on an old bike, the cost will be high.

so I talked to some friends who suggested getting them made.

which sounds like a good idea.

the pistons are ally, and thats fairly easy to source and get machined, but the blokes i talked to seemed to think that they were treated in some way... does anybody know what the treatment is? and where i could get it done?

if not, I'll just not bother with it, and see what happens.

Cheers

Tom

It's not even worth wasting your time with NZ wreckers who couldn't give a fuck about customers. Get on the phone to Victorian Motorcycle Wreckers in ausie.
You'll get a straight answer in minutes and the correct part often within a day or 2.