Skip to main content

Project Z750 part 16

The piston puller has arrived. it looks like a pair of pliers, but works opposite so that when you press the handles the "nose" of the pliers expands. the idea is that you put the nose into the piston, grip very hard and turn and pull the piston so that it comes out.


the theory is great, but actually using one isn't. in use you are trying to grip as hard as you can, and at the same time trying to pull the piston out of the caliper (as well as maybe turning it if it's stuck like mine).

it took a herculean effort to get one of the pistons out, I was gripping as if my life depended on it, trying to twist the piston and pull it out of the caliper. when it turned (a little) it gave me renewed hope of getting both pistons out, and eventually the piston was out, so just one more left.

so now on to the fifth and final brake caliper piston. I put the piston puller tool into the caliper, gripped with all my might (no laughing please) and twisted. Well something moved, but it wasnt the piston, it was just the tool twisting round inside the piston. oh well, I guess I'm getting used to it all going wrong.

I tried this until my arm hurt from gripping the tool so much, and then gave up for the day. This piston was stubborn (or maybe just really comfortable, and not wanting to come out of it's little home).

Next day, I tried again. Tool inside piston, grip, twist and pull. Nope, nothing. this piston was stuck fast. I decided then that the tool I bought (which was cheap) wasn't going to work here, so it was out with the mole grips, a scrap of leather over the end of the piston, grip and pull.

The first few times I tried, the mole grips just slipped off the piston, but eventually, I tightened them up enough so that the piston started to move. Finally, I'm getting somewhere.

eventually the piston came out. Of course it was ruined, but I knew that using the mole grips was going to damage it.

I now have three calipers and four pistons needing cleaning (I wont bother trying to clean the fifth piston as it is the damaged one).


Labels:
Location: Bristol, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Subsystem for Linux Internals

Background Windows Subsystem for Linux was developed by Microsoft to enable command line programs compiled for the Linux operating system to be executed on Windows. To explain the architecture I would like to show the evolution of OS design and how that has enabled this subsystem to be built. Dark Ages (or Back in the Day) Microsoft's MS-DOS was quite primitive in its design (compared to today's OS's). It is a single user OS that can execute one process at a time. DOS had an application programming interface to allow user programs to access some hardware in a device independent way, but only for character-based applications. This allowed applications to display graphical elements emulated with text characters as these screenshots of Microsoft word for DOS show: This is Microsoft Word version 1. To use these programs you had to remember key combinations to bring up the menus and used the cursor keys to navigate around the screen. If the a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Z750 part 27

Well, some good news. the headlights didn't need fixing. they were working all along. My wife helped me diagnose the problem. It was a really tricky one too. She suggested I try the headlights with the engine running, which I knew wasn't going to work as my other bike's headlight comes on when I turn on the ignition, but I thought I'd humour her. So, ignition on and press the starter. Oh crap. nothing. I turn the ignition off and on again (I know it's not a computer, I was listening for the fuel pump) all was quiet. no fuel pump. Here we go again. Tank off again. I feel like I'm going backwards here. I put a battery directly to the fuel pump. whoops, should have put a cloth underneath the fuel hose first. But i don't care about a little spilt fuel. the pump works. So it's the wiring (again). My wife suggested I try the pairs of alarm wires (which again, I knew wouldn't help as they were fine). I wonder if I'll ever learn ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Z750 part 14

I thought that some photos would be in order rather just all that plain old boring text, so here is a front caliper and it's pistons:  This is the caliper before I managed to get the slide off. the pistons show a before polishing started and part way through. Here are the pins that hold the pads into the calipers. again you can see the before and part polished (I hope you can tell which is which) I thought I would show a picture of the rear caliper in pieces: there are more bits for a single caliper than I realised. The rear is a single piston caliper. and one of the front calipers. the front calipers are twin pistons (as I hope you noticed) I dont think that I will be able to remove all of the corrosion from the caliper pistons, so it looks like I will be getting all new caliper pistons. I'll order them once everything has been cleaned thoroughly.
Post a Comment
Read more