Brake Caliper Pins

[Frix]

I am replacing the rear brake pads on my 600 Bandit. I have come unstuck on the caliper pins retaining the pads. They should slide out (according to Haynes) with a pair of needlepoint pliers but mine seem to have seized. Any ideas how to get them out?

[Taita]

Spray em with WD-40 and try in an hour? Careful of the pad surface and disk though!

[Biker's Nemesis]

Is there a couple of tiny "R" clips that go through the pins?, on the inside of the calipers??

[Frix]

Yeah there is a one piece pin that is a kind of double R

[Biker's Nemesis]

Have you taken them out?

[Frix]

Yeah

[Biker's Nemesis]

Does the manual say they should just slide out?

[Frix]

yeah with pliers

[rumpelstiltskin]

Does your caliper split in half by undoing a couple of bolts?Try that and then you can twist either half of the caliper and free the pin.

[Biker's Nemesis]

Sounds as though they are stuck then. Take the caliper off the bike, and spray with WD40 as the other poster has said.

Once the pins are out, rub the down with emery paper/sand paper, and give the pins a light coat of copper slip on re assembly.

Good luck.

[Rubin215]

Buy a set of long drifts from an engineers suppliers (even machine mart sell them) and use this and a hammer to drive them out from the back (WD40 certainly helps too!).

For all the cost of new pins, buy another set (the old ones will never really clean up properly) and copper grease them before fitting.
Don't go crazy with the copper grease; you don't want any on the pad friction material (contaminated pads just don't stop you) and you don't want any on the sides of the caliper piston or its seals (it's slightly abrasive and will damage and rot the seals).

In future, service your brakes every six months or so and hopefully it shouldn't happen again.

[hiccy]

"Meh" to worrying about spraying WD40 on the pads and discs, that's what riding up and down the street for 5 minutes riding the back brake is all about.

Clean up with a good copper brush, soak in WD for 10-15 mins then give them a tap on the ends with a centre punch and mallet, that should break the seal and make them easy to take out. Then clean off the corrosion with some wet'n'dry and cover in copper slip before you slide them back in.

[hiccy]

Rubin215 said:

Buy a set of long drifts from an engineers suppliers (even machine mart sell them) and use this and a hammer to drive them out from the back (WD40 certainly helps too!).

For all the cost of new pins, buy another set (the old ones will never really clean up properly) and copper grease them before fitting.
Don't go crazy with the copper grease; you don't want any on the pad friction material (contaminated pads just don't stop you) and you don't want any on the sides of the caliper piston or its seals (it's slightly abrasive and will damage and rot the seals).

In future, service your brakes every six months or so and hopefully it shouldn't happen again.

....or, wot he said.

[Alfa_75_Steve]

Rubin215 said:

In future, service your brakes every six months or so and hopefully it shouldn't happen again.

I think you mean;

'In future, buy Honda or Ducati to avoid all this pissing about with quick-corroding callipers'

[Dunc B]

Can't remember if the pins can be punched out, as IIRC they are in a blind hole.If that's the case and WD40 hasn't worked then you'll need to split the caliper and twist the halves.Best to pump out the pistons first as if even that doesn't work then you'll need to get a heat gun on it with moles to remove.Also IIRC the pistons tend to bind on the dust seals as the corrosion gets behind them and jams things up,often making one pad wear more than the other, takes some cleaning out as well before fitting new seals with proper seal grease.
Of course if the memory's going and they're not blind holes ,then I'm talking
bs

[Frix]

Thanks for the replies. I did end up taking the caliper off and apart. You could not drift the pins out as there is no hole the other side.

[TL84]

Taita said:

Spray em with WD-40 and try in an hour? Careful of the pad surface and disk though!

Do this if you want to kill yourself...

With Suzuki pins I've usually gripped them as hard as I can with pliers and rotated the pins until the corrosion has broken free, and then pull them away from the bike until a little stub is poking out of the caliper, and then grip this and pull!

Tiny dab of copper slip on the ends of the new ones (And I mean - TINY) will stop it seizing upon reassembly