taking calipers apart

[tooley]

a guy local to me has offer to take my brakes in for cleaning and powder coating as part of a job lot he is already taking. he said all he wants me to to is have them taken apart for doing.....im a complete noob at this point how easy is it take them apart and will i need anything when it comes to put them back again when done

[Chris Wilson]

You just unbolt the halves in a vice, and re torque them up afterwards. Cleanliness is EVERYTHING with brakes. HOWEVER, I should draw your attention to to the fact you need the hard to get, correct seals for the passage between the halves that should always be replaced when refitting them. I keep these in stock, e-mail me if you want some. There's one per caliper.

[SteveC]

Personally, I really wouldn't have thought that the guy doing the powder coating will be expecting you to actually split the calipers themselves before they are powder coated. I would have thought that he meant you should just take out the pistons, rubber seals and bleed valves. It would also be a good time to consider replacing all the rubber seals and any pistons that may be corroded. Unless seized, the pistons should pull out quite easily.

[Chris Wilson]

tooley and I have been in touch by e-mail and it transpires he has J-Spec calipers, so the problem of splitting them is irrelevant I should have asked, I assumed they were UK ones.