TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

[Rundle]

Hi everyone.

First post; been lurking around for a while. Great site, tons of info.

I own a '99 TL-S; I've had it since '00, loved it since the first ride. Recently replaced the rotary damper with a Bitubo unit, and it's great. (If anyone knows Danny Never from Traxxion Dynamics personally, please shake his hand for me. Super helpful guy, and very patient with all my questions.) Now the front end needs re-doing, so I've got all the goodies ready: RaceTech springs, new fork seals & bushings, fresh steering bearings; even the rubber seal that goes under the top 3-clamp, above the steering neck, to keep water & dirt out of the bearings.

I figured while I'm at it I might as well upgrade the brakes, so I got stainless lines for the front & rear. I installed HH pads last year, so that's all set. My brakes have been dragging a bit, so it's time to clean the caliper pistons and replace the seals...

Here's the question: my local shop gave me a ridiculously high price for the seals - $208 (plus tax) to do both calipers. The parts guy at the shop is a former riding buddy and longtime friend, so I'm confident he's not screwing me on the price, but I think their system is giving unclear info. He's telling me each seal kit (p/n 59300-34820/34821) consists of one fluid seal & one dust seal, and I need 8 kits (one kit per piston x four pistons per caliper x two calipers) at $26 per kit. I think (I'm hoping) each kit c/w four fluid seals and four dust seals, so I'll need one kit per caliper x two calipers; around $60 tax-included total. I read an old post by Dread from back in May '07, he said "...i think i paid like 50 bucks for the rebuild kits altogether...", which makes more sense to me. I checked with a shop near my work, (Honda shop, sorry) and seal kits for CBR1000rr calipers are $5 for a set of two seals; around $40-50 total. A brand new OEM caliper from Honda, pistons, seals, everything, is only $290.

So, is my local shop confused? Or am I looking at spending almost $250 to refresh my seals? At that cost, I'd rather buy a used pair of recent 6-pot 'Busa calipers , get the proper master cylinder, and have better brakes.

Can somebody shed some light on this for me?

-chris

[Loki-TLR]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

Surely that's too much. Allthough looking at the fiche at ronayers it's not very clear what you get when ordering a piston seal set..

Edit: looked around a bit and a set is enough for one caliper..

[Jonboy]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

6 pots in gold and a 2009 Fireblade 10000rr radial master, its the future or an 08 busa fork swap with the radial calipers

[The Ring-In]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

your at a fork in the road here......

Its pour some money into what you have or take a leap and go much better

gixxer 600/750 forks can be had on us ebay for under $200 and they are so superior to the stockies you can't compare

the std master will work with radial calipers and the springing is probably what you bought from RT .

Sam sells a kit with all the shims and spacers in it.

I'd spend a little more and future proof your investment

[godslayer]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

The kit contains seals & rings for one complete caliper. You will only need 2 kits for the front and one fore the back.

The fiche makes it look like each set only covers one piston but it actually covers all of them and the o-ring for the caliper split.

I can see your friends mistake, as the fiche is confusing as hell, but I've done this myself and can tell you that if he orders 8 sets of seals he's going to have a lot left over.

http://fiche.ronayers.com/Index.cfm/...FRONT_CALIPERS

Again, you only need one set (number 2) to rebuild one caliper. The fiche shows a discontinued part number but if you click on it it will take you to then new superseding part number.

[Rundle]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

Thanks Loki & Godslayer. That's what I thought. I had looked at the fiche at the dealer, and ronayers, and partspitstop, and it wasn't clear. The fiche makes it look like each kit comes with only one of each seal, but then says the required quantity is only two kits. I was pretty sure the required quantity is correct and the diagram is misleading, but after being told by three different people at the dealership that I was wrong, I just wasn't sure.

I'll put in my order first thing tomorrow; seals should arrive by Thursday. No rush though, I still have to do the steering bearings and re-do the front forks. Steering bearings I'm doing today, and I expect no problems; the forks I'm a little shaky on. These will be the first USD cartridge forks I've worked on, and there's way more steps than the damper rods I'm used to. And I still haven't fabbed all the tools I'll need to get the job done. I'd rather have all the tools ready before I start, but I'm not sure of the specs on some pieces, so I'll have to figure it out as I go.

Jonboy & Ring-In, thanks for the input. I'd love to do some upgrades, but for now, the budget (and SWMBO) dictates that rebuilding stock is the way to go.

Thanks,

-chris

[chopper_harr]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

I gave the TLR calipers a strip and clean after standing for 18 months.

The main seals were in excellent condition, but the dust seals had degraded due to build up on aluminium oxide (this IS the the correct spelling ) under the dust seal.

27 mm id x 2.5 mm and 24 mm id x 2.5 mm Nitrile o-rings are a perfect fit in the 6 pot calipers.

The original dust seals are slightly tapered on the bore face, allowing easy insertion but more difficulty on extracting the piston.

The round face of the o-ring compresses against the piston, giving a perfect seal, but reduces the stiction effect which can make calipers hard to bleed up due to a slight 'drag' back into the caliper body.

You can replace all 24 TLR seals for under $5 retail, I paid £2.50 UK trade, so 16 TLS seals will be even less.

HTH

[chopper_harr]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

Doh - that would be 12 dust seals for a TLR front, I bought two sets !

For a TLS, you would pay even less

[Loki-TLR]

Re: TL-S brake caliper seals - cost?

The round face of the o-ring compresses against the piston, giving a perfect seal, but reduces the stiction effect which can make calipers hard to bleed up due to a slight 'drag' back into the caliper body.

This drag might change lever travel, I agree. After that the lever should just be hard. And I believe this seal drag to be helpfull to release the pressure on the pads to reduce drag and wear on discs and pads