^ nice post.

Yes, that's exactly how I do it.
In particular don't use abrasives on the piston coating, and grease the caliper seal grooves, but assemble piston with brake fluid.
If piston and seal are greased, the piston may slide through the seal rather than the seal gripping the piston.

A light smear of grease on the dust seal lips, then push the piston half way in then coat the surface so that grease is only on the air side, not the fluid side.

Usual problem is white oxide corrosion in the seal groove.

You checked the bike for MOT worthiness but you took it anyway knowing the rear brake doesnt work? I don't know what to say.

You may say as many times as you like that you don't use it (sign of inexperience) but in an emergency situation such as bodging up a corner or something coming out infront of you the extra braking / only braking provided by a good working rear might be the difference between you being dead or alive.

The pistons are probbaly covered in shit from neglect. You need to strip and clean the caliper, dont destroy the pistons or you really will need new ones.

after you get them out, clean them up, replce the seals inside the caliper after cleaning it and put the pistons back in, fill with fluid and bleed properly.

most young people know how to use an internet search engine so just search for brake caliper rebuild / overhaul or anything similar and you will get thousands of guides step by step on how to clean and service a caliper.

I'm sure it was you I said it too but forget abotu even the bike running, brakes are the most important. doesnt matter how fast you can go, if you cant stop your as good as dead.

neo, the rear brake is working. just not as well as it should i didnt know it would be a mot fail.

xivlia wrote:well. they dont seem to move in and out enough, it feels like jammed. tried pushing them back in with a screwdriver but itl only move about 1-2mm

The point was that you seem to have only just discovered the brake caliper doesn't work properly after a strip down.

Makes me wonder how well you inspected it, if at all for the MOT, as surely you would have realised this earlier.

And as above, get the pistons out (without killing them) and see what condition they are in. Most often it is only new seals that are needed after a good clean.

i cant seem to remove the brake pad retainer pin screw. its rock solid and im scared its gonna get stripped .

Just did mine earlier, it was pretty tight but it gave a nice "crack" when it free'd off.

Just make sure you get the allen key into the hole as far as possible and keep it in.

Do you mean the cover, or the actual allen headed pin underneath? The covers always get sticky, if they get really stuck and you don't have a huge flat bladed screwdriver, you just have to get a flat bladed screwdriver you don't like, hold it at an angle against the slot as close to the outside edge as you can, and give it a sharp tap with something hefty which is usually enough to get them started. They usually take plenty of abuse, and even if they do end up tatty, they're 'only' three quid. I clean and lube them religiously, and the buggers still seize up solid.

If you mean the actual pin, then you just need to make sure you have a decent allen socket or nice. long allen key, and try and work a bit of cleaner, anti-seize, rust buster, something like that in there and hope for the best. If it's shitty, you'd probably be best off replacing it anyway, as it won't be helping the movement of the pads any more than grotty pistons will. Usually take quite a bit of effort to start. Crappy fitting allens will knacker the things.

xivlia wrote:i cant seem to remove the brake pad retainer pin screw. its rock solid and im scared its gonna get stripped .

Impact driver

allen??? its a screw for the flat-headed screw driver its the pin that hold the pads together. it says in the haynes manual.